Signed napkin: When Whitfield was coerced to join the Demons

Lachie Whitfield was once courted by Melbourne legend Garry Lyon in intriguing fashion.

Back in 2010 Lyon coached Whitfield in the Victorian Country under-16 AFL academy, witnessing firsthand the special talents of the young Dandenong Stingray.

Whitfield, who plays his 250th AFL game this weekend, was a proper top end talent tipped to go in the first few picks of the 2012 draft. The Demons held Pick 4 due to the fact that the incoming Giants had priority access to the top three picks.

But prior to that draft, Lyon attempted to convince the Mount Martha product to avoid nominating for the Giants so he could be available for the Dees.

“I coached him in the Under-16 country Vic team and he was a great player, so good,” Lyon said on SEN’s The Rabbit Hole podcast.

“He was a terrific player. He was clearly going to be the number one draft pick two years later.

“I said to someone at Melbourne that this is the kid we’ve got to try and get. They knew I had a relationship with him so we went down to Mount Martha.

“They entertained us in their house and we sat there and said, ‘Don’t nominate for the Giants, come to the Demons’. Melbourne would have been on the bottom at the time, we had an early pick as well, but not a priority access pick.

“The pitch was to try and have him say, ‘No, I’m not going’, which didn’t work out obviously as he ended up going to the Giants.”

Lyon also recalled a chance meeting not long after, following the Footy Show’s Grand Final edition where he had Whitfield scribble his signature on a napkin.

“A few years later he was at the Grand Final Footy Show and I did get him to sign a piece of paper saying that when his contract is finished at the Giants to come and play at Melbourne,” he added.

“I’ve still got it somewhere and in all good conscience I couldn’t keep him to it.

“He’ll play 250 games this weekend, just the third Giant to do it, and been an absolute star of the competition.

“Geez he’s a good player. He was a hard, hard runner who kicked as well on his left foot as he does on his right.”

Whitfield, now a 30-year-old elder statesman at the Giants, fondly remembers signing Lyon’s napkin.

But he insists it was never legally binding.

“I remember it, it was in the corner at the pub!” he said on SEN Breakfast.

“A signature was put on there for an undisclosed amount of money to go to the Dees.

“I was coerced by him after too many beers. And napkins aren’t legal (as a contract).”

Lyon: “I’ve still got it but I didn’t want to enforce it. I love seeing what you’re doing up there.”

Whitfield also recalls the early days at the Giants when a bunch of kids were put together with a couple of veterans to represent the AFL’s newest club.

“When I first got here it was 40 18 or 19-year-olds, then Phil (Davis) and ‘Wardy’ (Callan Ward),” the two-time best and fairest and two-time All-Australian said.

“We had Lukey Power, James McDonald, Dean Brogan, Chad Cornes to start with, but they all left after the first year and went into coaching.

“So it was just like high school still. We were just playing footy for fun. The first few years was just a heap of bonding and learning how to play footy, good habits, how to train hard and all that stuff.

“We were able to build a culture out of that and there’s still a handful of players still for the start with Toby (Greene), ‘Cogs’ (Stephen Coniglio), Wardy and Josh Kelly. We’ve been able to play relatively good footy for a long time but just haven’t been able to reach the final milestone.”

Whitfield notches game 250 when the Giants meet Geelong at ENGIE Stadium on Saturday.

Only Callan Ward (267) and Toby Greene (playing his 255th) have played more in the orange and charcoal.