AFLW Trade 2023: Inside story of how 24 picks, 12 players changed hands
Phones were running hot for AFLW list managers as the trade period deadline rapidly approached. Here’s the inside story as to how 24 picks and 12 players found new homes in a hectic final day.
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THE astonishing 11-club AFLW trade might have also saved the AFL from suffering its most awkward national draft moment.
The Western Bulldogs drafted Gabby Newton at No. 1 in 2019 and may well have drafted Newton at No. 1 again on Monday night if the miracle deal had fallen over.
Newton was not the only star set to be stranded.
Those connected to the whopper swap suspected trades for Ash Brazill (Collingwood to Fremantle) and Montana McKinnon (Adelaide to Richmond) were also doomed on their own.
The seed for the seismic trade was planted when Dogs list boss Mick Sandry set out to solve several stalemates on Wednesday afternoon.
The Dogs effectively threw every club’s jigsaw pieces on to one table to see if there was a way to connect them as one puzzle.
By 1am pieces from 10 clubs were on the board and by Thursday morning the Brisbane Lions had made it 11.
Geelong might not realise – but it almost became No. 12, with a call to the Cats considered close to Thursday’s 2pm deadline.
This was a tense AFLW trade period. But talks between the Dogs and Dockers over Newton topped it off.
Fremantle plonked No. 6 on the table and simply said that was its first, best and final offer without access to future picks.
Some rivals reckon there was more spice to it than that.
The story goes that the Dogs started inquiring about including uncontracted players as well as No.6.
So then those players’ managers received phone calls from the Dockers hinting that a new deal was coming.
The whisper that Newton was firming to be the No. 1 pick for the second time in five years was getting louder.
The Dogs did not want to do that … but at the end of the day No. 6 was nowhere near the mark and they had a job to do.
Newton’s camp downplayed the likelihood of the Dogs re-drafting her at No. 1 to the Herald Sun on Wednesday because it was confident they would drum up a package of picks that justified accepting No.6.
But nobody thought it would require 11 clubs swapping a combined 12 players and 24 picks to get it done.
Collingwood and Adelaide backed a mega deal off the bat because, like the Dogs, they risked losing Brazill and McKinnon for nothing.
There was a sense that trades for Analea McKee (Brisbane to Dogs), Mikayla Hyde (Fremantle to Collingwood), Kirsty Lamb (Dogs to Port) and Maddi Gay (Melbourne to Essendon) would’ve been struck even if the 11-clubber had toppled over.
Hyde told Pies officials over the phone on Thursday night she was super excited after several sleepless nights … and yet she was one of the safest swaps.
It was bleedingly obvious that big trouble was brewing everywhere else on deadline day.
That is why the Lions were lured in. They slid back from No. 12 because more picks better matched their draft strategy.
Even West Coast – which did not have a player involved – received a phone call.
The Eagles had been happy with picks 23 and 24 although out of the blue they were able to upgrade them to No. 14 and 38.
Suddenly, with assets from 11 clubs in one basket it was easier to divvy them up for acceptable outcomes rather than split deals.
The Dogs were looking at getting pick No. 4 and No. 6 for losing two All-Australians (Kirsty Lamb and Katie Lynch) and a No. 1 pick (Newton).
But by bringing in 10 rivals they upgraded No. 22 to No. 11 to make the losses more palatable.
Magpies’ women’s boss Jess Burger, Melbourne list boss Todd Patterson and Sandry had a strong sense of what each club was after as Thursday turned to a telethon in AFLW land.
One club’s representative started counting their phone calls between 8.30am-1.55pm … and gave up at 60.
Another said their recent call list, which shows about 15 calls, barely covered two hours.
By midday the mood was moving. Everyone, perhaps the AFL included, was invested on pulling off the extraordinary.
Their attention was on one goal rather than a bunch of mini ones.
Word that a dizzying deal was in the works started to spread.
“I think you need to come to my office,” one list manager told the club’s media boss.
“There’s about 20 picks and 12 players riding on this.”
The response from the media manager?
“What are you doing?!”
One club suspected the deal was still shaky at 1.20pm.
That’s why the Cats were considered, because of late snags, such as clubs querying whether one of their picks was being short-changed by a spot or two.
AFL player movement manager Ned Guy agreed to manually cross-check that all the moving parts made sense if clubs were only interested in what they were giving and getting.
After all, wasn’t there a risk that if the trade circulated in totality then some clubs could compare hauls and get cold feet?
Sandry and Burger split up clubs to call based on their relationships with each and said it was go time – lodge their deals.
Each AFL trade is verified with a phone call between the league and the relevant clubs.
But the AFL started this verification call like it was a national draft – with a roll call, to ensure all 11 clubs were on the line.
An official whipped around the room asking: “Bulldogs, are you here? Port Adelaide are you here?” as each club answered, “Yes, here”.
The league has been reluctant to release levers such as trading future picks to AFLW clubs because it is worried about a gap in list management experience.
An 11-clubber is one for the books. But for the right or wrong reasons?
“This was an amazing thing to celebrate and is a very cool story that will probably never, ever happen again in the history of the game – and probably shouldn’t happen,” one club said.
“But it probably also highlights that if it fell over there’s reasons why.
“There’s probably a sophistication gap there that needs to come up.”
BEHIND THE SCENES OF AFLW’s 11-CLUB MEGA TRADE
Josh Barnes
The Western Bulldogs were the leading force behind a remarkable 11-club trade that solved the AFLW’s trade period puzzle and handed the Dogs a beefed up draft arsenal.
The deal involving more than half the league picked up momentum on Thursday morning before properly taking shape around 10am, just hours before the 2pm deadline.
It wasn’t lodged until the last half-hour and the league didn’t officially announce the trade until 2.25pm, after working through all the moving parts.
It’s believed the deal came together due to a snowballing effect, where each trade became contingent on another and what was a three-team trade became a five team and seven team agreement before growing even further.
Some smaller trades that were pieced together earlier ruled other clubs out completing their own deals, forcing creative thinking to pull together all 11 clubs.
There was also a belief on Thursday that some clubs had baulked at smaller trades because opponents were getting better hauls.
Unlike in the men’s competition, the AFLW doesn’t trade future picks and some clubs were willing to move around the order given next week’s draft is seen as shallow and impacted by players already aligned to clubs.
A total of 12 players and 24 draft picks were shifted around the league in the trade, which included seven of the top 20 picks at next week’s draft.
Insiders described the Bulldogs list manager Mick Sandry as the leader in pulling together the blockbuster deal.
The Dogs sent Gabby Newton (to Fremantle), Kirsty Lamb (Port Adelaide), Katie Lynch (Gold Coast) and picks 22 and 61 out and received Lauren Ahrens, Jasmyn Smith Analea McKee and picks 4, 6, 11 and 51.
The wooden spooners will hit Monday’s draft with picks 1, 4, 6 and 11 as the club embarks on a new era after the sacking of coach Nathan Burke.
The Brisbane Lions were described as a sticking point in the mega-deal, before eventually agreeing to give up pick 12, as well as Analea McKee, for a return of picks 21, 32 and 46.
Former No. 1 pick Newton will cross to Fremantle on a four-year contract and the Dockers plan to use her both in the midfield and up forward, with ex-Magpie Ash Brazill joining her at the Dockers on a three-year contract after wanting to return to Perth for family reasons.
Negotiations to trade Maddi Gay from Melbourne to Essendon were tense throughout the trade period and it was expected the two clubs wouldn’t agree on a swap without help from an opponent.
The Demons eventually landed pick 12 from the Lions to round out the deal.
Gay joins the Bombers on a three-year deal as the finalists look to shore up their attack.
Port Adelaide landed all-Australian midfielder Lamb on a two-year contract, with the Power chuffed to add the former Dog to their midfield.
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Originally published as AFLW Trade 2023: Inside story of how 24 picks, 12 players changed hands
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