11 players who were traded back to their original club
AN AFL player being traded back to his original club sounds fanciful, but it has happened more often than you think — with mixed results.
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THE Western Bulldogs proved last year fairytales can come true in AFL. Does that apply at trade time?
Gary Ablett has almost certainly played his last game for Gold Coast and Geelong fans would jump at the chance to cheer their former Cats star in blue and white hoops again.
Now respected commentator Dennis Cometti has thrown up the idea of Fremantle doing a deal with Collingwood to get Chris Mayne back in purple.
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It’s like hitting the “reverse trades” button in SuperCoach but 12 months — or, in Ablett’s case, seven years — later.
But can it actually work? Looking back through trade history we found a surprising number of “homecoming” trades, where a player sent packing by a club ended up back there after another deal. Here are our favourites.
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TRENT CROAD
The poster boy for the homecoming trade idea, Croad was the key to one of the biggest trade swindles of all time when Hawthorn sent him to the Dockers after 84 promising games in four seasons. In return the Hawks received the No.1 draft pick, which they used on Luke Hodge (homesick defender Luke McPharlin also headed west in a swap for some later picks, one of which became Sam Mitchell). To put the icing on the cake, Croad spent just two years at Fremantle before being traded back to Hawthorn in exchange for pick 10 (Ryley Dunn). He played another five seasons at Hawthorn, retiring after the 2008 premiership.
CHRIS TARRANT
Tarrant spent nine seasons at the Magpies, winning a Copeland Trophy and leading the club goalkicking five times, before heading to the Dockers (can you see a theme developing here?) as part of the deal that brought Paul Medhurst and Ben Reid to Collingwood. He reinvented himself as a defender at Fremantle then headed back to the Pies in a last-minute trade in 2010, threatening to retire if Freo didn’t get the deal done. He played 35 more games, including the 2011 Grand Final, before hanging up the boots.
PETER BELL
This is getting a bit ridiculous. Fremantle was again a central player, although this time they got their man back after three seasons — and two flags — at North Melbourne. Bell retired with 286 games to his name and is considered a Fremantle all-time great. Letting him go the first time might not have been the best move but the Dockers were big winners in the second deal, giving up Jess Sinclair, pick six (Dylan Smith) and 37 (Guy Richards) while Bell played another 163 games.
BRETT MONTGOMERY
The Western Bulldogs plucked “Monty” from the VFL and he made an instant impression after making his debut at the age of 23 in 1997. After the 1999 season he was traded to Port Adelaide, where he won a best-and-fairest in his first year and played in the Power’s only AFL premiership. But he fell out of favour and was delisted in 2005. The Dogs came to the rescue, picking him up with pick 55 in that year’s national draft. He played 17 games in 2006, including the elimination final, and one the next year before moving into a coaching career.
PAUL SALMON
Salmon was idolised by the Essendon faithful in the 1980s but things soured a bit in the 90s and at the end of 1995 he was traded to Hawthorn in a mega three-club deal that also resulted in Darren Jarman moving from the Hawks to Adelaide and the Bombers picking up Sean Wellman and Paul Barnard. Salmon revived his career at Waverley, winning the Hawks’ best-and-fairest in 1996 and 1997, becoming vice-captain and being named in the Hawthorn team of the century. He retired at the end of 2000 but made a comeback at age 37 two years later, playing 15 games in his final season as a Bomber.
JUSTIN MURPHY
Originally drafted by Richmond, Murphy played at four different clubs including two stints at Carlton. He was traded from Richmond to the Blues (for Ben Harrison) — where he enjoyed his most famous moment, holding the ball aloft after the 1999 preliminary final — then to Geelong, back to Carlton and then finished his career at Essendon. More recently he was in the news for all the wrong reasons, jailed for a series of horrific attacks on his ex-girlfriend.
ADAM McPHEE
Essendon and Fremantle were again involved as McPhee was traded to Essendon after two seasons in a three-way deal that sent former No.1 draft pick Des Headland to the Dockers. McPhee played 142 games for the Bombers, winning a best-and-fairest and earning All-Australian selection in 2004. But he fell out with the Bombers at the end of 2009 and walked out on the club, returning to Freo via the pre-season draft.
JOHN BARNES
More Kevin Sheedy sweet talking allowed Barnes to finish his career at Essendon after the Bombers traded him to Geelong (for Sean Denham) eight years earlier. He played in the 2000 flag and went on to become a key part of Sheedy’s game plan as the runner after retirement.
TRENT NICHOLLS
A pacy left-footed Tasmanian midfielder/small forward made his debut under Kevin Bartlett’s coaching in 1998 but was traded to the Eagles after four seasons in yellow and black. He managed only four games in the west and was picked up by North Melbourne, adding 33 more matches over three years then returning to finish his career at Punt Rd.
MARTY CLARKE AND TADHG KENNELLY
These guys don’t quite fit the criteria since they never played for another AFL team, but both left their original club and returned after a stint elsewhere — back home in Ireland.
Kennelly became the first man to win an AFL premiership and an All-Ireland Championship when he added victory with Kerry in the 2009 GAA decider to his 2005 AFL flag. He returned to the Swans after a one-year break and played 39 more games.
Clarke followed a similar path, enjoying three successful seasons at Collingwood before heading home. He helped Down make a remarkable run to the 2010 All-Ireland final but couldn’t match Kennelly’s feat and returned to the AFL at the end of 2011 via a trade with GWS, playing more 10 games for Collingwood.
He then retired from AFL for good and headed back to Ireland. But dreams of finishing his career in the GAA ended on doctor’s advice after he wad diagnosed with the extremely rare Addison’s disease.
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