Duff and Heater chat about the Father/Son Rule!

**Mark Duffield** (0:00)
Welcome back to the SENWA studio at the Adoptor Stadium. Tuesday morning, Paul Heath with me in the studio. We are hoping at some stage to talk to Craig O'Donoghue in Seattle. Of course, from the West Australian, he's over there covering the World Cup. We're having some technological issues at the moment.

**Paul Heath** (0:17)
Every day.

**Mark Duffield** (0:18)
Paul is gnashing his teeth across the decks from me.

**Paul Heath** (0:21)
Happy to be talking. Love it.
But anyway, here we are. We got kicked off this morning, as far as things go, with Anthony having a bit of a problem with your editorial and saying, your dreaming day cost isn't going anywhere. And I'm a Carlton member, he says. This is a fanciful story created due to your hatred of the Father-Son Rule. It's not going anywhere.

**Mark Duffield** (0:43)
Well, look, he's probably right on two things.
I do hate the Father-Son Rule. And the AFL has given no indication that it will be going anywhere. But I didn't invent the story that Day Cost might be leaving Collingwood. No, that's not yours. That's a code sports story. And they're saying that one of the reasons they're going after Lockie Neal is because they are desperate to stay relevant, because they want Nick Day Cost to think they're relevant, because they're afraid of losing him. Now, my point is, is that there are numerous instances where father-sons have ignored the romance and the tradition of playing for the clubs that their fathers played for, and gone and played for someone else. Joe Danaher is a recent example. Gary Ablett Jr. was an example, going to the Gold Coast Suns for money before returning to play and finish his career at Geelong.
Nick Day Cost would just be another one. The one that really grinds my gears is David Cloak. So David Cloak was a Richmond player. He came through the ranks at Richmond. He was a young player in 1974, during their Premiership win over North Melbourne. That was actually North Melbourne, I think only the second grand final ever that one. They ended up winning the next year. But anyway, Richmond beat them in 1974 Cloak plays for Richmond again in 1980 He plays in a losing grand final team in 1982 And then there's this massive bidding war between Richmond and Collingwood. I don't know what kicked it off. But basically, they spent the entire 1980s trying to sabotage each other by poaching players. David Cloak ends up at Collingwood. So, and then he goes back to Richmond to finish his career. So he ends up playing about 219 games for Richmond, and plays in two flags and a third grand final. And he ends up playing 114 games for Collingwood. And it was during the mid-80s, and Collingwood weren't doing a hell of a lot, so he didn't have much success there. But then there's this massive, and it's a bidding war. It's not a, oh my God, where does my heart lie?
There were all these backroom negotiations going on between the Richmond Football Club, the Cloak family, and the Collingwood Football Club, and the Cloak family to try and get the Cloak boys to play for their club. Again, nothing to do with romance and tradition. And in the end, what Collingwood does is it drafts or it gets Jason Cloak and Cameron Cloak. Now, Jason Cloak was serviceable, and Cameron Cloak was marginal.
But they only wanted Travis.

**Paul Heath** (3:34)
Yeah, so they did the others for Trav, yeah.

**Mark Duffield** (3:36)
Cameron Cloak ends up at Carlton, where he famously got kicked up the clacker by Santander O'Hale in a pre-season game. I think Santander, is Santander the only guy that got suspended for doing something to one of his own plays?

**Paul Heath** (3:55)
Yeah, I think so. I think there would be too many others that have that.

**Mark Duffield** (3:59)
I think he faced the Tribunal. I think he got banned for kicking Cameron Cloak in the date, in a pre-season at Princess Park. Anyway, that was Cameron Cloak's claim to fame.

**Paul Heath** (4:13)
Playing a bit too close to the edge, Santander.

**Mark Duffield** (4:16)
So, there's them, so there's the Cloaks. Joe Danaher was miserable at Essendon, hated and it wasn't, this is not an Essendon thing. This is a playing footy in the city. He didn't like it. He didn't like being in the bubble. He wanted out. He wanted to get to Sydney or he wanted to get to Brisbane. Brisbane came to the rescue. He ends up at Brisbane. He ends up living in the country and getting himself a flat in the city. And he only was in Brisbane as much as he had to be to play footy for the Brisbane Lions. So he's another example. Josh Dunkley is another example. Josh Dunkley's father, Andrew, was a very fine Sydney player, famous for belting James Hurd in the preliminary final in 1996 The Sydney Swans took court action to get an injunction, so the tribunal hearing couldn't be held before the grand final. They then accepted he's too much match ban after the grand final.