AFL Trades 2024: Collingwood’s approach dramatic outlier in chaotic trade period

Arch rivals Carlton and Collingwood have adopted different strategies in their search for their next premiership. Which path will prove successful? JON RALPH examines the question.

It is the three-word slogan that will haunt Collingwood’s 2025 season or put them on the brink of a stunning Magpie dynasty.

Players not picks.

At the end of a godforsaken, interminable 10-day trade period that finally caught fire in its final 10 minutes, Collingwood’s approach was the dramatic outrider.

They went all in as clubs instead banked picks in what could be a rare AFL superdraft.

Collingwood again tossed away a future first-round pick like confetti and burnt $1.7m-plus in newly-acquired cap space to secure dual All-Australian Dan Houston and half-back flanker Harry Perryman.

Collingwood recruit Dan Houston in his new colours. Picture: Collingwood FC

Harry Perryman also joined the Pies. Photo by Phil Hillyard

Craig McRae, author of that famous quick-fix phrase, will believe Houston is a defensive game-changer and Perryman the jack-of-all-trades that will justify his $900,000 free agency price tag.

By this time next year the decision to give up so much draft capital will be boom or bust.

The Pies could have their second flag in three seasons in what might be seen in hindsight as a masterstroke of list management.

From there, the consequences be damned.

Or they could be retiring a long list of premiership stalwarts – Sidebottom, Pendlebury, Howe, Hoskin-Elliott, Mitchell – and have very little in the way of elite young talent to replace those Pies flag heroes.

That decision might not be so stark if by the end of the 10-day period so many rivals had not chosen this moment to stock up on picks in one of the best drafts since the famed 2001 mega-draft.

Richmond secured footy’s best non-expansion draft hand with no other option left as list boss Blair Hartley collected a stunning array of picks – 1, 6, 10, 11, 18, 20, 23 and 24.

Port Adelaide’s deal for Houston looks unders and yet by the time they take at least three quality picks they can drag themselves out of deep waters, especially if they turn the Suns’ pick 13 into Sydney’s 19 and 22.

Carlton had a golden chance to secure Houston …. and declined as they instead went back to the draft.

It was so un-Carlton-like and yet a decision that will only extend their premiership window years into the future.

So the Pies are on watch, as rivals hear the murmurings about whether CEO Craig Kelly will be too involved in the football side of business with a new footy boss yet to be appointed and president Jeff Browne with one foot out the door.

Rivals might wonder if the Pies, like Richmond in 2001, have traded out of a superdraft in a decision that might bite them on the arse.

Jake Stringer eventually got to the Giants. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

In the five minutes between 7.25pm and 7.30pm three clubs found their way back out of what might have been epic list management fails.

Jake Stringer found his way to GWS after they pulled off a masterclass in lowering Essendon’s expectations, aborting a trade then finally reviving it but only after the Dons accepted pick 53.

For days they equivocated then used the Wacky Wednesday disaster to dramatically call off a deal in a fake tantrum, only to get what they wanted all along in a 40-goal-a-year player for dirt cheap.

Stringer will arrive at GWS with a powerful motive – a huge chip on his shoulder – and should do so in the best shape of his adult life to prove Brad Scott and co. wrong.

If the AFL is smart they will schedule the Giants against Essendon at home in the AFL’s opening round to maximise the drama.

Stringer back at Essendon under Brad Scott would have been a recipe for utter disaster – a disappointed, disillusioned player marking time before he got out on his own terms.

Now he gets another fresh start as Essendon again tells its fans to be patient as they set course for the long term despite spending so much on free agency acquisitions only 12 months ago.

Bailey Smith found a way to the Cats as the Dogs found a way not to cut off their nose to spite their face, as the 23-year-old and premiership players Bailey Smith and Caleb Daniel exited the Whitten Oval.

New Dogs addition Matt Kennedy is a bone fide inside midfielder who will help Luke Beveridge with instant impact as he tries to keep his butt of the coaching hot seat with an electric start to the season.

And Sydney showed some class in releasing Luke Parker to the Roos, who gave up plenty (25 and 44) for Daniel, Parker and 2022 No. 20 draft pick Jacob Konstanty in the hope they can finally bounce up the ladder.

Why was trade so putrid in terms of aborted deals and small-fry players?

Put simply, clubs have vast cap space after the 2023 pay rise to keep players happy, and the deep draft put off clubs from handing mid to late picks for players who they suspected might be list-cloggers anyway.

The real game-changer this year will be on November 20

The Tigers moves were done against a backdrop of considerable grief as the club farewelled recruiter Chris Toce on the day they traded away a vice-captain and their most talented player in Shai Bolton.

It will be a considerable challenge for the Tigers to process their grief and still put together a recruiting team that can nail those draft picks.

But in list boss Blair Hartley the Tigers fans will trust, after his brilliantly executed strategy to secure eight picks in the top 24 draft picks and turn shizen into strawberry jam.