If there was a premiership awarded for the 2019 trade period, the winner would be St Kilda, and by a margin not dissimilar to the actual premiership won by Richmond less than three weeks ago. Five players sought, five players acquired.
The Saints have been in the market for a ‘big fish’ for several years. Josh Kelly, Nat Fyfe, Dustin Martin, Dylan Shiel and Stephen Coniglio are among those the Saints have attempted to lure to Seaford/Moorabbin in recent years and they were unsuccessful every time.
Is Bradley Hill in their class? Probably not, but they had to spend the big bucks on someone and the 26-year-old brings speed and endurance to the Saints as well as a Fremantle best and fairest and before that, three premiership medals with the Hawks. Settled back in Victoria, he could be a star and certainly, he’ll be tapped on the shoulder for some sort of leadership role.
Zak Jones arrives from Sydney to join Hill in a midfield that now clearly has a lot more zip than before and Dan Butler brings scoring power, forward pressure and some recent premiership experience from Richmond. Tuesday’s acquisition of Dougal Howard and Paddy Ryder, completed the picture for the Saints and when you add absentees from this season, Dylan Roberton and Jarryd Geary, St Kilda’s opening round team in 2020 will be virtually unrecognizable.
Blake Acres heads home to Western Australia as part of the deal and reportedly was not all that happy about it, at least until the Dockers put a nice, three-year deal on the table. The last West Australian to be sent home against his wishes was Josh Kennedy to the Eagles in 2007 as part of the Chris Judd trade. That ended up working out alright for both player and club.
The Saints also bade farewell to Josh Bruce who went to the Bulldogs for a second and a third round selection. He might have played a bit of senior footy next year, but Max King, Paddy Ryder and Tim Membrey shape as the key pillars of the Saints forward line going forward. Four years and the welcoming arms of Luke Beveridge made this a no-brainer for Bruce.
• The fascinating story out of this draft is the jilted players, those who had their heart set on playing, but who now need to fall in love with their clubs once more. Joe Daniher, of course, heads this list and he will remain at the Bombers rather than head to Sydney as he wished. The resilience for which Daniher is renowned will be tested and the Bombers have 12 months to make him fall in love with the club once more ahead of his impending free agency status. His body language and indeed, his every move will be enormously scrutinised from the very first day the Bombers return for pre-season training later this year.
• Tom Papley’s wish of a move to the Blues was also not realised. Whereas Daniher wanted to move away from his home state and the football bubble, Papley was looking to return home. His problem was that with several years remaining on his contract it was going to take something special from the Blues to extract him and not enough was forthcoming. You wonder whether the message from the Swans to Papley is something along the lines of, “give us 12 months of your best and we’ll revisit things again this time next year.”
• All up it wasn't a great trade period for the Blues. They were set to make a huge splash, perhaps second only to the Saints, but they struck out with Papley and Jack Martin. Eddie Betts will help for a season and former Hawk Marc Pittonet is a handy back-up ruckman, but the Blues did not add any long-term building blocks over the last 10 days.
The Blues haven’t given up on Martin and might look to bring him to the club through either the national or pre-season drafts. Carlton’s first two selections next months are picks nine and 43. We’ll reserve our judgement until then, but list manager Stephen Silvagni hasn't covered himself with glory during this player exchange period.
• The other winner out of the 2020 trade period might appears to be the clubs in general. It might be remembered as the year when the balance of power shifted back towards the clubs and that contracts were again worth the paper they were written on.
Message to players: if you sign a long-term contract, you might be expected to, you know, stick it out.
• The Western Bulldogs have struck this trade period with the precision of a surgeon. They were only ever really linked to two players and they got them both within the last 90 minutes of the trade window. Bruce to the forward line and Alex Keath to the stiffen the backline. Things reportedly got testy between the Bulldogs and Adelaide and this was a tough negotiation. But the talk of Keath slipping through to the pre-season draft – where Gold Coast would have gleefully grabbed him– was enough to drag both clubs to the negotiating table.
With Bruce and Keath likely walk-up starts for the club’s best 22 next season, the Dogs will fancy themselves as a top-four chance in 2020, particularly given how well they performed through the second half of this season.
• Geelong list manager Stephen Wells has played the last three weeks superbly given the departure of Tim Kelly and they’ll take two first round picks and four inside the first 36 into next month’s national draft, plus an extra first round pick next year. Given his track record over the journey, who wouldn’t bet against the Cats bringing in a few 200-gamers and a Hall of Famer or two to the club with that bounty.
The Cats also brought Jack Steven home, with the four-time St Kilda best and heading to the club closest to his family and friends in Lorne. It’s a great pick-up for the Cats on paper, but it did come with the “he has a long way to go” caveat from Wells, so those of you picking your round 1, 2020 Geelong team might want to think carefully before penciling Steven into the midfield spot that belonged to Kelly. The good news according to Wells is that Steven is back in love with the game once more, which wasn't the case at the Saints last season.
Getting Josh Jenkins to the club on the cheap was another nice piece of work by the Cats. Unlike just about every other wantaway, Jenkins never really expressed a desire to join a particular club, but he’ll feel like he won the lottery by ending up at GMHBA Stadium. It didn't hurt his cause having great mate and former teammate Patrick Dangerfield in his corner. The bonus for the Cats is they have some cover in case if another Tom Hawkins injury or brain fade.
• Further evidence that winning the Rising Star Award doesn't necessarily translate to a long and storied career at your original club was provided with the trade of 2014 winner Lewis Taylor to Sydney from Brisbane. As the Lions become seriously good this season, Taylor managed just five games and he fell down the small forward pecking order at the Gabba. Squeezing him into the same forward line as Papley is a nice problem for the Swans to have.
• Callum Ah Chee follows in the footsteps of Jarryd Lyons 12 months ago, in moving up the M1 from Gold Coast to Brisbane. No doubt he leaves the Suns with their best wishes, but surely, they’ll be secretly hoping that he doesn't come back to embarrass then as did Lyons when he enjoyed a dream first season for the Lions that culminated in a fifth-place finish in the best and fairest.
• The Hawks have put plenty of time into Pittonet and he might well blossom at the Blues, where Matthew Kreuzer is the No.1 ruckman, albeit one who missed 10 games in 2018 and seven last season. It was a smart play for Pittonet to take the two years at the Blues where you’d think he will play more senior footy than he did at the Hawks where he played just seven games in five years and was, after all this time still no.3 on the rucking depth chart.
• Pittonet’s arrival at Ikon Park led to the departure of Andrew Phillips, who took his place on the 2019 rucking merry-go-round, becoming the first player in 16 years to move from Carlton to Essendon. He will be a back-up for Tom Bellchambers, but given the first-choice Essendon ruckman has played 20 or more games just once in his career, Phillips can expect to play at AFL level every now and again, and perhaps more often than that.
In the end, Collingwood only lost one player – James Aish – to the salary-cap squeeze. The Aish family is storied in South Australian football, yet James’ AFL journey has taken him to Queensland, Victoria and now, Western Australia, where he is reunited with new Justin Longmuir, his line coach at the Pies and now sitting in the big chair at the Dockers. Freo heads to the draft with two top-10 draft picks, a nice start for Longmuir as he continues the rebuild. But he’ll be keen to put an end to the exodus of big names. With Lachie Neale and now Hill gone from the club, that’s twice in two years a Fremantle best and fairest winner has upped and left.
• Any doubts that the trade period is considered as much a piece of content for the AFL as it is a necessary tool of list management was confirmed when the League closed things down until 3pm on Wednesday, when the AFL website’s live trade show went live to air. There had been just 13 trades in the six days beforehand and it took just five minutes after Wednesdays re-opening for the next deal to take place – an exchange of picks between the Blues and the Swans. Two minutes later, Zac Smith returned to Gold Coast after four years with Geelong and the frenzy began, with six trades in the first 35 minutes.