As the AFL prepares for the annual trade period, the fans draw greater and greater interest in how the players could be shuffled

HAVE you heard the latest on the AFL trade market? There will be no shortage of speculation — some real, some pure fantasy.

The AFL trade period begins next week at Etihad Stadium. The speculation leading up to the player market is intense with Bryce Gibbs and Rory Sloane among the bigger names creating plenty of discussion. Picture: AAP Image/Joe Castro

WELCOME to the silly season. And as the AFL trade period — that does not open until Monday — seems to start the speculation game earlier each year, so does the stupidity attached to it.

Best example of this was on Monday: Adelaide vice-captain Rory Sloane to St Kilda. And then it was Essendon.

And it did not stop. Ultimately, it became: Adelaide should trade Sloane for contracted Carlton midfielder Bryce Gibbs ... before losing the Crows club champion to free agency.

Where does this all begin? Perhaps from inaugural Crows coach Graham Cornes declaring on radio FIVEaa a month ago that Sloane will take up free agency next year, following Patrick Dangerfield’s path of returning to Victoria for family reasons.

And now that Sloane’s wife, Belinda, is drawing more television work in Melbourne, there is a plausible thought to why Sloane would see his future at a Victorian-based club.

Before free agency began five years ago, Essendon premiership master Kevin Sheedy put up a strong theme for list management. He argued if a player did not agree to a contract extension at the end of his seventh season — with free agency to apply in the eighth — a club should work a significant trade rather than fall to the unsatisfactory compensation offered by the AFL for losing a free agent.

Of course, Sheedy’s theme of “sell before being stung” required the AFL clubs to win the right to trade contracted players without their approval. The players’ union is not budging on that one.

If Adelaide football chief Brett Burton and list manager Justin Reid felt uneasy today with the thought Sloane will take up free agency at the end of next season, would they endorse the Crows working a trade in this month’s market? Probably not.

Free agency opens on Friday. This ends on Sunday, October 15 with clubs having three days to respond to offers to their restricted free agents — a concept that, so far, has not been pushed to keep a free-agent at his current club.

The trade period opens on Monday when the 18 AFL clubs’ list-management teams meet at Etihad Stadium. This ends at 1.30pm (SA time) on Thursday, October 19 when the last hour of negotiations is quite dramatic as some clubs blink and some — as Carlton proved last year with Gibbs — stand firm.

And along the way this “silly season” will throw up extraordinary speculation, such as the concept of Sloane being on the move. There also are the “fantasy” trades from eager, imaginative and frustrated fans as they imagine how a deal could unfold — or question why their club’s list manager is not seeing an opportunity to strike a trade as they do.

Of course, the list manager is working to real issues such as contracts and salary caps ...

So welcome to the annual silly season — and be prepared to hear everything and anything. Some real. Some unreal. Some pre-emptive ... such as Sloane.

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