Inside story: How the Chad Wingard deal changed Hawthorn and Port Adelaide
The Chad Wingard trade was seen as the final piece of Hawthorn returning to premiership contention and Port Adelaide conceding it was time to go back to the drawing board. But things haven’t turned out like that.
AFL News
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
When All-Australian Chad Wingard sought a move to Hawthorn in October 2018 Port Adelaide fans were up in arms over the prospect of yet another Power star leaving for the Hawks.
It was nine years after their premiership midfielder Shaun Burgoyne left Alberton, winning three flags after Hawthorn fixed his “dodgy knee”.
But unlike Burgoyne’s move, Wingard’s trade request was prefixed by the Power actually testing the market for their star player.
Ken Hinkley first told Wingard during his exit interview that he needed to improve his attitude around training, then Port told his manager Tom Petoro – who declined to comment – they were happy for him to explore his options a year out from free agency.
“No-one if off the trade table as far as we’re concerned,” Port chairman David Koch said in September 2018 as speculation swirled about Wingard’s future at the Power following his exit meeting.
Kayo is your ticket to the 2020 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. Watch every match of every round Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
“If you’re going to be ruthless, to be elite you’ve got to make hard decisions.”
The Wingard trade was seen as the final piece of Hawthorn returning to premiership contention, and Port Adelaide conceding it was time to go back to the drawing board.
Now two years on while Wingard and Hawthorn sit in the middle of the road, the player Hawks coach Alistair Clarkson said wasn’t in his best 22 is well and truly in the strongest side of the ladder-leading Port outfit which used the departure of its star player to load up on high level young talent and revitalise its fortunes.
“Port Adelaide did a lot of work to trade a star and one of their better players out to bring in what turned (out) to be three very good young players,” former Port Adelaide player now North Adelaide senior coach Jacob Surjan said.
“It was a pretty outstanding trade for Port Adelaide I would have thought.”
WHOLE LOTTA LOVE
Clarkson was once asked on AFL 360 if he could have any player at the Hawks who would it be.
The answer was Wingard.
This, Clarkson coaching Wingard when he made the All-Australian team, and a face-to-face meeting when it dawned that the star would be leaving Alberton led to the Power gun choosing the Hawks as his preferred destination over the Western Bulldogs.
A lucrative deal was struck for Wingard to become a Hawk.
But now Hawthorn needed to give Port Adelaide a deal the Power were happy with.
The Hawks had Pick 15 at the upcoming draft, but Hawthorn had not used a top-15 selection at a draft for a decade so that was destined to be part of any deal.
But what were the Hawks willing to also give up?
BRING HOME BURTON
To say Ryan Burton was blindsided at being included in the trade is an understatement.
The childhood Power fan had just signed a three-year extension to stay at Hawthorn, had finished second in the Rising Star award a year prior and had bought a house in Melbourne.
The smooth-moving defender had even been handed Sam Mitchell’s No. 5 guernsey at the Hawks.
Yet while he was in Las Vegas on a golfing holiday with many of his Hawthorn teammates Burton got a phone call from Clarkson in which the legendary coach told him he was not part of Hawthorn’s best 22 and his future plans.
After thumbing their nose up at the prospects of the now delisted Kieran Lovell and Tim O’Brien coming to Alberton, Port were adamant that Burton was put up as trade bait by the Hawks.
But the Power had always been keen on Burton, but didn’t have a high enough pick to keep him in SA in the 2015 draft.
A four-year lucrative deal put to Burton and manager Marty Pask – who was approached for comment – gave Port some much needed exclusivity from rival clubs for the highly rated prospect.
But with only three days to go of the trade period when Clarkson made the call to Burton the clock was ticking.
Complicating things further was Burton was in Las Vegas and Clarkson had flown to Ireland, leaving Pask and Hawthorn footy manager Graham Wright trying to work out a deal involving multiple time-zones.
Burton leant heavily on Pask, there were many late night/early morning calls.
A deal was struck and Wingard went to Hawthorn and Burton to Port along with pick 15.
But the deals didn’t stop there.
THE ROZEE SELL
A week before the Wingard/Burton/Pick 15 deal was inked Port arguably made a couple of even more important trades.
Jared Polce, Jasper Pittard and Pick 48 went to North Melbourne for Pick 11 and the Kangaroo’s 2019 fourth round pick.
Then the Power sent that Pick 11, as well as No. 23, No. 30 and No. 49 for the No. 6 selection from Fremantle and the Dockers third round pick in 2019.
That No. 6 selection was then traded to Brisbane in the Wingard trade – eventually facilitating moves for Lachie Neale, Jesse Hogan and Steven May – for Pick 5 and recent Power debutant Sam Mayes, who wanted to come back to SA.
Along with their existing No. 10 selection, the Power now had three picks in the first round – and with their first selection they had a SA gun in mind.
When the Power were trying to convince Burton to come to Alberton, part of the pitch was that they were really confident they could get a really good South Australian in the draft.
Connor Rozee had talent, but was in the shadow of fellow SA prospects Jack Lukosius and Izak Rankine during the Under 18 championships.
However during the SANFL final series for North Adelaide in which he was played as a half-back, to the annoyance of Port recruiting manager Geoff Parker because it would increase the appeal for rival clubs, Rozee blasted his way into the upper echelons of the draft class.
“They always liked Connor but I think after Connor’s finals series that he had with us in 2018 projected him from a mid to late first round pick into that top five,” then North Adelaide assistant coach Surjan said.
“And I think after Port Adelaide and a lot of the clubs saw what he did in that finals series and the versatility and upside to his game.”
THE X-MAN
After getting a player they had really wanted since identifying him in 2016, Port Adelaide took Zak Butters with its second pick of the draft – which had fallen to no. 12.
Hawthorn’s pick 15 was now 18, and with Gippsland captain Xavier Duursma still on the board the phone calls came in thick and fast to the Power.
“There were four or five other clubs who were picking up the phone to Port, offering plenty to get up to Xav,” recalled his manager David Trotter of Hemisphere Management Group.
“But Port put down the phone pretty quickly on those and they knew exactly who they wanted.”
Rozee, Butters and Duursma were outstanding in their first year in the AFL in 2019, confounding some unwarranted assumptions some had about them.
“I remember one club, I can’t remember who, they showed their coach some vision before the draft and they saw Xav and the coach said “oh he is really skinny he will take a while to be able to handle the contest at AFL level”,” Trotter said.
MORE AFL
Essendon legend Tim Watson fires back at AFL-employed journalist Damian Barrett
Tom Lynch avoids suspension for misconduct after pushing Alex Witherden’s head into ground
AFL 2020: Umpires knocked back at South Australian border
“And the recruiter turned to him and said ‘no he won’t, don’t look at his frame look at the way he plays’”.
Rozee, Butters and Duursma took the AFL by storm in their first season, and have helped Port Adelaide become premiership contenders in their second.
While up until a plucky win over Carlton in Perth last round, the Hawks were facing serious questions about how they could get back to flag contention and their preference to let go of their draft picks for established talent.
Port Adelaide and Hawthorn were approached for comment.