Wreck It Ralph: The dirty dozen trade targets clubs will be assessing after seven weeks

The contract impasse has lasted long enough for Victorian clubs to believe they have a genuine shot at securing Adam Cerra. Is he a perfect fit at the Blues?

Sam Weideman could be on the move at the end of the season. Picture: Getty Images

Marcus Bontempelli and Patrick Cripps are going nowhere.

Josh Kelly has priced himself out of the market.

So as list managers survey the trade and free agency scene now aware of their club’s on-field deficiencies, the picture is becoming clearer.

Some players are stuck in a list log-jam, others aren’t getting the midfield time they need.

Others are running into tight salary caps at their existing clubs.

These are 12 of the players clubs will be surveying for year-ending raids.

SAM WEIDEMAN (MELBOURNE)

Already clubs have started inquiring about Weideman’s services, with Collingwood believed to be one of a quartet to ask the question.

There is a chance Adam Tomlinson’s injury will clear space in the senior team for Weideman, but the Demons are just as likely to play Harry Petty in the third key back slot.

The romance of the Weideman name returning to the Pies is irresistible but they would need to offer a future pick or get back into the draft given they will be in points deficit with Nick Daicos. Weideman has kicked 14.6 in the last three weeks in the VFL and is too good for that standard, but the Demons definitely prioritised Ben Brown’s debut over his elevation. That would have to get him thinking about this future.

Will Sam Weideman start to look at his options. Picture: Getty Images

MITCH WALLIS (WESTERN BULLDOGS)

Mitch Wallis will never have the athletic gifts of Marcus Bontempelli. But what he does have is four more years of footy left (he’s only 28), the kind of goalkicking nous that saw him effectively play full forward last year (25.14) and the midfield credentials that saw him go back to an inside mid this weekend and knock up 29 touches, 11 clearances and nine score involvements against the Blues in the VFL. It’s impossible to see him playing small forward for the star-studded Dogs again. He could get into the midfield, but surely a club like the Kangaroos would see his range of gifts and leadership and offer him a two-year deal with a clause for a third. He is too good to be playing VFL.

JAKE RICCARDI (GWS)

The Giants have four forwards – Jesse Hogan, Harry Himmelberg, Riccardi and Jeremy Finlayson. And with Riccardi currently tipped out of the side, he went back on the weekend. The result against a Southport team that had won its first two games – 198 ranking points, 40 possessions, 19 marks, 14 intercept possessions, seven intercept marks. It doesn’t mean he’s Chris Grant, but if Hogan stays fit, recruiters would be aware one of the other three forwards might spill out. GWS might see his future back as a replacement for Phil Davis, but don’t all big men want to play key forward?

SHAI BOLTON (RICHMOND)

The hesitation with launching a bid for Shai Bolton is a club would know they will probably only make him richer by driving his price up at the Tigers who will end up keeping him anyway.

Bolton’s manager Ralph Carr made clear in the Herald Sun he believed he would remain at Punt Road, but will still wait until later in the year to do a deal.

As Carr said last week, he wanted Dustin Martin to remain at Richmond over North Melbourne and believed he could bridge the gap in cash with the commercial opportunities that awaited.

Surely the same applies to Bolton, who as Nick Riewoldt told Fox Footy on Friday night, is every bit an $800,000-per-year player.

Richmond might have to offer over $500,000 a year on a three-year deal to get him to free-agency and back-end for when Jack Riewoldt and Bachar Houli retire.

But if you are Essendon or North Melbourne, with stacks of cap space and a need for a transformative half forward like Bolton, you are at least asking the question.

Shai Bolton is going to get paid bit time on his new deal. Picture: Getty Images

WILL BRODIE (GOLD COAST)

Consider the first three weeks in the VFL from the No. 9 pick in the 2016 national draft.

123, 125 and 164 ranking points, 30, 33 and 42 possessions, 10, 9 and 8 clearances. Just as fellow top 10 pick Jack Scrimshaw has taken time to emerge (although at the Hawks), surely Brodie has AFL-level talent. The Suns had few takers for him last year and have hard inside mids ahead of him – Touk Miller, Hugh Greenwood, the returning Matt Rowell. Someone needs to snap him up.

ADAM CERRA (FREMANTLE)

The contract impasse has lasted long enough for Victorian clubs to believe they have a genuine shot at securing Cerra. The Dockers have offered four years and $3 million and reports from out west have the Blues offering something comparable.

The issue would be what he would cost in a trade. He is 21, emerging in the competition’s elite and the kind of player who you would need to offer two first-round picks to acquire. But there is no player who would more perfectly compliment a Carlton midfield big on grunt but lacking in a little polish hitting up forward targets, which is Cerra’s specialty.

DAVID CUNINGHAM (CARLTON)

Cuningham is still only 24 years of age. To the immense frustration of Carlton fans he hasn’t been able to get his body right and when he has, it’s been a rocky ride.

But games like his 25 possession, five inside-50 contest against Essendon show he has what it takes. He’s contracted to 2022 and on days like today he will feel like his future has never been brighter at Carlton. But would a rival be prepared to offer him three years guaranteed and more midfield time? Surely they are already asking the question.

David Cuningham could get more opportunity at another club. Picture: Getty Images

ALEX SEXTON (GOLD COAST)

Was Sexton just a flash in the pan? The Suns didn’t think so when they handed him a long-term extension through to 2023, with Sexton kicking 39 goals in 2019 before 19 last year and only 6.4 in six games so far this year. On the weekend he was the unused medical sub. Ben Ainsworth is being given time closer to goal and is repaying the faith and Izak Rankine is getting a better balance of the near-impossible and the tackling, chasing fundamentals. So is there space for Sexton? His best as the AFL’s snap king was exceptional. He turns 28 in December so he has time to rediscover his career.

KAMDYN MCINTOSH (RICHMOND)

Just turned 27, the hard-running McIntosh has huge wraps inside Richmond for his unrewarded running as a wingman who can easily play as a third defender. Melbourne cottoned on when they paid up for Ed Langdon, and while it’s easy to discount him as a role player, the Tigers have three flags because they get role-players who execute with rare discipline. He has often been mentioned in trade dispatches and is out of contract again, this time as a free agent. While Damien Hardwick says his players all take less because they want to stay, no one would begrudge some of the other players taking off for a deal that sets them up financially.

SAM PETREVSKI-SETON (CARLTON)

Petrevski-Seton wants more midfield time but has struggled to get it under David Teague. Remarkably, a player drafted as a midfielder at pick 5 attended 108 centre bounces in 2019 before Teague took over as coach. Since then he had attended two in total before Sunday’s Essendon clash. Last week he was pushed to a wing and half forward, then dropped for the first time – before winning a reprieve as the medi-sub when Paddy Dow copped a poke in the eye. Against the Bombers, Petrevski attended three more centre square bounces in a strong showing that should be enough to keep him in the team. But will he get the midfield time he craves?

Sam Petrevski-Seton has struggled at the Blues this year. Picture: Getty Images

JOSH KELLY (GWS)

GWS is on the hook for $8 million over eight years. He has had a nice year, culminating in 27 touches, 127 ranking points and 10 score involvements against Adelaide. But if he wants to return to Victoria, he would not only need to take a pay cut, he wouldn’t be able to get eight years either. Essendon has massive cap space – over $2 million – and would love to secure a free agent so they can keep their early pick. Kelly, Jack Billings, Marcus Bontempelli and Patrick Cripps are the quartet of free agents that have star power, but they either aren’t coming, don’t suit their need, or like Kelly are too expensive.

ZACH MERRETT (ESSENDON)

Everything now seems to line up for a new contract extension for free agent Merrett, with the Dons confident and rivals lining up but likely to be rebuffed.

He has had a remarkable consistent year – every game between 25 and 35 possessions, every game between 91 and 130 Champion Data points.

He can likely put his hand up for $4 million over five years, and it’s only what he deserves.

The club would never throw this into the deal, but he would hope he could take over from Dyson Heppell as skipper by 2023, with Andy McGrath and Jordan Ridley the next-gen players who would take over from him.