From Wayne Carey to Bryce Gibbs, the worst trade deals in the Adelaide Crows’ history
As the start of the 2019 AFL Trade Period nears, we look back at the top-five trade blunders - and the players, draft picks and people involved - in the Crows’ history. HAVE YOUR SAY
Crows
Don't miss out on the headlines from Crows. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- From Harley to Lonie: Port’s top-five trade blunders
- How to get the most out of your digital subscription
The Adelaide Football Club have pulled off some extraordinary deals at the trade table over the years but it has also been involved in some it would rather forget. Here’s the top five.
SUNDAY: THE BEST TRADES IN HISTORY OF CROWS, POWER
1. Wayne Carey from North Melbourne for Pick No. 2 and 18
Carey, arguably, the game’s greatest ever centre half-forward, left North Melbourne in disgrace in 2002 following the affair with teammate Anthony Stevens’ wife and it was Adelaide which gave his career a lifeline a year later.
At, 32, Carey arrived at the Crows – after turning down offers from Collingwood, Essendon, Hawthorn and Sydney - with 244 games and 671 goals to his name and the club hoped he would become the key target which it lacked in attack.
But, despite glimpses, the vision of coach Gary Ayres, football manager John Reid and CEO Steven Trigg was never realised.
The seven-time All-Australian battled injury in his two seasons at West Lakes, booting 56 goals from 28 appearances.
“Was it the right decision? People will debate it. I honestly believe there was nothing wrong with the decision,” Reid told The Advertiser in 2015.
“It was a good fit and if he hadn’t got injured I reckon we would’ve got some pretty good footy out of it.”
Replay the 2019 Toyota AFL Grand Final in full on KAYO SPORTS. Get your 14-day free trial and start streaming instantly >
There was nothing specifically wrong with the idea but, given the associated risks, it was what Adelaide gave up which was the problem.
Adelaide made the most of two-time premiership midfielder Kane Johnson’s want to return home, claiming the second selection in the 2002 draft from Richmond, in a complex pick-swap deal which also saw defender Jason Torney arrive at West Lakes.
But the Crows handed it over to North Melbourne, along with its second-round pick (No. 18), for Carey after the Kangaroos played hardball.
“We did that (Johnson deal) the night before and they (North) said ‘yeah, that’s okay, see you in the morning’,” Reid said.
“The next morning they said ‘no, we want both your first-round draft picks’, so we gave them No. 18 as well.”
North Melbourne took Daniel Wells at pick No. 2 with the star midfielder going on to play 243 games for the club.
The second pick was used on Kris Shore, who failed to play an AFL game, but by the time the Crows entered the draft at No. 32, South Australians Andrew Mackie (No.7 – 280 games), Byron Schammer (No.13 – 129 games), Will Minson (No.20 – 191 games) and Jared Rivers (No.26 – 194 games) were gone.
2. Evan Hewitt from North Melbourne for Pick No. 23 - 2000
He was the No. 23 pick in the 1996 draft, who tallied 17 disposals, 14 hitouts and two goals in his third senior game and had a Rising Star nomination by his sixth.
But after 33 games in four years at North Melbourne, he was traded to the Crows for the same selection in the 2000 national draft.
Sure, in hindsight it wasn’t the right move but the targeting of the 193cm Hewitt, who played at both ends of the ground, was not necessarily the biggest problem – it was, again, what Adelaide gave up.
With the pick it received from the Crows, North Melbourne took Drew Petrie, the All-Australian forward who went on to play 332 AFL games and kick 444 goals.
While Hewitt played 15 games in two years at the Crows before being delisted at the end of 2002.
But would have the Crows done the same thing and taken Petrie with that selection, if they had not invested in Hewitt?
It’s fair to say the club had a poor draft in 2000, taking Laurence Angwin (0 games for the Crows), Michael Handby (0), Matthew Smith (0) and Hayden Skipworth (9) with its first four selections, before snaring Graham Johncock at pick No. 67.
It was also the same off-season Adelaide traded for Port Adelaide’s Matthew Bode, in exchange for pick No. 12, which the Power used to take Shaun Burgoyne.
It’s not a period which would be spoken about much at West Lakes these days.
ULTIMATE TRADE GUIDE: Where your club stands
3. Richard Tambling from Richmond for first-round compensation pick (Nathan Bock) – 2010
“Richard needs a change of scenery and our club can provide that ideally for him. We don’t have massive expectations. We just see him playing a wing, half-back or midfield role and to just play his role in the team.”
That’s what then football manager Phil Harper told afl.com.au in the wake of the Tambling trade.
“He might have been a pick No.4 many years ago, but now he’s a pick nothing. He’s just a player who we think can play a role at our footy club,” Harper said.
Adelaide deliberately played down the expectation following the acquisition of Tambling, who was always – and maybe unfairly – known as the player the Tigers took one pick ahead of Lance Franklin in his six years at Punt Road.
But it didn’t work out.
The much-maligned Tambling battled injury and then opportunity during his three-year stint at West Lakes, making just 16 senior appearances.
He won Sturt’s best-and-fairest in the SANFL in 2012 but was delisted at the end of the 2013 season.
The first-round compensation pick Adelaide received on the back of Nathan Bock’s free-agency defection to Gold Coast was the main part of the deal.
Richmond held the pick (No.20) before on-trading it back to the Suns in 2013 and they used it on Jack Leslie, who was delisted in August this year after 28 AFL games.
It’s hard to know how Adelaide would’ve used the end-of-first-round pick given it was available to be used in any one of the next five drafts.
Players of note taken in the second round in the following two years include Scott Lycett, Jeremy Howe, Luke Parker, Joel Hamling and Brad Hill.
But it was in 2012 – the first year of draft sanction following the Kurt Tippett saga – when the Crows might have needed it most.
South Australian Tim O’Brien was taken by the Hawks at 28, while Port Adelaide swooped on Tom Clurey with the next pick. Instead, Adelaide didn’t enter the draft until pick No. 66.
Or the following year, could have the Crows paired SA-born midfielders Trent Dumont or George Hewett – players who national recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie had high on his list – with Matt Crouch?
Hindsight, obviously, is a wonderful thing but the fact is the way Adelaide went didn’t work.
4. Troy Menzel from Carlton for Sam Kerridge and pick No. 28 – 2015
In the deal which sent superstar Patrick Dangerfield back home to Geelong, Adelaide secured pick No. 9 to go with its own first-round selection (No. 13), forming a strong draft hand in 2015.
Ogilvie would later use these selections to bring Wayne Milera and Tom Doedee to West Lakes.
So the club’s decision to trade the other selection (No. 28) it received from the Cats to Carlton for Menzel, who dreamed of playing for the Crows as a kid, may have seemed like a bit of a free hit.
And on talent alone, the move to bring the No. 11 pick from the 2012 draft to Adelaide appeared to be great business.
The Central District junior, who is now back playing at Elizabeth, booted 47 goals in 40 games for the Blues and was handed the famous No. 32 jumper, highlighting Adelaide’s hope for dynamic forward.
“He’s played some really good footy at AFL level and, at only 21 years of age, has plenty of scope for improvement,” Crows head of football David Noble said at the time.
“Troy will add another dimension to our dynamic forward and midfield lines and we think he can develop the flexibility to play in other positions.”
But after Menzel played just four games in two seasons, before being delisted at the end of 2017, the deal – which was a part of Carlton’s play for Giants Lachie Plowman, Liam Sumner, Jed Lamb and Andrew Phillips - was a failure.
Midfielder Sam Kerridge was also involved in the trade and the Victorian went on to play 44 games in three years at the Blues.
The second-round selection travelled some distance during the trade period and ended up with North Melbourne, who took now Sydney midfielder Ryan Clarke.
South Australian’s Riley Bonner (No.37), Bailey Williams (No.48) and Jordan Dawson (No.56) were still on the board.
Giving up the selection – or Kerridge – hasn’t hurt the Crows in a big way but the deal hasn’t helped them, either.
5. Bryce Gibbs from Carlton for pick No. 10 and 16 + pick swap – 2017
After missing out from a father-son eligibility point-of-view in 2006 – and then not being prepared to pay Carlton’s asking price in 2016 – Gibbs finally became a Crow in the 2017 off-season.
Despite the disappointing grand final loss to Richmond, Adelaide’s premiership window appeared wide open and the hope was the addition of the classy midfielder, who played 231 games in 11 seasons at the Blues, would help elevate an already-strong group.
Fast forward two years and Gibbs has been dropped to the SANFL on four occasions in his time at West Lakes and the Crows have failed to make the finals in consecutive seasons.
And Adelaide did end up handing over two first-round selections – the original asking price of Carlton list boss Stephen - in the deal.
The Blues received pick No. 10, 16 and 73 in the 2017 draft in return for Gibbs and pick No. 77.
But Adelaide list manager Justin Reid worked a swap of future second-round selections into the trade, an element he believed made the deal a more attractive proposition.
“This deal presents much better value compared to what was first discussed 12 months ago with the return of future draft picks from Carlton in what we consider a very strong draft a key component for us,” Reid told the club’s website following the confirmation of the deal.
“To be able to bring in an A-grade midfielder and improve our position for next year’s draft is a great result for our club.”
At the end of 2018, that pick swap saw Adelaide initially advance seven spots in the draft but after another live trade on draft night with the Giants, the Crows went from pick No. 24 to No. 30 – and still took Will Hamill, the player they had ranked at 21 - while also securing a 2019 second-round selection (via Carlton).
Overall, the Crows’ draft-hand didn’t take a huge hit, given it received pick No. 12 in return for Charlie Cameron, a selection it used on young forward Darcy Fogarty.
But in the current situation, with Adelaide conceding on its premiership window and undertaking a list overhaul, a further two high draft-picks, with two years under their belt, would have have helped fast tracked the process.
Carlton took promising, neat-kicking left-footer Lachie O’Brien at No. 10 before trading No. 16 for multiple picks from the Bulldogs in order to secure midfielder Matthew Kennedy from the Giants..
While the deal won’t yet be labelled a failure on a whole, there’s been no direct improvement as a result.