UPDATE: The AFL has revealed it will make "enquiries" into Mick Malthouse's extraordinary claims that Eddie Betts had already agreed to move to the Adelaide Crows "18 months out" from the time he actually left the Blues.
In a remarkable interview with SEN on Tuesday, Malthouse claimed that Steven Trigg, who was chief executive officer of the Crows before taking up the same post at Carlton, had told the Blues coaching staff when he arrived not to take Betts leaving personally because the Crows had him "stitched him up 18 months out".
Betts' manager Ned Guy immediately jumped onto Twitter to deny Malthouse's claims as being "100% incorrect".
AFL spokesman Patrick Keane responded on Tuesday afternoon by revealing: "The AFL will make enquiries to determine if we need to do anything further that may lead to an investigation."
Malthouse offered the explosive statements on the small forward when asked a general question about the Blues list, even saying that he felt Betts was playing "cautious football" during the period where, according to Malthouse, he had committed to the Crows but was still playing for the Blues.
"I'd still love to have a number of players here, Betts is the most classical one because he's a goal kicker," Malthouse said.
"But Steven Trigg assured us when he arrived here, 'don't take it too personally'. He said 'we, being Adelaide, had him stitched up 18 months out'," he said.
"So it's very, very difficult when you come to the football club and a bloke like that plays cautious football because his heart and soul, or certainly his mind, was everywhere else.
"He's trying to do the right thing, but when you've got that load of 'will I go, won't I go, but I've already signed'."
Betts was a restricted free agent at the time he left Carlton and the Blues had the right to match any offer that Adelaide (or any other club) made.
There is no restriction on players talking with other clubs as long as no deals are signed.
Despite the dispute over when it was signed, Betts' four-year deal with the Crows became public in late October, 2013.
The Blues, who picked up Dale Thomas from Collingwood in the same period, did not receive free-agency compensation from the trade.
Compensation is only awarded as the net result of free-agency movement in and out of a club.
The Crows were found to have breached the salary cap and have tampered with the draft after agreeing in 2009 to trade Tippett to a club of his choice for a minimum second-round draft pick, when his contract expired in 2012.
The Crows also agreed to make an extra $200,000 worth of payments to Tippett outside the salary cap.
The deal was exposed in 2012 when Tippett asked to be traded to the Swans.
The Crows, Tippett and Trigg all received penalties from the AFL over the incident, with Trigg suspended for six months (six months suspended) and fined $50,000 for his role.
Betts kicked 51.22 in his first season as a Crow in 2014, and he has been lauded so far this year, by many judges including Jason Dunstall, as the "best small forward in the league right now" after a stunning start to the season which has featured 29.9 in just eight games.
At Carlton, Betts kicked 42, 50 and 48 goals in years 2010 to 2012, but his goal-scoring output dropped to 27 in 18 games in Malthouse's first year in 2013.
