Big-name AFL trades demand instant success for the Crows and Power in AFL season 2018

ADELAIDE and Port Adelaide have secured a string of big-name trades during the off-season — but the real measure of the gamble will come on the field in 2018, writes Graham Cornes.

Adelaide this week secured Carlton’s former No. 1 draft pic Bryce Gibbs during trade week. Picture: AAP Image

AT the first look it seemed too extravagant. Why give up two first-round picks this year for a player who is a year older when you could have done it last year? And wouldn’t Bryce Gibbs have strengthened that Adelaide midfield in 2017?

He could even have been the difference between glory and a summer of shame and ridicule. However, even with the benefit of hindsight, reality is always different to fantasy. Carlton was never going to trade Gibbs to Adelaide last year. In a private conversation, the Blues’ then chief executive, Steven Trigg, said those exact words. A club that had lost so many good players, two of whom were already at Adelaide, could not let another star walk.

So they played hardball, waited a year and got the deal they wanted. Adelaide has the player (although perhaps not the deal) it wanted but the Crows have rolled the dice and gambled on Carlton having a poor season in 2018. Adelaide gave up two first-round draft picks (10 and 16) for Gibbs, but also received Carlton’s second-round pick in next year’s draft. Adelaide is gambling, not unreasonably, that a young and developing Carlton will finish in the bottom four of the ladder next season.

That would give the Crows a pick anywhere between 17 and 20. The rationale for such a strategy is that next year’s draft is a lot stronger and they can draft a better player at pick 20 than they can this year at pick 16. The recruiters at West Lakes will be hoping that Carlton does not have a resurgence.

So it’s all or nothing for the Crows in 2018. Having dominated the competition for most of 2017 only to fail so disappointingly on grand final day, there is only one acceptable outcome next year. The coach doesn’t need to say it because the players have to accept the responsibility and the pressure that comes with high expectation. But as Mark Bickley, the Crows only premiership captain, has said so often: “Pressure builds diamonds”.

At Alberton it’s also all or nothing. Port Adelaide seems to have executed the trading heist of the century. Three big names – Jack Watts, Tom Rockliff and Steven Motlop – all chose to come to the Power. With the bonus of early picks, Sam Powell-Pepper and Todd Marshall from last year’s draft, and an established list of senior players, Port, as David Koch and the club’s impatient fans demand, will also realistically challenge for this year’s flag.

The results of Port’s trading season seem too good to be true. However, there is that old saying: “when something seems too good to be true, it probably is.”

On paper and on potential, Jack Watts, Tom Rockliff and Steven Motlop improve an already mature, established Port Adelaide. It’s a team that Ken Hinkley, a keenly sought-after coach, has invested his football future in.

However the trio of draftees is not without baggage. Watts, as admirable a character as he is, has suffered from inconsistency, the high expectations of the No. 1 draft pick and coaches who could not define a role for him. Motlop finished second in Geelong’s 2015 best and fairest but has since never recaptured that form or commitment.

Rockliff has an impressive resume but even his own club, Brisbane, in the 2017 AFL Season Record, questioned his impact and leadership.

Ken Hinkley’s reputation for reviving careers will be tested. All clubs, to justify their actions, will claim success at the end of any trading period. However, that success cannot be measured immediately.

The Crows have lost two really good players in Jake Lever and Charlie Cameron and brought in an elite midfielder in Gibbs for a shot at the 2018 premiership but their strategy can only be graded after next year’s draft. Meanwhile, Port Adelaide, having attracted three big names and left very little in this year’s draft, need to prove that success in 2018.

Originally published as Big-name AFL trades demand instant success for the Crows and Power in AFL season 2018