There was plenty of publicity too surrounding VFL club Williamstown's training session with Essendon at  the Dons' Tullamarine on March 6. Pssst has learned that the Seagulls headed back the next Friday as well. The second date was also supposed to feature the Bombers, but in the end Willy trained alone.

As speculation builds heads into Tuesday's verdict, Channel Nine's Footy Classified will air a special episode on Tuesday night to cover all the fallout of the decision.

It's also worth keeping an eye out for more court action by disgruntled former players.

Broadcast bid hits the slopes

We know about Gillon McLachlan's regular catch-ups over summer with Channel Seven chiefs, including Kerry Stokes and Bruce McWilliam at Sydney's Rockpool, now comes talk that McLachlan also had a friendly chat with another media mogul.

While James Packer may not be the media force he - and his family - once were, with sprawling casinos more his go these days (of which Andrew Demetriou is a Crown Resorts director), the word on the street is that he also met with McLachlan on the slopes of Aspen.

Packer, of course, is still a director of Channel Ten, and will have a say in whether the network bids to regain a slice of the AFL broadcast rights.

Packer is reportedly the only Australian with membership of the Aspen Mountain Club. It's fair to suggest the cost of fees, which begin at $220,000, may not have been the only agenda item.

Maxwell defends his Pies

While Magpies supremo Eddie McGuire believes his club can pinch a flag this year, there are some who wonder whether the playing list circa 2010 should have done more. Yes, there was the flag that year, and a grand final loss to Geelong the following season, but so many of the stars then were young and either were, or were about, to be in their prime.

Former skipper Nick Maxwell, now a Channel Seven special comments man, is content with what his team was able to achieve.

"People probably don't understand how much luck is actually involved in it all. Back in 2011, we only lost to one team (Geelong) all year. We lost all three times," he said.

"Just going into the finals, I broke my thumb and (Ben Reid) Reidy hurt his quad and (Darren Jolly) Jolls hurt his knee and Leon Davis was hurt. We had a big build-up of injuries at the wrong time. Hit a few speed  bumps. We also came up arguably against one of the greatest teams in the history of the league over that era - and that era is still going now," he said.

"If you look at, for example, Geelong of 2008, they kicked straight and maybe they win three in a row."

Mott's new way

Cricket Australia announced last week that former Victorian batsman Matthew Mott would be taking over as coach of the Australian women's team. Mott replaces former Southern Stars fast bowler Cathryn Fitzpatrick, who presided over a highly successful three-year period for the team, in which it won the World Cup and two World Twenty20 titles.

However despite her strong record, Pssst understands that several senior players were not unhappy to see the woman once dubbed 'the female Brett Lee' depart the scene. A source tells us that Fitzpatrick is considered a "very polarising figure in Australian women's cricket," whose management skills were not always on a par with her technical prowess.

Despite all the fanfare surrounding the cricket World Cup's crescendo, West Coast captain Shannon Hurn does not regret his choice to pursue football rather than the summer game. Hurn was selected for the Australian under 19's and good enough to earn a rookie contract with South Australia. Football prevailed in the end, and Hurn was happy with his call.

"It would be pretty cool to play in the cricket World Cup, but I've enjoyed footy and never really thought about playing cricket, maybe country cricket when I finish."

With football returning to the Adelaide Oval last year, Hurn also now holds the rare distinction of playing both sports at the venue.

"I was fortunate both to play cricket and footy on there, and now to playing AFL there is just excellent. The stadium's great, the surface is excellent and hopefully that's what we can get at Burswood when it opens."

Presidential love affair

There isn't always a lot of love between clubs presidents, but talks in recent days over equalisation prompted one to say of his fellow brethren: "He's probably the smartest man I know in the AFL". Now, that's some love.

Power cleans up

The Port Adelaide Football Club heads to court this week for a case against Clean Energy Enterprises.

It's understood the cleaning group, now a former club sponsor, had fallen behind in the money it owed the club.

The case is set for a first directions hearing on Wednesday. However, since the company recently made a payment, it's likely to be settled out of court.

2 minutes to midnight for... Essendon players caught up in the supplements saga

How long and winding does this particular road need to be?

LOCAL HERO

Victoria's winning cricket team returned from Tasmania with the Sheffield Shield and a promise from the State government that they'd never again have to venture out of town to play a final that they should have been able to host at home. Premier Daniel Andrews hosted the winners at Parliament House and made hay about the Bushrangers' being forced to play nine of 11 matches interstate – a situation he has commited to rectifying with the Junction Oval upgrade. "It's great to know they'll soon have a permanent home they truly deserve when the MCG is unavailable," he said.

NUMBERS UP

1st to bat at the MCG is the best call based on four recent World Cup matches – with England losing to Australia after sending them in to bat in the opening game and then conceding 9-342.

3 matches that all saw the toss-winning team send their opponents in to bat.

1-332 was Sri Lanka's winning score against Bangladesh; 7-307 was India's against South Africa and 6-302 was India's against Bangladesh.

0 of the four chasing efforts lasted beyond 47 overs.

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