Port Adelaide seals trade for Gold Coast key forward Charlie Dixon in three-club deal
PORT Adelaide has again worked a multi-club shuffle of draft picks to secure a trade - this time Gold Coast key forward Charlie Dixon.
JOHN Worsfold noted on leaving The Advertiser Foundation grand final luncheon – where he was the Crows coaching director en route to being Essendon coach – that at West Coast he would pay “a little over the odds” just to get a trade done.
The headache of dealing with clubs always wanting to win in the annual AFL trade period was not worth the pain, Worsfold stated.
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Port Adelaide did that today after two weeks of bizarre posturing with Gold Coast for key forward Charlie Dixon – but the Power certainly did not mortgage its future to close the deal.
As Gold Coast surprisingly branded Port Adelaide as “belligerent”, the Power roped in Richmond for another three-club deal – as it did the day before with Collingwood and Melbourne for 21-year-old midfielder Jimmy Toumpas.
Effectively, Port Adelaide has handed a first-round (No. 10 this year) and a 2016 second-round draft pick to the Suns for Dixon, 25 - virtually as much as Geelong paid for 25-year-old Crows club champion Patrick Dangerfield last week and as much as the Power handed over to Essendon for Patrick Ryder last year.
That is one pick more than Port Adelaide originally offered - and the market considered fair value - for Dixon, who has played “just” 65 games in seven seasons at the Gold Coast where the Suns say the Power will need a good fitness staff to keep his ankles sound.
Port Adelaide did not hand over the two first-round draft picks the Suns originally demanded. This is a win for the Power which - to meet this order - would have had to trade a quality player from Alberton or planned for its fourth consecutive season without a first-round draft pick.
Port Adelaide missed the first round in 2013 for Brisbane midfielder Jared Polec; last year for Ryder; and this year for Dixon. The other win for the Power is the valuable image in the market that if a player declares his intent to be at Alberton, Port Adelaide can close the deal ... even if it is a tough task in the trade market. Ryder made it last year. Dixon this year.
Gold Coast will claim victory too. And the Suns have sent a message of their own reminding clubs that it will not have its player list picked off.
The interesting side note of the Dixon deal is the No. 19 pick at the end of the first round that has been shuffled to Richmond. This pick has had a greater journey in the AFL than South Australian ruckman Jon Giles.
Created in 2011 for Fremantle as a compensation pick for losing Rhys Palmer as an uncontracted pick claimed by Greater Western Sydney for the Giants inaugural list. It has since been traded back to the Giants, then the Suns and now to Richmond through the Power. And it may move today to Carlton for Chris Yarran.
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au
THE DEAL
PORT ADELAIDE
GAINS: Dixon and draft pick No. 49
OUT: Draft pick No. 10 and 2016 second-round draft pick
GOLD COAST
GAINS: Draft picks No. 10 and No.31 and two 2016 second-round draft picks
OUT: Dixon and draft picks No. 19 and No.49
RICHMOND
GAINS: Draft pick No. 19
OUT: Draft pick No. 31 and 2016 second-round draft pick