AFL great Alastair Lynch looks at the hits and misses from the 2018 trade period

Lachie Neale and Dayne Beams are flying while Steven May and Dan Hannebery can’t get on the park. After the biggest trade period in AFL history, Alastair Lynch looks at deals that have hit and missed.

Alastair Lynch

3 min read

May 8, 2019 - 6:27PM

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Lachie Neale has been the trade of the year.

In the frantic final days of last season’s annual player exchange period, clubs worked overtime to try to strike the deal they believed would alter their fortunes.

It is hard to remember a time when so many big names swapped clubs.

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In Neale, Dayne Beams, Dylan Shiel, Daniel Hannebery, Tom Lynch, Jesse Hogan, Steven May, Chad Wingard, Scott Lycett, Luke Dahlhaus and Tom Scully — you have a collection of captains, club champions, All Australians, Rising Star winners and premiership players.

The likes of Gary Rohan, Aaron Hall, Jarryd Lyons and Jack Hombsch are proven senior campaigners while Ryan Burton and Mitch McGovern are promising youngsters with the potential to be stars.

Each club had different visions when they lured a player, just as every player had their own reasons for changing clubs.

Lachie Neale has been a huge get for the Lions. Picture: AAP Images

Some, such as Melbourne and Essendon thought they were a player away from a premiership.

I tipped the Dees, on the back of Steven May’s inclusion, to plug what I saw was the only real shortcoming on their list — a key defender.

May has a long-term deal and I think he will be one of the premier defenders in the competition in the coming years, so it isn’t a failure.

But given we won’t see May again before the bye due to injury, and with some pre-season queries over his conditioning and then a well-publicised breach of team alcohol rules over the weekend, you cannot call it a success yet either.

The Bombers brought in Dylan Shiel believing they were a gun midfielder short of a flag and they may still be proven right.

Richmond went for Lynch as the long-term replacement for veteran Jack Riewoldt and I tip this will be a big win in the long term.

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Lynch is still clearly working back to fitness and may have some ongoing knee soreness, but he is also sitting second on the Coleman Medal list so I reckon they’d be happy enough at Tigerland.

St Kilda wanted a seasoned premiership player to set the standards but who would also still be around when their stock of younger players reached their peak.

Like May to Melbourne, there is no way you can call Daniel Hannebery’s move to the Saints a success yet.

Brisbane were slightly different. They went after Lincoln McCarthy and in the process heard Neale might be looking for a fresh start.

It proved to be fortuitous as former skipper Dayne Beams backflipped on his pledge to stay at the club and made an 11th-hour request to return to Collingwood.

Dayne Beams has been a top pick-up at the Magpies. Picture: AAP Images

We’ll never know what the Lions could have done with Beams and Neale in the same side together, which was always Brisbane’s plan, but what we do know is they have taken another major step forward this year.

They have already matched last year’s tally of wins after seven rounds and Neale has been the primary architect.

It is why I rate him as the top off-season trade above Shiel to Essendon.

Next-best may surprise some but I’m going with Gary Rohan to Geelong and Tom Scully to Hawthorn.

Rohan has discovered career-best form in a resurgent Cats side.

Scully, who was basically given away by GWS after managing just one game last year because of an ankle injury many feared would end his career, has made a stunning return and is once again the yardstick for work rate in the AFL.