AFL trade 2023: All the trade news, whispers from the opening day of trade period
Trade period started with a huge bang. Where does every club stand after one day of negotiations? Get the full wrap here.
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The first day of the 2023 AFL trade period is in the books.
Every club was at Marvel Stadium today as the talks kicked off.
A gun Docker requesting a move to the Pies was the biggest shock and there was plenty of other news to come out of the day.
Check out where your club stands below.
DOCKER REQUESTS TRADE
Collingwood has made an ambitious play for Fremantle forward Lachie Schultz that would add more potency to its forward line and could force Jack Ginnivan to consider his future at the Pies.
The exciting goalsneak has officially requested a trade to the Pies despite being contracted for another season.
Collingwood believes Schultz can not only kick goals but adhere to the Pies structure rigidly.
While Ginnivan is contracted for next year he plays more on talent and flair than structure and could be available to a rival keen for goal power after 40.19 in 2022.
The Dockers said on social media Schultz was a required player with a year to run on his contract and had enquired about the possibility of returning to Victoria for family reasons.
Schultz hit a games-based trigger mid-year that saw him locked away for 2024 despite strong speculation he might ask for a move to Melbourne.
Raised in Moama, he played football with the Bendigo Pioneers before playing for Williamstown in the VFL for two years then being drafted by Fremantle.
Schultz kicked 33 goals for the Dockers this season and as a previously delisted player would be a free agent when he came out of contract.
He was strongly linked to the Hawks at the end of 2021 but instead signed a two-year deal with that trigger for a third season.
So while he secured certainty from the Dockers for 2024 by playing a total of 46 games in the past two seasons, it saw him losing flexibility to move clubs as a free agent.
The Dockers would be shattered to lose him given he kicked the second-most goals at the club behind Jye Amiss (41 majors).
Collingwood already has small forwards including Beau McCreery, Jack Ginnivan, Jamie Elliott and Bobby Hill but is keen to add to its goal power.
Schultz finished fifth and sixth in Fremantle’s best and fairest in the past two seasons, so the Dockers will have to make a decision about trading him or potentially losing him next year for little compensation as a free agent.
GOLDSTEIN IS NOW A BOMBER
The AFL has approved paperwork for Todd Goldstein to join Essendon.
As an unrestricted free agent, Goldstein’s move does not trigger any compensation for North Melbourne.
Essendon confirms Duursma wants a trade. I think he's got real upside as a Blake Acres style runner https://t.co/vKYsXRIKNy
— Jon Ralph (@RalphyHeraldSun) October 9, 2023
FREO WON’T LET HENRY GO CHEAPLY
The fight for winger Liam Henry is on with Fremantle and St Kilda remaining “a fair way apart” on negotiations.
Henry wants to get to Moorabbin but the Dockers are prepared to drive a hard bargain for the 22-year-old, who was taken with pick nine in 2019, demanding a first-round pick in “the pointy end”.
“We saw in the back-half of his year this year there was real quality ... and a lot of investment from the club. If you look at this year’s draft, he fits in the first round,” Dockers list boss David Walls said.
“We’re a fair way apart at the moment. We’ve only had early discussions but a long way apart at this stage.
“We’ll look at futures, we’ll look at everything, but it’s got to be a pick that’s of value to us and that we can use. We won’t be having many picks in this year’s draft, so it needs to be towards the pointy end of the draft to get some value.”
St Kilda currently holds pick 12.
DOGS SECURE PICK 4 IN SUNS SWAP
The Western Bulldogs have boldly parted ways with three first-round draft picks to secure pick 4 from Gold Coast.
The Bulldogs have sent picks 10 and 17 to the Suns along with their 2024 first-round pick to secure picks 4, 46 and 51 in this year’s draft.
Gold Coast had to trade its top pick to avoid it being consumed by an expected bid for academy key forward Jed Walter inside the top three, with the Bulldogs winning out from several rival suitors for the pick including Adelaide.
Bulldogs list boss Sam Power said getting access to the talented top end of this year’s draft had been well worth the price of the deal.
He said the Dogs had to carefully consider where a bid for father-son prospect Jordan Croft would come before committing to parting with picks 10 and 17.
“There’s probably a number of reasons … one is how highly we rate the top end of this draft, the types of players that will be there that align to our needs, and also take into consideration the bids that are going to come in this draft for academy kids, father-sons, free agency (compensation), and where our two first-rounders this year in particular would’ve landed,” Power said.
“I think everyone talks about similar names … one thing about this draft is there’s probably a mix of types at the top end.
“There’s a few midfielders, there’s a bit of speed, there’s some good utility players who are pretty versatile and have got some real talent.”
Power said the Bulldogs were confident that Croft, the son of 186-gamer Matthew Croft, would nominate to be selected under the father-son rule despite not yet making a call on his future.
Power said the Bulldogs were working through a trade with Port Adelaide for South Australian ruckman Jordon Sweet, with a number of routes to replacing the 25-year-old being considered.
He suggested the Dogs would be comfortable with Rory Lobb carrying the No.1 ruck duties should Tim English suffer an injury, while the 208cm Sam Darcy could also receive more opportunities in the ruck.
“We’ll assess it all over the next period. Whether that’s sort of the trade period, the draft or potentially post (draft) through the SSP.”.
FIRST TRADE COMPLETED
Paperwork has been lodged for the first deal of the 2023 trade period – a pick swap between Port Adelaide and Fremantle.
The Dockers receive Port’s first round pick next year in exchange for second-round picks in this year’s (currently pick 23) and next year’s draft.
‘IT WORKED FOR A WHILE’: DEES DEFEND GRUNDY TRADE
Melbourne makes “no apologies” for its failed Brodie Grundy experiment as the ruck looks to make his way to Sydney.
But as the Demons prepared to meet with the Swans to thrash out a deal for Grundy – who is contracted for another four seasons – they said they would be willing to hold onto him if required.
“It was really interesting, actually, with Brodes. We acknowledge that it was a difficult end to the season for Brodie. But he handled himself magnificently, really, for a player of his caliber. He said how much he loves the place, in his exit interview,” Demons list boss Tim Lamb said.
“He has said that he’d like to get to Sydney – purely that’s a desire to play regular senior footy, which is what Sydney have obviously offered him.
“We don’t need him to go. And if we can’t get a deal done, we’re more than comfortable for him to stay. But we have said to Brodie that we’re open to it, as long as it’s a fair and equitable transaction with Sydney.”
Sydney general manager of football Charlie Gardiner said early discussions with Grundy had been positive, but talks would continue “throughout the week” on any potential deal.
“I’d prefer not to give a running commentary on how the trade will go down, but suffice to say, we’ll be working to get a deal done with Melbourne that works for both clubs, and hopefully we can do that,” he said.
“We’re really pleased that he’s got an interest in coming to Sydney ... we need to address our ruck division. We’ve got a young midfield group that we think he will really add to and provide some experience and leadership.”
Lamb said it was obvious that the Demons “didn’t go into (the deal)” with plans for it to play out like it had over recent months.
“Both us and Brodie were really excited by the prospect this time last year, and we actually thought it would give us a competitive advantage in what is the closest professional sporting competition in the world. It worked for a while,” he said.
“Towards the end of the year we went a different way at selection and it didn’t pan out. But we make no apologies for being really bold and trying something that we thought was going to give us an edge.”
Melbourne gave up pick 27 to Collingwood for Grundy in last year’s trade period, but Lamb would not indicate what the club would seek in exchange for the tall.
The Demons are looking to add rucking forward Tom Fullarton, who has indicated he would prefer to land at Melbourne from Brisbane, with Lamb adamant he is a different player to Grundy and thus the same situation would not play out.
Melbourne ballwinner Clayton Oliver is set to remain with the Demons despite conjecture about his playing future over recent weeks, with Lamb saying the star midfielder is “going well” after a week of heavy speculation surrounding his off-field behaviour.
“At no time did we have a conversation with Clayton about exploring his options. His management did (receive inquiries from clubs),” Lamb said.
“Yep (they brought some of those to us).
“But I think it was quite clear, the statement that the club put out last Friday, that outlines how the post-season transpired with Clayton. For us, the best thing moving forward is that we don’t comment any further on that because that’s our position as a club and combined with the comments from his manager … I think that really sums up the situation and where we are moving forward.”
Melbourne is hopeful of securing wantaway Crow Shane McAdam, who has expressed his desire to become a Demon, but backed in the team’s forward line to continue to progress without any major additions.
PIES PLAY HARD BALL ON ADAMS
Collingwood will drive a hard bargain on trading Taylor Adams as Pies football boss Graeme Wright confirmed the club would continue paying Brodie Grundy for the next four years.
Adams told the Pies last Wednesday that he was exploring a deal with Sydney and on Sunday confirmed he would ask for a trade.
While he has only one year on his Pies deal, his three-year offer at Sydney means the Pies can ask for a reasonable pick for their vice-captain.
“I think it came out yesterday he’s requested a trade. We had some good conversations in the back end of last week. He’s a contracted player. We will work through that over the next few days. He informed us yesterday and we will see how it goes,” list boss Graham Wright said.
“He would have been in our grand final team if he was fit and available. Injury kept him out. “He has got one year to go on his contract and he would like to play more midfield time, so we tried to in our conversations with ‘Fly’ and myself we were open about that. We see him as a part of what we are doing and he still requested a trade.”
Asked if the Pies would play hard ball on a trade for Adams, Wright replied: “Yeah, we would like to think so. Taylor is part of our leadership group, would have been in our grand final team, from our perspective we see him as a required player. We will have conversations with Sydney and see how we go.”
The Herald Sun reported last month that the Pies would honour their $250,000 contribution to Brodie Grundy’s deal and Wright confirmed that publicly despite recent reports to the contrary.
“No, that’s not part of it,” he said of any variation of the deal.
“Our heads of agreement is with Brodie, not with Sydney. We know the rules.”
Wright said that while John Noble was shattered to be dropped for the finals, the Pies would not consider any possibility of him moving on.
“We have had a lot of conversations with John over the last few weeks and he’s really disappointed, and we understand that when you play 80 games in a row and every game before the finals,” he said.
“So we really understand but he’s just signed a three year deal and we see him as a part of what we are doing.”
Swans football boss Charlie Gardiner said the potential for a trade had “evolved quite late” but he was optimistic about the role Adams could potentially play.
“Taylor’s another one we’re really interested in bringing to the club if we can. Another contracted player, obviously, so we’ll need to work with Collingwood on that,” he said on Monday.
“I think we’ve seen clubs do that in the past, in terms of bringing in some maturity around a young, developing midfield group.
“We’ve seen Jordan Lewis do it at Melbourne, we’ve seen Sam Mitchell do it at West Coast, Jaeger O’Meara at Fremantle, Tom Mitchell to a lesser extent at Collingwood ... we think he would provide some great leadership and our young midfielders would learn a lot from him.”
‘NOTHING’ IN BAILEY SMITH TRADE RUMOURS
Geelong has shut down talk of a play for Bulldogs midfielder Bailey Smith.
Smith, 22, has been the subject of rampant conjecture that he could want out of the Bulldogs despite being contracted until the end of next year.
He was linked to Geelong last month, but Cats list boss Andrew Mackie said on Monday: “There’s nothing to that.
“I understand the chat this time of year and pretty much all year round, to be fair, with the player movement period.
“What I will say ... we look at lots of different players throughout the competition. That doesn’t change. We never will change on that. We’re really open to all sorts of things with whatever it looks like.
“We don’t apologise for ringing player managers at certain times of the year, but the Bailey Smith one, from our end, there’s nothing to it.”
Mackie also affirmed that Brandan Parfitt would remain at Geelong despite falling down the midfield pecking order this season.
Geelong currently holds pick 7 and Mackie said the club remained open to splitting it either this year or next.
“You shouldn’t look at one window and think that’s the time that we’ve got to set the future up,” he said.
“We’re open to future stuff if that means that in the long run, we’re better for it.”
Mackie also said the ball was now in Port Adelaide’s court to come up with a suitable offer for Esava Ratugolea.
“It’s up to Port Adelaide to try and do their thing. They’ve tried to convince a player to go there,” Mackie said.
“We’ve invested a lot into him. (He’s) 25 years of age, a key position (player). It’s up to them to work through what he’s worth.”
DOEDEE COMPENSATION REVEALED
Adelaide interceptor Tom Doedee is a Brisbane player as the Lions bask in an array of defensive options in 2024.
The AFL has confirmed the Crows will receive an end-of-first-round compensation pick, currently pick 19, for losing the 26-year-old.
The Lions lodged a four-year offer for Doedee on Monday morning and the Crows elected not to match it.
“Tom is a quality person who has brought a lot to our playing group and the club and we’d like to thank him for his contribution,” Crows list manager Justin Reid said.
“We understand the nature of free agency in the industry and would like to wish Tom and his partner Emily all the best for the future.”
Doedee is recovering from a second knee reconstruction, but the Lions have Harris Andrews, Ryan Lester, Jack Payne and Darcy Gardiner as key-position defenders next year.
As a free agent the Lions do not have to give up a pick for Doedee and see him as a long-term replacement for stalwart Lester.
But it pushes Darcy Gardiner back down the pecking order despite his excellent finals series.
BLUES IN TALKS WITH SAINTS, ROOS
Carlton will ask St Kilda to hand over a future draft pick for departing onballer Paddy Dow as the Blues also plot to rise up the draft order from their current first-round pick of No.16.
The Blues are targeting Gold Coast midfielder Elijah Hollands but expect to farewell Dow (St Kilda) and Zac Fisher (North Melbourne) during the trade period.
Fisher has two years remaining on his contract at Ikon Park however a trade to Arden St is not likely to take too much haggling.
Blues list boss Nick Austin confirmed on Monday the club was committed to drafting talent next month outside of a potential move for Hollands, who will link up with younger brother Oliver at the Blues.
Blues list manager Nick Austin said the club would “love to keep” Dow but accepted he could find more opportunity elsewhere after playing 73 games since he was selected with pick 3 in the 2017 draft.
“We’ve had some good discussions with Paddy and his management at the back end of the year,” Austin said.
“His exit meeting was really productive – we’d obviously love to keep Paddy, but we’ve also agreed to help him further his opportunities to help his career.
“So we’ll work with St Kilda, we’re just after something we can use in the future, that will be the preference.”
Austin said discussions had started with the Kangaroos over a trade for Fisher, who fell out of favour for most of the 2023 season before a promising shift to half-back in the final rounds.
The 25-year-old was dropped after round 24 and did not play in Carlton’s three finals, but Austin said the Blues would drive a hard bargain for the left-footer.
“Zac’s got two years to run on a contract – he’s proven himself to be a quality AFL player,” he said.
“(We) had a little bit of a start with Brady (Rawlings) over the combine, but North have got a fair bit going on too, so we’ll be looking for something that represents the opportunity they’ve presented Zac but also what Zac means to us.”
Austin said there was some interest in Gold Coast wingman Elijah Hollands, the older brother of Carlton’s Ollie Hollands, but a lot remained to be discussed before a deal could be reached.
The older Hollands was taken with pick 7 in the 2020 draft but has only managed 14 games in three seasons.
“There’s some interest there, Elijah is a contracted player and Gold Coast has got a bit to work through, they’ve got a new coach, those sort of things,” Austin said.
“There’s some interest there but again, it will play out this week.”
HOW DOGS, SUNS SWAP COULD CHANGE PICK 1 PICTURE
The pick swap that could yet unlock the Harley Reid trade is likely to be completed today as the Dogs secure the No.4 overall selection in next month’s draft.
The Suns are set to secure picks 10 and 17 as well as their future first-rounder, but the Dogs will receive multiple third-round picks back from the Suns.
That deal is likely to go down today to give the Suns more time to on-trade those selections.
It means the Suns will secure extra draft points for their trio of academy selections. They will also on-trade the No.10 pick to bank even more draft points.
Adelaide (21, 24) and Melbourne (25, 33) both have multiple second-rounders and will seek to attain that pick by trading those selections to the Suns.
But North Melbourne – with three end-of-first-round picks handed to the club by the AFL, as well as the No.14 pick – could also seek to secure that No.10 selection.
That would allow the Roos to offer pick 10 and one of their early picks – pick 2 or the No.3 compensation selection they will receive for free agent Ben McKay – to offer to the Eagles for the No.1 overall pick.
The Eagles would then have to weigh up whether to trade away the rights to Tongala junior star Reid for multiple top-10 selections.
The Herald Sun revealed last month the Dogs’ offer to the Suns, with no other club able to match it.
The Dogs are keen to secure 172cm livewire forward Nick Watson as a foil for Cody Weightman.
It is a significant draft hand to give to the Suns, but the Dogs will secure father-son pick Jordan Croft at around pick 10-15 so are happy to trade out picks that would be swallowed up by the AFL bidding system anyway.
Gold Coast has a trio of academy picks likely to go in the top 10 of the draft – Jed Walter, ruckman Ethan Read, 172cm mid Jake Rogers – as well as a fourth player in Will Graham who could go in the top 30 of the national draft.
DOGS EYE GOAL FREAK TO COMPLETE FORWARD LINE OF FUTURE
The Western Bulldogs are zeroing in on goalkicking wizard Nick Watson in a move that would complete their forward line of the future alongside Aaron Naughton, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, Cody Weightman and Sam Darcy.
Rivals believe 170cm forward Watson, from East Ringwood, is the man the Dogs are most likely to target should they get their hands on Gold Coast’s No.4 draft pick.
The Suns are auctioning off the precious selection and trade talks are advanced with the Bulldogs.
The most likely deal would see the Dogs hand over picks 10, 17 and their future first-round selection for No.4 and multiple third-round picks in this year’s draft.
Those third-round picks would not be used by the Suns and would help the Dogs match a bid for athletic father-son prospect Jordan Croft.
The Dogs will draft between two and four players next month. Securing Watson and Croft would be a bonanza for the Dogs, who have locked away Naughton until 2032 as well as Buku Khamis for next year.
Much-loved Bulldog Toby McLean, a 2016 premiership player, is also keen to stay at Whitten Oval.
But with list spots limited there is a chance McLean could be enticed to join a rival as he waits for a contract offer.
The 27-year-old is highly-respected for his work-rate and is a known finals star, having been brought in for last year’s elimination final despite not playing any minutes during the home-and-away season.
The Suns will trade Chris Burgess to Adelaide amongst a swap of several picks that will net them valuable draft points.
Hawthorn has not held serious talks with the Suns yet over a deal for Mabior Chol. But it’s understood the Hawks have tabled Chol a four-year contract with a trigger for a fifth season.
Given the length of that deal it is unlikely that Chol will come overly cheaply. The Suns will match bids for academy stars Jed Walter, Jake Rogers and Ethan Read in the first round.
Walter could be bid on as early as pick 2 or 3 while Rogers and Read are likely to go in the top 15.
Should the Dogs draft Watson and Croft it would mark five consecutive years that they have not drafted a midfielder in the first round.
They took Weightman at No.15 in 2019, Ugle-Hagan at No.1 in 2020, Darcy at No.2 in 2021 and key defender Jedd Busslinger at No.13 last year.
Matching bids for Ugle-Hagan and Darcy meant the Dogs spent the 2020-2021 drafts picking early and late and without selections in the middle parts of the draft.
The Dogs believe this year’s crop lacks inside midfielders and are targeting an intercepting defender as well as leg speed in the midfield.
They have been linked to Nick Coffield (St Kilda) and premiership player James Harmes (Melbourne). The Dogs will also trade understudy ruckman Jordon Sweet to Port Adelaide.
Watson grew up a Collingwood fan who idolised Magpie Jamie Elliott and Sydney star Tom Papley. The 18-year-old bagged 14 goals in four games for Vic Metro this year.
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