Dan Houston knew it was coming … he just didn’t know it would come quite so soon.

From the moment he walked out of the doors at Alberton following his exit meeting with coach Ken Hinkley last September and sent an exit group message to his Port Adelaide teammates, he started to get a little nervous about taking on his old side in 2025.

On Collingwood’s The Grind documentary, Houston said of his text to his soon-to-be ex-teammates: “I said, ‘Boys, I am headed back to Melbourne … I’ve just told the club. I love playing with you boys and obviously if I come up against you … there will be no hard feelings. I just feel like it is home time to be closer to my family’.”

When he sent the message, he didn’t know what colours he would be wearing when he took on Port Adelaide.

That uncertainty stretched through until the final days of AFL trade period following a deep, complex and at times fractious set of meetings and negotiations between a host of prospective suitors, Port Adelaide and his team at Connors Sports Management.

In the end, only one suitor was capable of getting a trade done – Collingwood – but it took plenty of starts and false-starts (and three clubs in total) to finally make it happen.

On Saturday night, at the MCG, Houston will take Hinkley and his former teammates, relieved to be wearing black and white after a switch that shaped last year’s entire trade period.

When the fixture came out, Houston said: “Once the trade was done I thought things would quieten down. Then when I saw my first game after the suspension was against Port (in Round 1), I was like: ‘You’re kidding’.”

Here’s how the Houston trade went down.

TELLING KENNY

Houston came to the realisation near the midway point of last season that he didn’t want to see out the final three years of contract.

Family was calling him home to Melbourne.

He had signed the deal in March 2022, which was meant to keep him in South Australia until he reached free agency at the end of 2027.

But so much had changed since he inked that deal.

For a start, he had become one of the genuine stars of the competition, with razor sharp distribution and elite rebound off half back.

He had already won his first All-Australian blazer, and was well on his way towards achieving a second. He had even joined the Port Adelaide leadership group.

He was proving what a canny decision it had been from Port Adelaide to pluck him out of the 2016 rookie draft and help turn him into an A-grader.

Better still for Port Adelaide, his deal was proving exceptional value, with a return of around $650,000 per season.

As soon as he made the decision to leave, he knew he had to tell Hinkley first.

“I guess I made a pretty firm decision to come back to Melbourne midway through 2024 and (after) doing nine years, I felt like it was home time for me,” Houston said.

It was a surprise for Port Adelaide, a club with a strong record of retaining players – no mean feat when you consider they often have more than 70 per cent of its group coming from outside South Australia.

Would they hold him to his contract? Could they orchestrate a deal that could benefit the club long-term?

The Herald Sun understands all options were discussed, but everything centred around the club’s mantra to find a balance between the now and the future.

It’s always been a delicate balancing act, but the Power have had some big wins in this space in the past.

They were initially criticised for trading Chad Wingard to Hawthorn back in 2018, but in that off-season traded a suite of picks and ended up with young guns Connor Rozee and Zak Butters, as well as upgrading a rookie talent called Dan Houston.

A year later, they gave up Dougal Howard to St Kilda, and part of the return came in the form of a pick used to take Mitch Georgiades, now one of the club’s most important key forwards.

If they were going to lose a player of Houston’s calibre, they had to secure access to elite young talent the other way.

HELL AND BACK

Melbourne “had” Houston until the Demons didn’t.

He recalled last year: “I told my manager straight away and he said ‘Mate, I reckon Melbourne are keen, and you can get home and we can keep it super quiet’.”

Discussions between the Demons and Houston’s management went well and Melbourne was ready to meet Port Adelaide’s minimum set of demands for a trade.

The Power wanted two first-round selections, but insisted that one of them needed to be in the 2024 draft.

Like most clubs, the Power seriously rated the 2024 draft, and were especially keen on Joe Berry, while Matt Whitlock and Murphy Reid were also on a list of their high draft priorities.

Melbourne was fourth on the ladder after round 11 and seemed certain to play finals, which made them likely to be in a position to satisfy Port’s needs.

Rival clubs understood that a deal was all but done, with the Demons content to hand over their first pick of 2024 – which was then likely to run somewhere between picks 12 and 17, depending on how they finished – as well as first round pick for 2025.

Then the bottom fell out of Melbourne … and Houston got cold feet.

Christian Petracca suffered a horrific King’s Birthday injury amid question marks on the club’s handling of the incident. Trade queries over Petracca and Clayton Oliver followed. The Demons were in freefall on their way to losing five of their last six matches.

Houston sent his manager Nick Gieschen a text message during one late season Friday night game, telling him to abort the deal.

He said: “Throughout the year there was a bit of unrest at Melbourne it seemed and I let my manager know that probably wasn’t the best thing for me to do, I’d rather not go there, and that sort of opened everything right up.”

Houston’s move to blow up a potential trade with Melbourne was just as well.

The Herald Sun understands Melbourne has since privately acknowledged it would have scuttled any potential postseason deal anyway, given the club’s slide to 14th meant they had a juicy pick six in the draft instead of somewhere in the mid teens.

They weren’t giving that up for a 27-year-old half back, no matter how good he was!

INTERVIEW ROUNDS

With Melbourne out of the picture, and clubs reluctant to give up too much cache in a potential super draft, Houston’s management had to get busy.

He met with a host of clubs including his next preferred target, Carlton, with his connection to Michael Voss from their Port Adelaide days a clear appetiser, as well as with Western Bulldogs and North Melbourne.

Collingwood was lurking in the background, knowing it didn’t have a first-round pick for 2024 to give up.

“I held my cards close to my chest, I didn’t really want to tell anyone,” he said on The Grind.

“It became a bit of a fish bowl in the end.”

It was about to get a lot worse.

In the club’s round 23 Showdown against Adelaide, he landed a brutal bump on Izak Rankine which ended up in a five-game suspension.

His season was over; he had more than likely played his final game with Port Adelaide.

Houston felt remorse, but also guilty about taking the attention off the Power charge towards a potential top two finish.

He did another interview – a radio one with 5AA – where those close to him say he chose to “take a bullet” for the club.

On air, he said: “I am contracted and I absolutely love the club. I love being in Adelaide.”

“My focus in particular in the next five weeks is helping this team push for finals and get them in the best possible condition and do whatever I need to around the club to help them.”

His comments were solely designed to take the heat off the club, but that was never going to happen.

VOSS CONNECTIONS

At long stages of the process Houston favoured Carlton as his destination over Collingwood, even if the Blues always knew it was going to be challenging doing a deal to satisfy Port Adelaide.

He was in regular communication with Voss and met him on at least one occasion, believed to be at the cafe where the Carlton coach turned citizen’s arrest crime fighter last year.

“We had some open conversations, I have a good relationship with him (Voss), and I wanted to play for him, and he wanted to have me in the team,” Houston said last year on 3AW.

Carlton initially only had one first round pick, but had their eyes on top-end draft talent. They weren’t going to give a first-rounder up without getting another one back.

Houston’s price, too, was starting to soar.

His departure wasn’t about money – it was solely about family – but any move would mean he had to be compensated for the two All-Australian blazers he had won since his last deal.

Cap space was at a premium for the Blues as they worked on preparing a mega offer for Tom De Koning, as well as leaving plenty for Sam Walsh’s new deal in 2026.

Carlton never felt it had a seat at the discussion table, given they were unlikely to be able to meet Port Adelaide’s needs.

As the standoff rolled on heading into the trade period, Carlton acted swiftly in a swap with Hawthorn which saw them add pick 14 to add to their pick 12.

Some believed it was a move to help secure Houston, but it was anything but.

It provided them with the currency to trade with a pick-heavy Richmond, who sent the No.3 selection in their direction.

As much as the Blues liked Houston, they knew pick 3 offered the chance to secure a player of Jagga Smith’s talent. Smith was seen as a generational player across 15 seasons as opposed to a player who would turn 28 in May.

Houston and his management team had to look elsewhere.

Again.

But even as the Carlton option dissipated, he still kept in touch with Voss … the texts still kept coming, just in case!

PIES, PICK 13 AND THE PERFECT STORM

Collingwood had always been interested in Houston, but figured it might be a bridge too far to get a deal done without a first-round selection.

There were discussions internally about the merits of chasing a soon-to-be 28-year-old half back as opposed to waiting a year and courting Gold Coast midfielder Matt Rowell, who turns 24 in the middle of this year.

As Magpies list boss Justin Leppitsch said on The Grind: “At the early stages we felt like it wasn’t going to happen, given the fact we didn’t have a first-round pick to appease Port Adelaide with.”

Gold Coast had pick 13, which held the key to unlocking the trade.

If a deal couldn’t be done, there was always the option for Houston returning to Port Adelaide and potentially being rewarded with an uptick on his $650,000 per season contract, maybe in the $800,000s.

But the Power never felt he intended to come back.

There needed to be a circuit-breaker and thankfully it came in the form of a host of players trying to move clubs.

Those around the negotiations called it “the perfect storm”.

Gold Coast’s Jack Lukosius wanted to get to Port Adelaide, Collingwood’s John Noble wanted to move to the Gold Coast, and Collingwood’s Joe Richards was being courted by Port Adelaide.

Leppitsch said: “I guess in some ways the three clubs started to realise very quickly that we were embedded together.”

“We jumped at the opportunity to do that and really worked hard with his management, Paul Connors, and the guys to try to get him to us.”

The Bulldogs were out of the equation; the Kangaroos were a less preferred option for Houston.

Besides, North Melbourne wanted to give Port its 2025 first rounder, which was hardly appealing given how compromised this year’s draft is with academy/father-son picks.

DEAL OR NO DEAL

Trade negotiations are by their very nature combative.

And the tensions on this one escalated more and more the deeper it went into the dying days of trade period.

While some of those close to the trade tried to play down the “unbelievable tensions” as simply the art of negotiation, the Herald Sun understands there were numerous complications and more than a few crossed words exchanged.

Rival club officials love scuttlebutt as much as anyone, and some spoke about whispers that one person involved slammed his lap-top shut on one occasion and stormed out of a meeting.

The stakes were high.

Collingwood dealt almost exclusively with Connors and Gieschen; Port Adelaide and Gold Coast worked together behind the scenes.

The clock was ticking.

Houston was pacing around his Sorrento beach house on the Monday before the Wednesday trade deadline when he took a call from Connors.

His management had just got off the phone from Port Adelaide’s Jason Cripps, and a complex deal involving multiple players and three clubs was close to finalisation.

“I told my manager that I was committed to the Magpies and my manager pushed that really hard,” Houston said.

“I was sort of sitting by the phone waiting for a call … I just wanted to hear it was heading in the right direction.

Connors rang again a few hours later, saying: ‘the next call you are going to get is the one.’

Houston dared to dream it was over.

He took himself to the Sorrento back-beach just to savour the moment after four months of uncertainty and unease.

Magpies star Nick Daicos had worked hard to convince Houston that Collingwood was the right fit for him.

He was in Fiji with his partner, and was out preparing to have dinner when he ordered champagne and sent a picture of the bottle to Houston, saying: “It’s been popped and we are celebrating.”

So too were Collingwood supporters closer to home as the media detailed what the trade was going to look like, and how it was done, albeit without the lodged paperwork.

It turned out to be – as Daicos said – “prematuring popping.”

Gieschen and Connors were playing in a social AFL 9s game that night. At one stage, Connors called Gieschen off the field.

Houston, there was a problem. The trade looked to be off.

The half back spent a sleepless night down on the Mornington Peninsula, wondering what was about to happen next.

IN BLACK AND WHITE

The reasons for the pause on the trade depends on who you speak to.

Was it Port Adelaide trying to seek more from a deal that had little wriggle room or a club just trying to posture?

Was it a late bid from a rival suitor out of nowhere?

Was there a consideration from the Power to make Houston walk back into the club again?

The Houston camp still believed it would get done on Tuesday, though that was cold comfort to a player committed to leave but with only one option left.

The Herald Sun understands Port Adelaide would likely have made Houston play out his contract if he had tried to leave this year, given the compromised nature of the 2025 draft.

But with Joe Berry in their sights, and Magpie Joe Richards as ‘the steak knives’, it made the move to finalise a deal the next day.

Houston’s phone was out of battery early the next day as he touched base with all he needed to, including his family. He sat on his kitchen bench, with his phone on charge when the call came through from Connors.

He was a Magpie … finally.

“I remember messaging ‘Fly’ (coach Craig McRae) and telling him I was committed to playing for the Pies,” Houston said.

The deal was complex, but the same as the night before.

Collingwood had secured Houston and pick 58; Port Adelaide received Jack Lukosius, Joe Richards and Rory Atkins and pick 13, 29, 36 and 50; Gold Coast got John Noble, pick 39, Collingwood’s 2025 first round pick and Port Adelaide’s 2025 first round pick.

The Power was able to pick up Joe Berry in the draft, while the added bonus came when key forward Jack Whitlock – a player they rated much higher – slid down to 33.

They also took Christian Moraes at pick 38.

Who won the deal? No one will know for five years at least.

The Power will be hoping Berry turns into the player they believe he will be, and Whitlock could one day form a forward partnership with Georgiades in the post Charlie Dixon era.

Essentially, it will be judged on whether Berry, Whitlock and Joe Richards can perform to the deal.

Houston is guaranteed around $850,000 per season until the end of 2030, but if he is the key to unlocking a 17th Collingwood flag, it will be cheap at that, no matter that the Magpies don’t have another first round pick year.

If the Magpies crash, it might not look anywhere near as positive.