AFL Trade Table: Left-field look at the behind-the-scenes trade period action which raised eyebrows
With Essendon and Port Adelaide still at loggerheads at 7pm on deadline day, someone needed to intervene. And they did, delivering a very blunt message. Go behind the scenes.
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With the dust slowly settling on a frantic trade period, we take a look behind the curtain at the blow-ups, bargains, and saviours which defined the week that was.
Sit down with Jay Clark at the Trade Table for all the best machinations and whispers from the trade period.
THE WIZARD
Sometimes clubs need to pull a rabbit out of the hat at trade time.
The Hail Mary, the miracle cure, the long shot all come to play as players strive to find new homes and clubs look to squeeze the lemon on deals.
And sometimes there is a saviour.
One particular manager earned the nickname “The Wizard” for his efforts to get two deals done in this year’s trade period, having been in the trade trenches for days overcoming personality quirks, road locks and day after day of repeated knock backs.
So if there is to be a best on ground medal to be awarded, it might be TLA’s Matt Bain.
“The Wizard”, as he was coined this week, worked the whiteboard hard nutting out the four-club mega swap which saw Carlton’s Paddy Dow become a Saint and Nick Coffield become a Western Bulldog.
Essendon also played a vital role swapping picks to help enable the deal to make everyone happy.
But there were so many hiccups throughout the week-long process there was believed to have been about 15 different versions drawn up and thrown in the bin before there everyone was happy on perhaps the most complex trade deal of the exchange period.
And because Coffield and Dow were both TLA clients, the clubs threw the management company the keys on the deal to sort something which suited everyone.
It is the power of a big management company and repeated a feat in 2018 when TLA boss Tom Petroro helped nut out an arrangement which saw Lachie Neale become a Lion, Jesse Hogan a Docker, and Steven May a Demon, amid other swaps.
But Bain, whose stable includes Carlton Brownlow Medallist Patrick Cripps, wasn’t done with Dow.
The Sydney-based agent was also grinding hard on a deal to send Saint Jade Gresham to Essendon amid a threat from the Saints to keep him at Moorabbin if the new wage didn’t trigger end-of-first-round free agency compensation. And the Saints weren’t kidding.
Initially, the salary wasn’t enough.
But over the course of the week, Bain helped unlock the salary requirement from Essendon over a shorter-length contract – three years – which satisfied the Saints.
Ross Lyon got his pick – 21 – and Gresham got the fresh start.
While the perception is that the clubs are the ones thrashing out the swaps, in this case it was Bain who might have saved the day.
THE BLOW-UP
In a trade period which might have lacked a little star power, there was still a reasonable injection of tension.
With less than one hour to go on Wednesday night, Essendon and Port Adelaide were still at loggerheads over a deal for Xavier Duursma and Brandon Zerk-Thatcher.
So around about 7pm, Mac’s Sport agent Tom McConville vented some frustrations as he worked hard to get Zerk-Thatcher home to Port one year after the Ollie Henry deal to Geelong went down to the wire.
The conversation, it was said, was blunt as McConville urged Essendon to relent on its preferred position of a straight swap and include some picks to appease Port.
Specifically, there was a push for Essendon to include a future-second round pick for Duursma, but that was seen as over-the-top, and probably rightly so.
And Dodoro, as he has shown over two decades, is no pushover.
So some future fourths to Port it was.
Hemisphere manager David Trotter even played a role late in the piece helping everyone agree the late picks should cut it instead of a second.
Tom McConville is the son of popular veteran agent Anthony McConville, who knows the business as well as anyone.
McConville Sr, whose office is in Essendon, and Dodoro are good mates who go way back.
But in the end, for all the posturing, it all worked out as Essendon sent Zerk-Thatcher, pick 73 and two future-fourth-rounders to Port for handy wingman Duursma.
They were picks the Bombers may not have even used, and now the club’s midfield is stacked.
And the email was sent, confirming the move, with one minute to spare before the trade deadline.
Geelong’s deal with GWS Giants Jeremy Cameron was said to be finalised after the trade deadline back in 2020, but that’s another story.
THE CLIP
Trade week can test the relationships between the journo pack and the list management fraternity.
The news hounds are always on the hunt for a scoop, and spend the fortnight working the phones hard.
There’s repeat texts, unanswered calls, knock backs and social media red herrings.
And there was some frustration which came to the surface in one particular press conference on Wednesday night at Marvel Stadium when a journo asked some pointy questions of a particular club’s list manager.
Safe to say the list boss, who had a tricky week, gave the scribe a stare down and a little clip as he left the press pack to ensure his feelings about some of the questioning was made clear.
Thankfully, the microphone had already been switched off.
While the stress levels can go up a notch in the silly season, there’s unlikely to be any lingering hard feelings.
THE FLASHBACK
The Jack Ginnivan situation will feel familiar in a sense for the crew at Kapital Sports.
While it depends who you believe, Ginnivan’s manager John Meesen clearly felt like Collingwood was shopping the forward around to other clubs this week, which is why Hawthorn kept ringing.
The Pies and Hawks deny the shopping allegation.
But in any case, the Pies were happy to deal Ginnivan, sealing the quickest trade in history to see him off.
But has this happened before?
Collingwood’s mastermind list boss, Graham Wright, was at Hawthorn when Ryan Burton was booted out of Waverley in 2018.
Alastair Clarkson was mad for Chad Wingard, but it cost the Hawks Burton – who never wanted to leave the Hawks until he got told to go – and a first-round draft pick.
That pick was Xavier Duursma, who is now a Bomber.
But Burton got the boot, and so did Ginnivan. Both are clients at Kapital, run by Marty Pask.
Wright, who surely deserves a pay rise for his trade moves at the Magpies, clearly has a ruthless side.
THE BIG MONEY
Not every club has a big win to spruik in this year’s trade period.
The Cats were quiet and Fremantle lost Liam Henry and Lachie Schultz.
Hawthorn never got the strong-bodied defender the club craved.
St Kilda’s desire for top-end talent is still a mission statement at the top of the trade whiteboard.
But hold on to your hats for next year’s trade period as the Dockers, Saints and Hawks in particular, get ready to make a splash with some significant salary cap room.
The Total Player Payment increases ensure every club has some scope to go bang.
But there will be some major players, and the Dockers have three future first-round draft picks to hit the market hard for a key forward.
If Fremantle don’t take aim at Sydney Swans’ Logan McDonald and Demon Jacob Van Rooyen it will be a major shock.
Sydney is eyeing off a monster play for Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, as the Herald Sun revealed last week, and the Saints will throw the kitchen sink at Ben King if he remains out of contract.
The Hawks will also go for King. Maybe Melbourne, too, if Harrison Petty heads to Adelaide in 12 months time.
Geelong has been circling Bulldog Bailey Smith.
Brisbane Lions will have to pay Hugh McCluggage a small fortune to keep him and talks have already begun.
Similarly, Sydney will have to open the wallet for Errol Gulden and Port will hand Connor Rozee and Zak Butters blank cheques to stay.
If this year’s trade period was a little quiet, things may change considerably next year as the big money comes out.
THE BARGAINS
Everyone claims a bargain at trade time, but two stand out.
Essendon may have scooped the pool nabbing three free agents for nothing, but Carlton and Adelaide will be thrilled with their trade moves.
The Blues nabbed powerful midfielder and former pick seven Elijah Hollands in exchange for a future third-round draft pick.
Good judges reckon Hollands is a jet who dominated the VFL Grand Final (33 disposals and eight clearances) and will add some x-factor to a Carlton engine room in premiership mode.
Meanwhile, Adelaide picked up key forward Chris Burgess, who has topped the VFL goal kicking over the past two seasons.
The Crows landed Burgess and pick 14 from Gold Coast for picks 23 and 26.
The two deals might not have been as high-profile as some of the others, but scouts agree they might be two of the best-value trades of 2023.
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