Inside story: How Geelong’s attempts to move Steven Motlop led to Josh Caddy leaving and a draft heist
Geelong was trying to send Steven Motlop to Richmond, only for the Tigers to flip the script and steal Josh Caddy. While it didn’t go exactly as the Cats planned, it did lead to one of the club’s great draft heists.
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Geelong had a problem. The numbers weren’t adding up and something had to give.
The recruitment of Patrick Dangerfield the year before had stretched the salary cap to the point where a solution needed to be found. And quickly.
It came in the form of the enigmatic Steven Motlop.
While he had been in the Cats best side throughout 2016, his consistency was still an issue, his contract was fat and he was becoming a free agent in 12 months.
All of that added up to him being the player Geelong would like to find a new home for.
The feelers were put out but the reception was lukewarm.
But when Richmond veteran Brett Deledio declared he wanted a change of scenery and Geelong was his preferred destination, the Cats thought they’d found the perfect solution.
Motlop to Richmond for Deleido.
From a salary cap perspective, it ticked all the boxes.
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But there was one problem, the Tigers didn’t want Motlop.
And they now had inside knowledge on Geelong’s list with Neil Balme returning to Punt Rd after a brief stint at Collingwood.
He had been the Cats footy boss throughout their three premierships before leaving in 2014. He knew the list intimately and had plenty of other ideas about possible targets outside of Motlop.
Enter Josh Caddy.
When Richmond’s recruiting manager Blair Hartley threw up Caddy to his Geelong counterpart Stephen Wells, the initial response wasn’t positive.
Wells had worked hard to lure the former first-round pick from the Gold Coast Suns to Kardinia Park in 2013 and his big body and versatility was a perfect fit in the Cats midfield.
And he’d just played in the preliminary final loss to Sydney.
Even more surprised by the Tigers’ request was Caddy’s manager Peter Lenton.
“Josh had two more years left on a contract, he’d actually bought a house in Geelong a couple of months prior so he was invested in staying,” Lenton said.
When it became apparent that the Deleido deal was going to be hard for the Cats without Motlop going, Wells contacted Lenton to say it was off and that there was no need to be concerned about his client.
But Richmond persisted.
And they had an ace up their sleeve in Caddy’s best mate from the Gold Coast, Dion Prestia, who had already agreed to become a Tiger in the trade period.
He was on the phone daily. There was also a link between Caddy’s brother and Richmond CEO Brendon Gale, they’d spoken about the trade and then Damien Hardwick went the hard sell in a meeting which impressed Caddy.
Things had changed significantly in a very short space of time and just before he flew out for an overseas holiday Caddy met Lenton and told him that he was happy with either scenario — staying at Geelong or moving to Richmond.
“He said, ‘I don’t really care either way, I’m happy to stay at Geelong because obviously I was thinking I wasn’t going anywhere but if it is that moving works I really did like the meeting from Richmond’,” Lenton said.
As the trade deadline approached, Richmond continued to press hard and Geelong started to do their sums again.
It was now obvious Motlop wasn’t going anywhere with Caddy their only ball in play for salary cap relief.
The Tigers had agreed to add another two years on Caddy’s contract which meant he would walk into Punt Rd with a four-year deal. That was the tipping point for Lenton.
“It was difficult because he was genuinely split,” Lenton said.
Lenton made the call to Wells and officially requested the trade.
The Cats weren’t happy with Richmond’s initial offer and it came down to the final day of trading before a deal was reached.
Caddy would be going to his third club at the age of 24 and Geelong would receive the Tigers second round pick with a shuffle of spots between the clubs in the third round.
THE DRAFT NIGHT STEALS
When Stephen Wells settled into his seat inside the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney five weeks later for the 2016 National Draft, he again had plenty of time on his hands early in the night.
Not since 2006 had Geelong had a pick inside the top 10.
Wells had fond memories of that night given he went with Joel Selwood at No. 7 who was currently the Cats captain, a three-time premiership player and star of the competition.
This time he wouldn’t be required until selection No. 26 which he now owned courtesy of the Josh Caddy trade.
The Cats had given away their first-round pick the previous year to Carlton as part of the Lachie Henderson trade.
It was a historic move as it was the first time a future draft selection had been used in a deal.
And they’d already given away next year’s first-round pick, again to the Blues, in a deal which saw Irishman Zac Tuohy join the Cats.
His experience across halfback was going to be invaluable given the retirement of premiership hero Corey Enright.
When the Cats number was eventually called, Wells was pleasantly surprised that he was able to select a skilful kid out of the Northern Territory named Brandan Parfitt.
“He was a well credentialed kid. You would have said at the start of his draft year that he was going to go a bit before that but he didn’t have a great year,” Wells said.
Wells knew he had to go quickly on a local boy with his next pick at No. 40.
Geelong great Matthew Scarlett had coached Tom Stewart locally at South Barwon and urged the young defender to turn his life around and have a crack at the next level.
Stewart made Geelong’s VFL list and quickly showed he was an AFL player in the making. This made Wells cringe on a weekly basis because in a perfect world the Cats would have put him on their rookie list the previous year.
”He had a full year of VFL and kept exposing himself,” Wells said.
“It wouldn’t have been a bad thing for us if he hadn’t played but he kept on playing and that did him the world of good. It just meant others were obviously onto him.”
Three selections later Wells put his speculator hat on.
The No. 43 pick had landed in his lap courtesy of a trade the previous year where he’d packaged up Josh Walker and Jarrad Jansen and sent them to Brisbane.
There was a big ruckman at the Murray Bushrangers who’d captured his attention.
Esava Ratugolea was a raw athletic big man who had Fijian heritage and was from a soccer background.
“He played one game for Vic Country in the championships and I reckon his stats were one tackle,” Wells recalled.
“He was speculative but by the end of the year was doing a good job in the ruck for the Murray Bushrangers and there was potential there.”
As part of the Caddy deal the Cats had given Richmond its third-round selection of 53 which they used on an inside bull from South Australia named Jack Graham.
In exchange they received the Tigers third-round pick, No. 60, with Wells also eyeing off an inside midfielder from interstate with a famous footy name.
Quinton Narkle, a distant relative of former St Kilda and West Coast wingman Phil had done the smart thing and showed a bit during a national championships game in front of interested Cats players and coaching staff at Kardinia Park.
“He had a good carnival for WA and played well down here in one game in the championships where he kicked a couple of goals,” Well said.
“He also played well for the Perth footy club in the WAFL. He did have a sore knee that year and I don’t know what effect that had on other (clubs).”
A couple of local boys — Timm House and Ryan Abbott — rounded off Wells’ night at the draft table but when he left he was already thinking about the rookie draft in three days’ time.
There was a Geelong Falcons defender named Jack Henry still available on the draft board.
“He lived 200 metres from the club,” Wells said.
“He played at the Falcons and played in the Vic Country team but didn’t have a great championship.
“He had a big strong body and played some good games of TAC Cup footy mainly as a forward and a midfielder.”
The Cats swooped on Henry at No. 16 in the rookie draft and then also announced the signing of Irishman Mark O’Connor as an international rookie.
They hadn’t gone down the Irish path for many years but the Category B list rule — which includes players from non-traditional pathways — allows clubs to take a punt.
“It’s an opportunity to try and beat the handicapper,” Wells said.
“With Category B you’ve got a bit more control over what you’re doing compared to the draft.
“We’d watched YouTube vision of Mark and he came out to the combine with three or four other blokes the AFL had brought out from Ireland.
“You could see in the Irish game the ball sense, the game sense and the competitiveness. He also did a 2km or 3km time trial at the combine and just ran his guts out.
“A few other clubs were interested but we convinced him that Geelong was a bit more like home than other places.”
HOW FAR CAN THESE CATS GO?
AT the centre bounce to start the game’s resumption from the COVID-19 break, Brandan Parfitt walked into the middle to take up his position alongside Patrick Dangerfield and Joel Selwood.
When Geelong ruckman Rhys Stanley got the clearance and kicked the ball long, Parfitt sprinted forward and timed his run to perfection.
He grabbed the ball, crashed through a couple of Hawthorn defenders before handballing to Luke Dahlhaus for the opening goal of the game inside 19 seconds.
Five minutes later Parfitt came off for a rest and was replaced in the middle of the ground by Quinton Narkle.
To his left in the defensive half were four more 2016 graduates.
There was two-time All-Australian defender Tom Stewart, newly appointed vice-captain Mark O’Connor riding shotgun with fellow Irishman Zach Tuohy while Jack Henry was playing his 47th game in the back pocket.
Up the other end Esava Ratugolea was making his presence felt at centre half-forward.
Seven out of the 22 which took to the field in Round 2 came to Geelong in the space of a six-week period in late 2016.
Stephen Wells had done this before, notably in 1999 and 2001, nailing multiple selections in a draft and then sat back and watched them come through the ranks together to deliver something special for Geelong.
At the 1999 national draft he selected Joel Corey (No. 8), Paul Chapman (31), Cameron Ling (38), Corey Enright (47) and also traded for Cameron Mooney.
Two years later he snared Jimmy Bartel (No. 8), James Kelly (17), Steve Johnson (24) and Gary Ablett (40).
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Those drafts were the nucleus for Geelong’s three premierships — 2007, 2009 and 2011 — and produced two Brownlow Medallists, three Norm Smith Medallists, multiple best and fairest winners, a premiership captain and games record holder.
While the 2016 crew is a long way off those legendary names, there is a sense of something special about them but the last person you’ll find pumping their tyres is Wells.
“The more picks you have the more opportunities there are to get a good player,” Wells says.
“When you’re drafting from mid 20s down you need a bit of luck for those players to get through to you.
“They’re certainly looking OK but until they win a premiership they’re nothing like the others … let alone three premierships.”
Speaking of premierships, Josh Caddy has two of them. That’s what you call win-win.
Originally published as Inside story: How Geelong’s attempts to move Steven Motlop led to Josh Caddy leaving and a draft heist
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