Dayne Beams wanted to be a Magpie and, in the end, Brisbane also wanted him at Collingwood
DAYNE Beams to Collingwood and Dylan Shiel to Essendon came down in the final 30 minutes of trade week but as usual, most players got to where to they wanted to go, writes Mark Robinson.
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IN THE end, Dayne Beams had to go.
He wanted to go
And a group of his former Lions teammates didn’t have an issue with him leaving, either.
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They had had enough of their former skipper’s posturing and they told club officials in the past 48 hours: If he doesn’t want to be with us, ship him off.
The Lions, themselves perplexed by Beams’ recent decision-making, could not not listen to the players.
Because when players turn on a teammate, it makes a difficult period almost impossible to salvage.
And as much as clubs talk about forcing a contracted player to see out his contract, the reality is the disgruntled player is best sent packing for spirit and morale and, hopefully, a pretty good deal.
Beams got to Collingwood, as expected, and the Lions played it superbly.
The final day of trade period is “Blink Day” and the Lions started blinking early.
They made deals with Port Adelaide and Gold Cost for draft picks, two of which were sent to Fremantle for Lachie Neale, which meant the Magpies, who hoped the Lions would scramble for their No.18 pick in a deal for Neale, had to scramble themselves to find a separate deal for Beams.
The Lions wanted two first-round selections. They received two first-round selections.
Kudos to the Pies, as well. They went after Beams and nailed him, although it was more pricey than they probably planned.
Still, Collingwood landed an elite midfielder and the Lions landed quality draft picks. Tick. Tick.
What was thought to be a shift in power from players getting to where they want to go, to clubs making a stand to keep their contacted players, was only marginally so.
Every player wanting out - other than Geelong’s Tim Kelly - got to their preferred clubs.
The Cats didn’t buckle, which is rare for a club in the trade period.
Kudos to them, too. They will be criticised for not letting Kelly go, who had personal reasons, after securing several players for just that. But the feeling is Kelly is somewhat happy to play the Cats next season.
In a drama-filled trade period, 39 trades were completed, many with a go-home factor attached.
AFL players are a unique mob.
They must have the closest, most loving and supportive family network of any professional sportspeople in the world, because a lot of them use the go-home factor or “family reasons” as to why they want to be traded.
Commentator Gerard Healy calls it a nonsense. Not every player uses that excuse, of course, and plenty leave home to go interstate. But Healy has a point.
Soccer players go round the world to play. But AFL players can’t handle living outside the suburb they grew up in.
The Beams deal, where he returns to his original club, was the last pillar to fall.
Essendon and GWS traded words and bluff until the deal was done for Dylan Shiel, a deal that was always going to eventuate despite links to Carlton being revived from the start of the day.
Essendon eventually blinked and gave up what GWS wanted: two-first round picks, with a second-round sweetener coming back to the Dons.
The Cats never blinked.
One of the first trades on deadline day was Chad Wingard to Hawthorn, where he joins Tom Scully, and it remains the most curious of the trade period.
Wingard thanked all of Port Adelaide in a more soothing post than the one he put out 10 days ago when he wrote: “You’ll hear my side of the story when the time is right dw (don’t worry) about that.”
How Wingard is not at Port would mystify Power fans, although they would be satisfied with their team having picks 5, 10 and 15 in the coming national draft.
What really happened in the meeting between Wingard and coach Ken Hinkley in the days leading up to the Grand Final?
A senior club official told the Herald Sun on Grand Final day, Wingard was staying. A club official confirmed on the Monday after the GF, the meeting with Hinkley went well.
But Wingard’s management disagreed. It’s believed Wingard was confused after the Hinkley meeting, where it’s understood Hinkley hit Wingard with a list of what he does poorly rather than what he does well.
Among the winners were the Suns, who have picks two, three and six to start their massive rebuild, the Dockers, who straightaway have a revamped forward led by Jesse Hogan, Rory Lobb and Travis Colyer, the Hawks with Wingard and Scully and the Demons, who it seems were happy to part with Hogan. After all, he was the club’s highest-paid player at near a $1 million a season.
Peter Bell was also a winner and a bluffer after last week’s revelation the Dockers were out of the Hogan trade. On Wednesday, he effectively turned Neale, picks No.6 and 11 into Hogan, Lobb and pick No.14. You’d be happy with that.
As for the elongated final day, it was also a winner.
Major deals were done before lunchtime — Neale, Hogan and Steven May to Melbourne — and then the waiting game started on Kelly, Beams and Shiel.
A waiting game which went down to a stressful final half-hour.
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