AFL trade: did your club blow its trade moves during the off-season?

THEY’RE the players that can either lift a team to premiership success or cost it dearly. We assess each AFL club’s trade recruits through the first six rounds.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 26: Tom Boyd of the Bulldogs celebrates a goal during the round four AFL match between the Western Bulldogs and the Adelaide Crows at Etihad Stadium on April 26, 2015 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)

THEY’RE the players that can either lift a team to premiership success or consign it to more years of mediocrity.

Make the right decisions during trade week and clubs can set themselves up for a genuine tilt at the flag. Stuart Dew, anyone?

But make the wrong call and it can cost a team dearly.

We assess each club’s trade recruits through the first six rounds.

ADELAIDE

The Crows were looking to restock during the trade and draft periods, after a string of retirements and delistings. Kyle Cheney has been serviceable, while Luke Lowden is yet to be

sighted.

BRISBANE

If Brisbane is this bad with Beams, imagine how bad they’d be without him. The Lions gave up a fair bit to snare the former Collingwood midfielder, handing over Jack Crisp and draft picks five and pick 25. Allen Christensen is averaging just under 20 disposals and has kicked five goals since crossing from Geelong,

CARLTON

The Blues picked up maligned Bulldog Liam Jones, who has attracted similar criticisms over his workrate and football smarts since leaving the Whitten Oval. Kristian Jaksch has done OK, but it’ll be a while before we know if Mark Whiley is any good.

COLLINGWOOD

It might be a couple of years until we can confirm whether Collingwood or Brisbane got the better of the deal that saw Dayne Beams head north in exchange for Jack Crisp and a couple of picks, but Crisp is certainly holding up his end of the bargain at the Pies. So far this season he’s averaging 19.5 disposals and an impressive 5.2 tackles a game. Levi Greenwood has been a bust after copping a leg injury, but will return, and Travis Varcoe has done enough to suggest he’ll be an solid spoke in Collingwood’s wheel.

ESSENDON

The Bombers haven’t bombed, but they haven’t exactly nailed their recruiting, either. Gwilt is essentially a reserve backman and has played just two games since crossing from St Kilda, while Adam Cooney is a week by week proposition and has managed just three games. Ex-Giant Jonathan Giles has spent the last six weeks in the Dons’ reserves side.

FREMANTLE

Made a play for departing Demon James Frawley but missed out. Nothing else to see here.

Mitch Clark was an absolute steal for the Cats.

GEELONG

Big wins in securing former Melbourne forward Mitch Clark after his year out of footy and Rhys Stanley is starting to shine in the ruck after leaving St Kilda. The Cats also traded a couple of picks with Adelaide that moved them up the draft order to pick 10, with which they snared Nakia Cockatoo.

GOLD COAST

Thought they were getting a backline general but instead got a rapidly fading star. Malceski is a shadow of the premiership player who left Sydney and has been injured for the Suns’ last two games. Former Hawk Mitch Hallahan has also been hit by the Gold Coast injury curse.

GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY

The deal that saw disgruntled Western Bulldogs captain Griffen head to the Giants in exchange for young forward Tom Boyd was the deal of the trade period, and the Giants would

be happy with their acquisition. The extra draft pick they took for handing over Boyd was used to grab the yet-to-be-seen Caleb Marchbank, while veteran Joel Patfull has been

a solid pick-up down back.

HAWTHORN

The Hawks snared prized recruit James Frawley, only for him to go down with a pectoral injury, while former GWS player Jono O’Rourke has only cracked the senior side for one game so far.

MELBOURNE

The loss of James Frawley could have been devastating, but the Dees went hunting and secured Heretier Lumumba and Jeff Garlett, then used the compensatory No. 3 pick they received for

Frawley on Angus Brayshaw, who has played every game and is a star of the future. Sam Frost has played three games after crossing from GWS.

NORTH MELBOURNE

Jarrad Waite and Shaun Higgins have both been wins for the Roos and have tempered the loss of gun midfielder Levi Greenwood. Better yet, both players didn’t cost the club

anything under free agency rules.

Paddy Ryder has been a winning addition to Port Adelaide’s ruck division.

PORT ADELAIDE

Bolstered their premiership credentials by adding Essendon ruckman Paddy Ryder in one of the moves of the trade period. A win for the Power so far in 2015.

RICHMOND

With no top 10 picks in the draft, the Tigers tested the waters around a few players but didn’t go hard enough to make anything stick. Guess that means they were happy with their list...

ST KILDA

With clubs all coming at St Kilda for their No. 1 draft pick, the Saints could have almost named their price but instead elected to grab pick 21 from Geelong in exchange for Rhys Stanley, which they used to select Hugh Goddard. Goddard is yet to make his debut.

SYDNEY

Still reeling from the AFL’s brutal trade penalties, the Swans barely got involved in the cut and thrust of this year’s period. They lost Nick Malceski, whose form and injury concerns at Gold Coast suggests that might have been a win.

WEST COAST

The Eagles farewelled champion due Darren Glass and Dean Cox, but elected to go the youth route and hung onto their draft picks without landing any fish in the trade period.

WESTERN BULLDOGS

It cost them a pretty penny, but the Dogs executed the coup of the year in capturing young GWS forward Tom Boyd, who is improving with every game in 2015. Yes, they lost captain Ryan Griffen and veteran Adam Cooney, but given how they’re playing so far this year, it’s hard to knock the Dogs’ decisions.

Originally published as AFL trade: did your club blow its trade moves during the off-season?