Carlton made their first move of the trade period on Tuesday, securing Fremantle wingman Blake Acres for a future third-round pick.
With the 26-year-old having perhaps his best season at AFL level in 2022, Kane Cornes described him as “the bargain of the whole trade period” given he cost so little in return.
On top of Acres’ departure, the Dockers also lost Griffin Logue and Darcy Tucker to North Melbourne on Wednesday, and Cornes believes they’re now “worse off” than they were at the end of last season.
“The bargain of the whole trade period is Blake Acres who was sent to Carlton for a future third-round pick,” Cornes said on AFL Trade Radio.
“I’m wondering what is going on at Fremantle, they’re worse off, I think.
“The whole aim of the trade period is to improve your list but with Logue leaving, with Blake Acres now leaving and Rory Lobb up in the air, I think Fremantle are a worse side than they were at the start of the trade period.
“I know Luke Jackson will come in but what’s going out is more significant than what’s going in.”
In response to Cornes, Matthew Lloyd described the $180,000 a year deal offered to Acres by Fremantle as “an insult” after he signed a three-year contract at Carlton worth double what the Dockers tabled.
“I heard Matt Rendell yesterday, he spoke about how James Aish and Blake Acres had become really strong wingmen for them,” Lloyd explained.
“To offer up Blake Acres $180,000, that’s an insult to Blake Acres.
“You can understand when he gets double at Carlton, it was a no-brainer for him.
“It just shows the salary cap pressure Fremantle is under.
“I’d imagine they would’ve liked to have offered Acres more, but they pretty much pushed him out the door with that offer.
“They’re going to lack that depth next year.”
Fremantle Head of Player Personnel David Walls confirmed that it was salary cap pressure that meant Acres had to go, with the club feeling they had to make the wingman expendable to retain their “core players”
“In Blake’s situation, we could have really upped our offer and matched it and retained Blake,” Walls said on SEN WA Breakfast.
“But we’re really mindful of TPP (Total Player Payments) and salary cap management and the value of that. That’s becoming bigger and bigger in the AFL. You see salary dumps and you even see this year that pick 7 is on the table and can be bought.
“Looking at Blake, we would have liked to have kept him, but it was at a price. We feel like we’ve got three or four players on our list that can come in and pay that wing role. It will give opportunity to them to develop but it also keeps our salary cap healthy for future years.
“We’re the second youngest list in the comp and the majority of these guys are getting better and asking for more money, rightfully so. We need to just make sure that we’re in a position so that we can maintain, I guess, our premiership core players.”
Acres joins the Blues in the prime of his career with 120 AFL games under his belt.