Tigers to unveil Potter this week

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Mick Potter ... pictured (right) will be unveiled as the Tigers' new coach this week. Source: Gregg Porteous / News Limited

Mick Potter has already been in contact with members of the Wests Tigers backroom staff ahead of his expected unveiling as the NRL club's new head coach later this week.

Potter is set to succeed 2005 premiership-winning mentor Tim Sheens, whose 10-year tenure with the joint-venture club came to an abrupt end last month when he was relieved of his coaching duties with two years left on his contract after the side failed to make the 2012 finals.

Sheens has been offered a new senior role at the club, though there has been no confirmation to date as to whether he will accept the position.

After initially being linked to Manly assistant coach Matt Parish, Potter - the former Catalans, St Helens and Bradford head coach - has emerged as the man to lead the Tigers in a new direction.

It is believed he will sign a two-year deal with the club.

Potter, 49, will have a battle ahead of him as he attempts to placate fans and sponsors unhappy with the direction of the financially embattled club.

The Tigers were early premiership favourites for the 2012 season before inconsistent performances ensured they failed to make the top eight.

Sheens's unpopular decision to offload Beau Ryan and Chris Heighington resulted in a backlash from the playing group, while New South Wales hooker Robbie Farah - once considered part of the furniture at the Tigers - has been linked with a move to Parramatta in 2014.

New Zealand captain Benji Marshall is another whose future at the Tigers has also been the subject of increased scrutiny.

Potter comes highly regarded, having served his apprenticeship with four years as St George Illawarra's Premier League coach.

He then had six years as a head coach in the Super League, steering Catalans to the 2007 Challenge Cup final when the former St George captain was named Super League coach of the year.

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Saints land ruckman Hickey

Move ... Tom HIckey is on his way to St Kilda after being traded by Gold Coast. Source: David Clark / News Limited

St Kilda has landed the ruckman it desperately craved with Tom Hickey on the move from Gold Coast in exchange for pick 13.

The Saints and Suns will also swap later picks to seal the deal, while the official paperwork could be lodged with the AFL on Wednesday.

The Saints will receive picks 26, 47 and Hickey. In return, the Suns will get the prized pick of 13 as well as 37 and 57.

The Suns released a statement confirming the trade.

"We were really keen to gain a selection back inside the top 15 since exchanging our first round draft selection for the extremely talented Jack Martin through the trade incentive draft," Suns football operations, Marcus Ashcroft said.

"Our ability to add pick 13 to our selections in the upcoming draft means we will have the ability to draft another elite young player to our club next month."

For the Saints, Hickey boasts enormous upside after an impressive end to 2012 and is poised to lend Ben McEvoy a big hand in sharing ruck duties next season.

Hickey, 21, requested a trade to the Saints to move closer to his girlfriend but talks stalled when the Suns played hard ball, demanding a first-round pick as market interest increased.

The 201cm big man was a zone selection to Gold Coast.

The Saints traded their first pick, No. 12, to GWS in a deal which saw Claremont power forward Tom Lee head to St Kilda.

But Scott Watters' side was gifted pick 13 on Friday from the AFL as compensation for losing Brendon Goddard to Essendon, helping secure Hickey.

The trade means the Suns will now have a first-round selection in next month's draft despite trading pick 2 to the Giants for 17-year-old mini-draft selection Jack Martin.

Despite losing Hickey the Suns still boast a wealth of rising star power in the ruck, with Daniel Gorringe, Zac Smith and Tom Nicholls set to enter their third seasons in the AFL. 

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Rio plans union for black players

Rio Ferdinand ... is setting up a union for black footballers. Source: AAP

Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand is setting up a union to protect the interests of black footballers in England.

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Ferdinand has long been a vocal campaigner against racism and the Daily Mail reported that he and other high-profile black players have overseen the first draft of a constitution.

The England defender made headlines last weekend for angering club manager Alex Ferguson by refusing to wear a t-shirt for the Kick It Out campaign, an initiative designed to rid the sport of racism.

Ferdinand believed that not enough was being done to combat the problem after Chelsea's John Terry was handed a four-match ban and fined STG220,000 ($A344,000) last month for racially abusing his younger brother Anton, who plays for Queens Park Rangers.

Rio Ferdinand and his colleagues want to wipe out discrimination in all forms and will hold a series of meetings in London in the coming month.

The union has a working name of The Federation of Black Players.

The news comes after Kick It Out's chairman Herman Ouseley criticised Rio Ferdinand for boycotting the FA-funded campaign.

"Would Rio tell England where to stick their shirt if picked or does he think the FA has done enough to tackle racism?" he said.

"Will he tell Manchester United where to stick their shirt and STG150,000 ($A234,000) a week or have they done enough to tackle racism?"

"Should we tell women not to support women against rape groups because they have not done enough to stop rape?"

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Zidane statue angers French

Anger ... The statue of Zinedine Zidane headbutting Marco Matterazzi displayed outside a French gallery. Source: Remy de la Mauviniere / News Limited

A row is simmering over a giant bronze sculpture depicting French footballer Zinedine Zidane's infamous headbutt on Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final, which has been placed outside the Pompidou Arts Centre in Paris.

The five-metre tall statue is the work of French, Algerian-born artist Adel Abdessemed, who is being honoured by the Pompidou with a retrospective on his work from October to January.

But its prominent display outside the popular centre has angered the national association of local French football officials who claim that it is not the image of Zidane, who retired after the 2006 World Cup final, that should be promoted.

"By choosing this provocative image, the artist has deliberately opted to ignore all your talents and all the postitive emotions that you were able to share with the people of our country,'' the officials wrote in an open letter to Zidane.

They called on Zindae to use the full powers of his influence to have the statue removed immediately, adding that it would have been better to have highlighted his two headed goals in France's 3-0 win over Brazil in the 1998 World Cup final.

Zidane's headbutt on Materazzi, who he claimed had provoked him, came during extra time in the 2006 final in Berlin with the sides tied at 1-1. He was red carded and thus missed the penalty shoot-out which Italy won.

Pompidou Centre chief Alain Seban expressed shock at the complaints, saying that they amounted to an attempt to censure artistic creativity.

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Malthouse revolt barb a 'cheap shot'

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Cheap shot ... Mick Malthouse can't help but have another dig at former club Collingwood. Source: Wayne Ludbey / News Limited

New Carlton coach Mick Malthouse's latest swipe against his old club Collingwood is "a cheap shot" according to The Back Page host Mike Gibson.

Malthouse launched his memoirs, written by daughter Cristi, on Tuesday and continued to stir the pot over the controversial succession plan put in place to hand the Magpies' coaching reins from Malthouse to Nathan Buckley.

The premiership coach said a senior player had approached him in 2010 and had wanted to start a petition to keep him at the club.

"A very important player came to me and said that's what he wanted to do. There were a number of players who wanted to sign a petition to keep me at the club," he said.

"I was a very moving movement."

Speaking on The Back Page, respected journalist Gibson said digging up the incident was disappointing.

"It's a cheap shot," he said.

"For those players - several players - it's like 'sources say'. Name them if they did."

After being replaced at the end of 2011, Malthouse has launched several barbs at the Magpies.

Earlier in the season, the new Carlton coach started a war of words with Collingwood president Eddie McGuire by questioning the team's gameplan under Buckley.

Fellow panelist Robert Craddock took it one step further, saying it was yet another strange dig at Buckley and the Magpies.

"In brackets it should have said afterwards 'because the players didn't rate Nathan Buckley as a coach'," he said.

"Now Nathan Buckley's sitting at home thinking 'gee, which players didn't rate me'."

Watch the full video of The Back Page discussion above.

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McIlroy plays down $250m Nike deal

McIlroy ... could join Tiger Woods as a wealthy member of the Nike stable. Source: AAP

World No.1 Rory McIlroy on Tuesday attempted to brush aside growing speculation in that he is about to sign a multi-million dollar deal to join Tiger Woods in the Nike stable.

McIlroy, in Shanghai for the $US7 million ($A6.81 million) BMW Masters which begins on Thursday, was responding to stories in Irish newspapers which claimed the 23-year-old from Northern Ireland was about to sign a Nike contract which could see him earn up to a staggering $US250 million ($A243.30 million) over 10 years.

McIlroy's current deal with golf giant Titleist expires at the end of 2012, making the double major winner and leader on the money list on both sides of the Atlantic the most prized free agent on the equipment market.

"These rumours have been going around for years and it seems to always come up at this time of the year," McIlroy said at Lake Malaren Golf Club.

"I leave it up to Conor (Ridge, McIlroy's manager) to sort out as it leaves me to concentrate on my golf.

"That's all I can do and besides I have enough to think about trying to get the ball in the hole.

"Also I've got a very important end to my season coming up and I need to concentrate myself fully on that goal."

It is no secret that Woods, the world No.2, and McIlroy have become good friends as well as on-course rivals. Indeed, the two will go head-to-head in "The Duel at Jinsha Lake" in Zhengzhou, China, next Monday.

"That should be really exciting and I'm really looking forward to heading back to Lake Jinsha," said McIlroy of the 18-hole medal match.

"I've spoken to Tiger about it and we are both really excited as it will be the first time we will ever do something like this together, and hopefully the first of a few occasions we can do this.

"We both enjoy each other's company, and besides there are not many guys I would do something like this with and I know he feels the same. So it should work well."

And with more than a hint of further commercial hook-ups between the two biggest draws in the game in the future McIlroy added, tellingly: "I see it also as a good marketing exercise for Tiger and myself."

Nike regard the clean-cut, immensely likeable and youthful McIlroy as a dream signing after sticking with Tiger Woods through his well-documented marital indiscretions and fall from golfing grace.

If the rumours turn out to be true then that burgeoning relationship between McIlroy and Woods could mean Nike capture the two biggest names in golf for the next decade or more - but at a huge price.

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