Out-of-contract Suns spearhead Tom Lynch was reportedly "greatly angered" by Nathan Buckley's public admission that Collingwood had secured a meeting with him earlier in the year.
The Herald Suns'ย Sam Edmund is reporting that the fallout from Buckley's comments, which inadvertently led to Lynch being stripped of his captaincy, banished from the club and have his character questioned, has led to the gun forward feeling "shocked' and "irritated".
Buckley was asked onย Nine Network'sย Footy Classified in July whether not he'd met with Lynch, which he replied: "Yes... a while back."
Lynch grew up a Collingwood supporter with his family in the Mornington Peninsula, but Buckley's confession might have cost the Pies their chances of landing the star free agent.
Magpies list boss Ned Guy met with Lynch at his family home just a few days after the comments to reportedly clarify them, at which time time the 25-year old's loyalty was was already being attacked.
The Suns were evidently outraged by Buckley's revelation too, and so began the tearing down of Lynch's character.
Edmund spoke toย SENย this morning about how the football world was not yet "mature enough" to handle such a situation.
โWhat we have managed to find out is this greatly angered Tom Lynch at the time,โ Edmund toldย SEN Breakfast.
โHow much damage this does for Collingwoodโs pursuit of Tom Lynch obviously remains to be seen.
โHe grew up a Collingwood supporter, though, and he chose to meet Buckley, not Damien Hardwick, not Alastair Clarkson, earlier this year.
โThe amount of bidding and salesmanship that is going on at the moment is extreme.
โNathan Buckley told the football world that late last month onย Footy Classified, which I might add is all you can ask for as a consumer of our game is honesty and transparency, but itโs not what Tom Lynch was asking for.
โThe game is not ready, we are not mature enough to deal with this at the moment as an industry.
โIt unloaded a whole heap of crap on Tom Lynchโs doorstep, he was obviously stripped of the captaincy, banned from the football department, having questions asked of him by younger teammates about loyalty, all the things you donโt want.โ
Lynch officially becomes a free agent in October, with Richmond, Collingwood and Hawthorn considered the frontrunners to sign him.
