AFL trade period 2022: Port Adelaide reaction after Esava Ratugolea deal falls through

Port Adelaide made its best offer for Esava Ratugolea and Geelong stood firm on the trade. But that might not be the end of the story.

Jason Horne-Francis. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Port Adelaide list manager Jason Cripps says the Power will continue to track Esava Ratugolea after they were unable to convince Geelong to part with him in the trade period.

The Power offered the Cats pick 33 for Ratugolea, who played four games for Geelong in 2022.

But this was unable to convince the Cats to part ways with the back-up tall.

Cripps said he was surprised that Geelong didn’t take pick 33.

“That’s a good question, you probably need to ask Geelong about what their real reasons were,” he said on SEN SA.

“Pick 33 that was on the table, people can judge whether that was fair for a person who played only four games and wasn’t in their best 22 this season.

“But at the end of the day it is Geelong’s prerogative.

“We are really disappointed, not just for us but for Esava.

“We just have to move on, unfortunately.”

While Ratugolea has played as a forward and ruckman at AFL level for the Cats, the Power wanted him to become a key defender after he impressed with his intercepting ability in the VFL for Geelong at the end of the season.

Cripps didn’t rule out the Power again making a play for Ratugolea at the end of next season.

“We will certainly follow Esava, we’d love him at our footy club, but 12 months is a long time,” he said.

“But it has been well documented that an area of need for us is our key backs, and bringing some players to the club to give us depth.

“So we will certainly explore that and track Esava and see how it is in 12 months or so.”

Geelong missed out on Esava Ratugolea. Picture: Michael Klein

Port Adelaide met with Ratugolea a fortnight ago, wanting him to add height to a backline that had been reliant on Aliir Aliir, Tom Jonas, Trent McKenzie and Tom Clurey against taller opponents in the past few seasons.

Earlier on Wednesday, Davies conceded it was looking less likely the Power would secure the 198cm big man because its offer had very little wiggle room.

After pick 33, its next selection this year is 60.

Port Adelaide ended the trade period with two players coming in – North Melbourne young gun Jason Horne-Francis and West Coast small forward Junior Rioli.

Wingman Karl Amon, who joined Hawthorn as a free agent, was the Power’s sole player departure.

Ruckman Sam Hayes and halfback Riley Bonner were both linked with exits but were not traded.

Adelaide had a quiet deadline day, not making any further moves.

That meant veteran midfielder Matt Crouch, who was dropped three times this season and was open to changing clubs, stayed put.

“Matt’s contracted, he’s looking for a big off-season,” Crows list manager Justin Reid said.

Adelaide’s two deals were bringing in Gold Coast goalsneak Izak Rankine and trading key defender Billy Frampton to Collingwood.

“The focus was Izak going into the trade period so it was great to get him into the club,” Reid said.

“We’ve still got a full set with our draft (hand) into 2023, so it was a good outcome.”

Reid said the Crows, whose first picks this year were No. 23 and 46, could look to trade for an earlier selection on the night but was happy with where it sat right now.

Inside story: How Horne-Francis mega-trade unfolded

— Simeon Thomas-Wilson

It might be the biggest trade in Port Adelaide’s history.

The pick 2 and 25 trade to Essendon for club legend Gavin Wanganeen to become the club’s inaugural AFL captain is definitely up there.

But the four-team “mega trade” that sent last year’s No. 1 draft pick Jason Horne-Francis and West Coast premiership forward Junior Rioli to Alberton is the biggest for the Power in recent history.

“It is certainly the biggest deal in my time at the footy club,” Port Adelaide’s footy boss Chris Davies said on Tuesday.

“So I’m certainly happy to say from my standpoint to be able to secure someone of Jason’s calibre and character and to also get in someone like Junior Rioli, who we had targeted as a player who can help us be better in an area of the ground we need to improve in.”

After they were spurned for fierce rivals Adelaide by Jordan Dawson last year, the Power then missed out on Josh Dunkley to Brisbane.

Port have pulled off a major trade coup in getting one of the best young guns in the land to Alberton.

But they needed the assistance of a couple of other clubs to complete one of the biggest trades in years.

After the bombshell announcement on the eve of the trade period that Horne-Francis wanted to leave North Melbourne after just one season, the Power first had pick No. 8, a later pick this year and their first-round pick in next season’s draft on the table.

But it was quickly apparent that the Kangaroos, who turned down offers of three first-round picks for Horne-Francis last year, would want a lot more for the young gun who still had a year on his deal.

So Port’s highly respected list manager Jason Cripps got to work.

“Myself and Jason (Cripps) talk but he is the guy who is doing the work at the front end with the other clubs,” Davies said.

“I think a lot is made about people thinking that the trade period is adversarial and some of it is not. Some of it is a group of people coming together and hoping to find their own outcomes to what their problem might be.”

With Rioli wanting to go to the Power, and West Coast open to splitting pick No. 2, the Eagles had a motivation to get involved.

Willie Rioli celebrates a goal. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

GWS, flush with draft picks after more players left, wanted to get up to No. 1.

Despite the deal hitting a minor snag on Saturday when the AFL ruled that Port Adelaide couldn’t trade future first and second-round picks, there was still supreme confidence that a deal would get done.

“That was literally an email to Andrew Dillon (the AFL’s general manager football operations) at 5pm on Friday who then responded on Saturday morning, ‘no’, so we moved on very quickly,” Davies said.

“The mega deal that you guys have been dreaming up has taken many iterations over the past four or five days and I am pleased that the club has got it off the ground after the AFL suggested we couldn’t do what we’d asked them.

“That was just one question and the answer was no so we moved on.”

The Power had to give up a lot to get the deal done on their end, with picks 8, 43, 53 and 57 from this draft joining their future first-round pick, their future second-round pick and future third-round pick out the door.

They do get Collingwood’s second-round pick for 2023, a draft that is considered to be a very good one.

But importantly for the Power they didn’t have to give up any of their talented youngsters to get in what Davies described as a “generational talent”.

“It was really important,” he said.

“We were determined to hold on to our talented young players.”

Horne-Francis: Why I left ‘unstable’ North Melbourne

New Port Adelaide recruit Jason Horne-Francis says the potential for another “unstable” year at North Melbourne, with the future of Alastair Clarkson in the air, was a factor in him requesting a trade home to South Australia.

Less than a year after becoming the Kangaroos’ first ever No. 1 draft pick Horne-Francis was traded to the Power via a four-team trade after requesting a move home to Adelaide.

The 19-year-old wonderkid said the lure of family was the ultimate factor in his request and move to the Power.

“I’m a big family person, I love my family and I feel like having my family and friends around me that is going to create that environment that I can play my best footy in,” he said.

Jason Horne-Francis says family was the ultimate pull to Alberton. Picture: Brenton Edwards

“That is where I want to get to, be the best player I can be and I feel like coming to Port Adelaide and having my friends and family around me can help me achieve that.”

But Horne-Francis also conceded that the potential for another unstable year at the Kangaroos, with Clarkson delaying his start date as senior coach as he faces disturbing allegations of his treatment of First Nations players while at Hawthorn, played a part.

“I wanted to make sure I was in a stable environment coming into next year and it might be another unstable year at North so we thought going back to a great club like Port Adelaide was what would be best for me,” he said.

On Tuesday North Melbourne list boss Brady Rawlings hinted at bigger factors in the Roos trading the No. 1 pick, saying critics of the decision to let him go home didn’t have the full picture.

Horne-Francis missed what would have been his first game back in SA when he was dropped after not completing a proper ice bath recovery in front of teammates.

On Tuesday Horne-Francis conceded he could have done things differently at the Roos.

“It has been tough, there has been challenges throughout the year and on my part I haven’t done everything right as well,” he said.

“As an 18-year-old kid moving out of home to Melbourne it was tough and I had my challenges so I didn’t get everything right but I think it will help me in the long run.”