All things considered, Port Adelaide’s Dan Houston trade is still a dumb deal | Graham Cornes

Even with absolutely all factors taken into account, it’s a farce, writes Graham Cornes.

At first glance it seemed such a dumb deal.

Why would a team that is still in its premiership window trade away one of its best players to a team that will similarly be in a realistic race for the premiership?

To Collingwood of all teams! Dan Houston was Port Adelaide’s most important defender.

Not having him in September was one of the main reasons the Power failed so dramatically in the finals series.

The best teams are those that can turn defence into attack and no one did that more effectively than Houston. He also defended pretty well, standing under balls courageously and intercepting as well as anyone in Port’s backline.

Surely Ken Hinkley didn’t agree to this trade? If you ever you needed evidence that the coaches have little say in list management, this is it.

A coach in Hinkley’s position has to think in the now. Pick 13 in this year’s draft is not going to help Hinkley or an impatient Alberton crowd next season. With a young midfield in place, he needed to keep his backline intact.

New Collingwood recruit Dan Houston. Picture: Collingwood FC

Dan Houston at Collingwood. Picture: Collingwood FC

It is often overlooked that only two teams conceded more points last season than Port. One of those teams was Brisbane, the eventual premier.

The hype is always about Port’s midfield – Rozee, Butters and Horne-Francis – but there has to be a balance.

Great teams are built on good defence and Houston’s absence will leave a giant hole, as it did in September as he served out that suspension.

However, the most damning consideration of this farce is that Houston was still contracted to Port Adelaide.

What is the point of a contract if the player can walk out of it?

Perhaps Collingwood seemed a more attractive offer but at one stage North Melbourne was also in the mix. Obviously, Houston was in the thrall of his manager who played Port Adelaide on a break.

Do player managers have too much power? Absolutely they do. One wonders at the morality of it all. Does the manager encourage the player to break a contract? If he doesn’t, he is at least complicit in it.

It should attract sanctions from the AFL, but they seemed too pre-occupied with the silliness of the GWS’s private party on “Wacky-Wednesday”.

There are always exceptions, be they on compassionate, health or humanitarian grounds, but contracts need to be enforced, not dismissed as irrelevant.

So another good player recruited from Victoria goes home to a Melbourne-based club. There is so much to be said for developing and recruiting home-grown South Australian talent.

There are other components to the Houston capitulation, the main one being that Jack Lukosius has been traded into the club in an attempt to strengthen an undermanned Port Adelaide forward line.

It is where Port needs the most attention.

Given the difficulties that Port had with its forward line personnel, it’s a miracle that they finished second on the ladder at the end of the minor round.

Injuries to Sam Powell-Pepper, who missed the whole season, Charlie Dixon and Todd Marshall severely impacted on Port’s forward set-up.

That glaring need has resulted in the recruitment of Lukosius, a highly talented South Australian. After playing in a variety of roles at Gold Coast, he had a good year in 2023 when he kicked 39 goals playing as a forward. However, he appeared to be languishing under new coach Damien Hardwick at the Suns.

So is he the key forward Port desperately need? Hardwick obviously did not see him as a forward and agreed to let him go even though he was still under contract.

Given Lukosius’s undoubted talent it is puzzling why.

If he is to play in Port’s forward line it’s more likely he will play as the third tall.

He’s no replacement for Charlie Dixon who has recently retired, nor can he fill the role of Todd Marshall who fights a constant battle with injury.

Rory Atkins of the Suns. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

Mitch Georgiades was Port’s only consistent tall forward in 2024. So, despite the arrival of Lukosius, there still exists a glaring need in Port’s forward half.

Not to mention the gaping hole in defence left by the trading of Houston.

Adding to the puzzle of Port’s bizarre trade period are two other players who were included in the Houston-Lukosius “mega-trade”. Joe Richards, and ex-Crow via the Gold Coast, Rory Atkins, now find themselves at Alberton, whether that is where they wanted to be or not.

Both are interesting but for different reasons. Richards was already 23 when he was drafted in 2022 after starring for Wangaratta in the Ovens and Murray League.

Playing only nine AFL games since then, he never really managed to consolidate at Collingwood, but there is something about him. He has pace, tackles well, as small forwards must do these days, and despite kicking only six goals in those nine games has a goal sense.

He won’t displace Willie Rioli or Darcy Byrne-Jones from Port’s forward half but he will add depth.

Then there is Atkins, who Gold Coast has added into the deal.

I’ve always liked Atkins. Those of you who have a good memory will remember that he was taken at pick 81 in the draft of 2012.

It was an unusual draft in that it was held on the Gold Coast and was preceded by the first ever free agency period (Port lost Danyle Pearce to Fremantle and Troy Chaplin to Richmond).

The Crows took Atkins in the fourth round of the draft, the last player picked before the final picks were used up by rookie elevations, so there was a scramble to see who this young footballer was.

He’d been in the elite junior programs with the Calder Cannons and the all-Australian under-18 squad but had been dropped from that program by the coach, Michael O’Loughlin.

It had something to with a less-than-professional attitude and being distracted by knockabout mates.

It’s a dilemma that young footballers often face – the mates you leave behind in the quest for a professional career.

Atkins has done well since those times. A skilful left-footer with dancing feet who has managed to stay on an AFL list since that draft, he played 101 games for the Crows and 37 for Gold Coast.

One would have thought his AFL days were over.

Perhaps they are. Perhaps he will play more games in Port’s SANFL team than in the AFL, but he is better than that.

They say it is a “salary dump” in that Port are taking some of the responsibility of his salary from Gold Coast, but that just confuses things more.

So when you add all of that up, combined with draft picks and future draft picks, the vital fact is that Port is left without a contracted, dual all-Australian defender.

It still looks like a dumb deal.

Originally published as All things considered, Port Adelaide’s Dan Houston trade is still a dumb deal | Graham Cornes