AFL trade period day six: Latest trades and free agency signing news
A deal between GWS and Essendon remains some way off and one of Essendon’s biggest rivals is ready to swoop on the wantaway Giant.
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Greater Western Sydney forward Bobby Hill contacted Essendon last month about making a fresh start in red and black next season.
Hill, 21, personally reached out to the Bombers in the days after Melbourne won a drought-breaking premiership with a text message saying he wanted to play in red and black next season.
SCROLL DOWN FOR MAX LYNCH’S MESSAGE TO PIES
In particular, Hill was attracted to the proud indigenous culture at Essendon and wants to move to Melbourne where there is more family support for his pregnant partner.
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But a deal remained a long way off on Monday night as Essendon was pragmatic about its approach to a trade considering Hill was the one who was pushing it from the outset.
While Essendon has earmarked a third-round pick from either this year’s draft (51) or next year’s draft to clinch a deal for Hill, the Bombers could walk away if they are asked to stump up more.
Essendon is adamant it will not part with its top pick (11) for the electric forward and is instead open to splitting that selection for two decent calls on a pair of talented teens from this year’s draft.
Collingwood has also shown interest in Hill and would be willing to advance talks with the Giants about a deal.
But Hill remains committed to joining Essendon and has not given up on hopes that a trade can be struck.
Hill has some brilliant offensive gifts and would add some top-line speed, polish and goal kicking nous next to Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti in the Bombers’ forward half.
Preliminary talks between GWS Giants football boss and Essendon list chief Adrian Dodoro began on Sunday only one year after the pair thrashed out a tough negotiation for midfielder Jye Caldwell.
But the official trade request only hit the Giants last week in a move that has left unimpressed GWS chiefs strongly considering holding the electric forward to his contract for next year.
The Giants have made clear they will be prepared to keep Hill at the club next season against his wishes in the same vein Geelong held Tim Kelly to his contract in 2019.
The Giants are even more inclined to shut down Hill’s trade request to Tullamarine after Hawthorn star Chad Wingard turned down the Giants’ offer to head north.
GWS identified Wingard as a quality replacement option for Hill in the Giants’ forward half, but the star Hawks’ goal kicker opted to remain at Waverley.
In any case, the Giants want a better pick than Essendon’s third-round draft selection to green light Hill’s move to Tullamarine.
It has led to speculation a future second-round pick would be a fairer deal for Hill, a 30-gamer who averaged nine possessions a game across 17 matches this year.
But Hill, who was also rated above average for score assists and tackles (2.8) a game, certainly fits the bill for the Bombers in their hunt for a speedy small forward.
Hill wants to move to Melbourne where two of his cousins, Bradley (who plays for St Kilda) and Courtney (who plays for Essendon’s VFLW team) live.
Essendon has had talks with former Tiger and Crow Tyson Stengle who, as News Corp reported last week, wants to continue his career at Geelong next season.
The Giants bid for Fremantle’s Rory Lobb is also over barring an unforeseen change of events after the two clubs failed to reach any common ground in talks for the ruck-forward.
GWS has initially indicated it would be prepared to part with a future second-round pick for Lobb who started his career at GWS before heading to Fremantle for the 2019 season.
But the Dockers wanted a better pick in the deal and were unwilling to pay any of the Docker’s $700,000 a year salary at GWS Giants next season, meaning the deal fell over.
Why young Pie wants to get to Hawks
Hawthorn has lured Max Lynch out of Collingwood with the vision of him potentially becoming the Hawks’ No.1 ruckman.
Lynch, who remains out of contract, has requested a trade to Hawthorn after being on the brown and gold radar for at least a year.
It’s the first piece of the ruck puzzle, with veteran Hawk Jon Ceglar poised to cross to Geelong – including Hawthorn paying some of his remaining contract next year – as Brisbane brokers a trade for Cat Darcy Fort.
They could end up all being involved in the same four-club deal.
Lynch’s decision comes despite Collingwood football boss Graham Wright telling him before the season ended that he wanted to re-sign him, to join fellow ruckmen Brodie Grundy and Darcy Cameron.
“We’d like to keep him, to be honest, but what we discussed was him actually looking to explore the opportunity to be a first ruck somewhere,” Wright told 3AW.
“Hawthorn has said that opportunity may present itself (with them), so I’ve spoken to them a couple of times and they haven’t put much forward at this stage.
“We’ll just see where that goes in the next few days.
“In a perfect world, we said to Max we would like to retain him – but we understand right at this stage he’s behind Brodie Grundy and I think he has six years on his deal to go.”
Lynch’s trade call may help Mason Cox score a new contract, given Wright revealed there was minimal interest elsewhere in the American Pie and his future remained “up in the air”.
Lynch has played only three senior games since being one of the last footballers selected in the rookie draft five years ago, but has developed nicely at second-tier level.
The 23-year-old averaged 13 disposals, 32 hit-outs (eight to advantage), three clearances and five score involvements in the VFL this year.
Assuming Ceglar departs and the Magpies and Hawks reach an agreement on Lynch, the 200cm big man will join captain Ben McEvoy and five-game giant Ned Reeves as Hawthorn’s ruck options.
McEvoy, 32, is nearing the end of a very good career, meaning Lynch and Reeves are set to duke it out to be the Hawks’ long-term ruck leader.
Popular Pie comes home
Former Collingwood No.1 selection Josh Fraser is expected to make a popular return to the Pies as the club’s head of development.
The Herald Sun understands Fraser is in negotiations with the Pies to help fast track the long list of young draft selections as the development boss under new coach Craig McRae.
Fraser was the coach of the Carlton VFL affiliate until the Blues cut ties with the club, which found a way to fight to return to the completion as the Northern Bullants this year.
While the VFL competition was again affected by Covid he has drawn rave reviews for his development of the young kids in the Carlton and Northern Bullants pathways.
The number one overall selection in the 1999 national draft played exactly 200 games as a ruckman for the Pies before 18 with Gold Coast across 2011-12.
He then progressed to coach of the Gold Coast NEAFL team before moving to Carlton.
The Pies are assembling a new team under McRae with defensive guru Justin Leppitsch and former Carlton senior coach Brendon Bolton, who was with McRae at Hawthorn last year.
The moment shock Lobb trade was called off
Rory Lobb’s manager says his trade to GWS is off for good after the Giants could not come up with a suitable contract offer.
Colin Young told News Corp he emailed all parties, including GWS and Fremantle, at 7.30pm on Sunday to tell them the trade could not be completed.
He would not reveal the GWS offer, but said Fremantle forward Lobb was willing to take a “huge” pay cut that was still not enough to get the Giants interested.
He said it was not a negotiating play, with the deal dead in the water and Lobb happy to play with Fremantle next year.
GWS forward Bobby Hill is also part of Young’s Corporate Sports Australia management group but there a level of optimism his trade to Essendon will still go through.
Young told News Corp the Giants were unwilling to structure a deal that could have facilitated a trade.
“It’s off. As far as I know there is no coming back,” he said.
“GWS asked if we could facilitate a possible trade and it was no guarantee to happen but we explored it and couldn’t get it off the ground. I have known about Bobby’s trade for some time and thought it might all work but I knew on Friday it was unlikely so sent an email to all parties at 7.30pm last night,” he said.
“These deals don’t come around very often and I thought it would be a win-win for all parties but we couldn’t get it off the ground. Rory was willing to take a pay cut but it didn’t happen.”
Hill’s salary for 2022 was close to $400,000, so the Giants would not have had to find much more money for a roughly $500,000 per season contract.
But they might have had to back-end Lobb’s deal, given salary cap commitments in coming years, which could have caused problems for their cap.
How Dockers plan to get Clark deal done
Fremantle will attempt to retain its valuable No. 19 draft pick and still trade for Jordan Clark so it can give itself options in next year’s draft.
The Cats and Dockers are frustratingly close to a resolution on the Clark trade in that they are now haggling over picks only three selections apart but still in a stalemate.
Geelong wants Fremantle’s pick 19 or pick 22 and Carlton’s future third-round selection.
In a normal national draft taking pick 19 or 22 might result in the Dockers taking the same player, so the Dockers could just hand over either selection and get their man.
But pick 19 represents the first pick in the second round of the national draft and will also be the first pick on the second night of the two-night national draft in November.
The Dockers are keen to retain it so they can potentially trade it to get back into the 2022 national draft or take a player they love after a full day of analysis after the first 18 selections.
The Dockers have traded out their second, third and fourth selections in next year’s draft but have Carlton’s third-rounder next year.
If they play their cards right they trade that pick 19 to a club in November for a pick slightly later in this year’s national draft and also secure a future pick.
Geelong is steadfast that given wingman Clark is contracted they will hold their nerve on his deal until they are satisfied.
The Dockers are confident they can still broker a deal for Clark, who they have offered four years, and are attempting to find ways to improve upon pick 22 despite limited options given their draft hand.
Revealed: When Hill first contacted Bombers
Greater Western Sydney forward Bobby Hill contacted Essendon last month about making a fresh start in red and black next season.
Hill, 21, personally reached out to the Bombers in the days after Melbourne won a drought-breaking premiership with a text message saying he wanted to play in red and black next season.
It was backed by his manager Colin Young who is in talks with the Bombers about acquiring Hill and moving ruck-forward Rory Lobb from Fremantle to GWS Giants if the Dockers pay some of his salary.
The Giants do not want to pay more than $500,000 a year for Lobb who is believed to be on about $700,000 a year at Fremantle for next season.
Essendon was happy to be Hill’s preferred new home, but at this stage has only earmarked a third-round pick from this or next year’s draft to get the deal done and does not want to compromise its overall draft strategy.
The Bombers have pick No. 11 in this year’s draft and are open to the prospect of splitting that selection into a pair of decent picks, but do not want to involve 11 in any Hill deal.
Preliminary talks between Essendon list boss Adrian Dodoro and Giants’ football chief Jason McCartney about Hill’s situation began on Sunday.
The Giants want more than a third-round pick to entertain the thought of moving Hill as they look to pull off a shock move for Hawthorn’s Chad Wingard, as News Corp revealed on Monday.
Essendon is on the hunt for a small forward and Hill would fit the bill even though he averaged only nine possessions a game across 17 matches this season.
He also booted 14 goals and was ranked above average for pressure and score assists this season, according to Champion Data.
Hill also averaged 2.8 tackles a game (average).
Hill wants to move to Melbourne where there is more family support for his pregnant partner including two of his cousins, Bradley (who plays for St Kilda) and Courtney (who plays for Essendon’s VFLW team).
Trade me: Port big man nominates new club
Sydney will have to stump up more than pick 31 if it is to secure Peter Ladhams from Port Adelaide.
Ladhams’ management has told the Power it is his preference to be traded to the Swans.
Hawthorn had also briefly expressed interest in Ladhams last week, but Sydney became his preferred destination after the Hawks withdrew.
Ladhams had a medical with the Swans over zoom last week and the 23-year-old has spoken to Sydney senior coach John Longmire about his potential role there.
The Swans now have just over two days to find a deal that can get Ladhams, who still has a year to run on his contract with the Power, out of Alberton.
Is No.1 pick on the trade table?
—Marc McGowan
Brady Rawlings has left the door slightly ajar to trade the Kangaroos’ No. 1 draft pick – but warned rivals the offer would have to blow their socks off.
Adelaide and Richmond are among the clubs that unsuccessfully tried in the past week to lure the top selection, which will be used on much-hyped South Adelaide teenager Jason Horne-Francis.
The Crows offered three first-round draft picks, including Melbourne’s future selection, for the prized first pick while expecting North Melbourne’s 2022 second-rounder back as well.
The Tigers’ proposal centred around Callum Coleman-Jones and is believed to have involved them also parting with three selections, including two inside the top 20.
Speaking on Monday, Rawlings said any package from an opposition club comprising picks only was unlikely to prise the No. 1 selection from them.
“With live trading, obviously you can trade on (draft) night and you can trade your picks all the way up until draft night as well,” Rawlings told SEN.
“The next two days is not the deadline for receiving offers for a pick but it certainly is if there was a player involved.
“It’s probably going to be hard with (just) a pick swap to get something done for pick one.”
As News Corp Australia reported on Saturday, Roos list boss Glenn Luff and national recruiting manager Mark Finnigan met with Horne-Francis, his family and agent Ben Williams for the first time at the weekend.
The meeting was over Zoom because of Covid-19 border restrictions, but Rawlings said “everything went really well”.
He is also confident North Melbourne could present a strong environment for Horne-Francis, like any young footballer who moves interstate, to prevent him wanting to return home.
“We’ll back ourselves in with anyone we bring from any state to our club that they’ll come in, be cared for and hopefully be excited by the talent we’re putting around them,” Rawlings said.
“Hopefully, success comes in the near future that once you get a player in your club, and you love the players you play with and love your club, there’s no reason for you to leave.”
Hill deal can help end Dons’ finals woe
—Jon Ralph
As Essendon fans were losing their mind at the free kicks handed to Bulldog Cody Weightman in yet another finals defeat, Ben Rutten was running out of options.
Not only did he lack the perfect match-up for the Dogs’ agent of chaos, he didn’t have a small forward to conjure a goal from nowhere on a bleak, wet Launceston day.
Essendon’s list build will only truly be finished when Adrian Dodoro can lure a big key forward — or see Harrison Jones, Kaine Baldwin or Peter Wright fast-tracked into the player to build a forward line around.
But, if he can orchestrate a trade for GWS small forward Bobby Hill in the next three days, he will have delivered Rutten two options denied to him in that seventh straight finals defeat.
Free agent acquisition Jake Kelly is the perfect match-up for those pesky medium-forwards who get under Essendon’s guard, holding Bailey Fritsch to one goal in Round 10 and keeping Toby Greene, Dustin Martin and Robbie Gray goalless in his direct time on them this year.
And while Hill isn’t yet the type of player who, like that quartet, can turn the game in 10 magnificent minutes, the young third-year forward has serious tricks.
Right now, they are only cameos, as he showed in the semi-final against Geelong when he burnt off Jake Kolodjashnij and slotted a lovely goal on the run from deep in the right forward pocket.
But the No. 24 pick has the ingredients to turn into an elite pressure player who breaks lines and uses quality foot skills to hit Dons forwards in tight leading lanes.
It was why the Giants traded up in the draft to secure him after he ran 2.82m in the 20m sprint at the draft camp with recruiter Adrian Caruso saying of Hill: “It’s rare to find a player with the special qualities (Hill) possesses, hence why we moved up”.
Hill is a long way from the finished article, but the beauty of Essendon’s list build is he doesn‘t have to be right now.
And he doesn’t have to do it on his own.
In that final against the Dogs Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti was missing, with Archie Perkins exhausted after a long debut year (six possessions, no scoring shots), while Wright was the only Bomber on the field not to take a mark.
Jake Stringer kicked a pair of goals and Darcy Parish and Devon Smith chimed in with a single major each, but that was it on a day when the Bombers could manage only five second-half behinds.
Rutten could legitimately believe by 2023 Perkins and Stringer would be running amok in a mid-forward rotation, that one of Hill or McDonald-Tipungwuti would get off the chain with an advantageous match-up each week and kick 30 each for the season.
Throw in Devon Smith’s pressure and Alec Waterman’s excellent nose for goal and Nik Cox floating forward from the wing and the potential is there.
It is only potential, and the deal is not yet done.
But, in trades for Smith, Jye Caldwell and Dylan Shiel, Dodoro has paid a fair market rate.
Caldwell cost pick 29 and a 2021 second-rounder (with 44 and 77 back), Shiel pick nine and Essendon’s future first-rounder (with a future second-rounder back) and Smith the Dons’ pick 11 and a future third-rounder for the Giants’ pick 25 and a future second-rounder.
As recently as Friday morning, the Giants were thrilled to think they finally had no one leaving and could secure Rory Lobb for a future second-rounder.
But this is no exodus, after the 2021 signings of Josh Kelly, Sam Taylor, Jesse Hogan, Jacob Hopper, Jake Riccardi, Lachie Ash, Conor Stone and many more.
Essendon hasn’t had a small forward kick over 50 goals since Darren Bewick’s 52 goals in 1993, with Orazio Fantasia’s 39 goals in 2017 a false dawn before injury and his trade last year.
Like everyone else at Essendon Hill would be a work in progress but at least the Dons have made some moves without handing over the draft capital they might eventually need for that star forward.
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