AFL 2022: Gold Coast trades Izak Rankine to Adelaide in pick five package that delivers Crows their top target

Izak Rankine is heading home to South Australia after Adelaide satisfied Gold Coast’s trade demands. So what did it take to get the deal done?

Izak Rankine is officially a Crow after Adelaide agreed to a trade with Gold Coast. Picture: Getty Images

Izak Rankine is coming home.

Adelaide has secured the exciting forward in a deal centred around the Crows’ pick five in this year’s AFL draft after negotiations with Gold Coast dragged into the trade period’s second week.

Future third- and fourth-round picks are also headed to the Suns, who sent Rankine, pick 46 and a future fourth-round selection to Adelaide.

The Crows have limited list spots left but the pick in this year’s draft will likely go towards matching a bid on father-son prospect Max Michalanney, a promising defender.

News Corp revealed in early August that Adelaide’s hope to bring Rankine back to South Australia was suddenly a reality and he requested a trade the week after the Suns’ season ended.

Izak Rankine will play for the Crows next season and beyond. Picture: Getty Images

The 22-year-old was the No.3 pick in the loaded 2018 draft, with the likes of Sam Walsh, the King twins – Max and Ben – Bailey Smith and Connor Rozee also taken in the top 10 that year.

Rankine is fresh from his best season at AFL level, kicking 29 goals from 18 games, as well as averaging 13 disposals, one goal assist and a league-best 2.9 groundball-gets inside 50.

The Crows are set to not only use him as a forward but also plan to unleash him in the midfield. He signed a three-year deal with the club.

Rankine’s arrival follows that of fellow South Australian Jordan Dawson last year as Adelaide plots to climb the ladder again after stripping back the list for an aggressive rebuild.

The Suns were disappointed to lose Rankine and flew his father to the Gold Coast late in the season in a last-gasp bid to change his mind.

It’s believed his round 15 game against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, when he was surrounded by family afterwards in the change rooms, was a turning point in him wanting to go home.

Jed Walter will be one of the first players taken in the 2023 AFL draft but is tied to Gold Coast as an Academy prospect. Picture: Getty Images

Once Rankine’s mind was made up, Gold Coast turned its attention to maximising the return for him, with Adelaide’s top pick instantly targeted.

The Suns are also chasing more picks in next year’s draft to help them match bids for Academy prospects Jed Walter and Ethan Read, so that became an integral part of the Rankine deal.

Jed Walter was named in this year’s under-18 All-Australian team as a bottom-ager and is considered the second-best key forward in the 2023 draft behind potential No.1 Harley Reid.

Read is a 200cm ruckman who could eventually succeed Jarrod Witts as Gold Coast’s leading big man.

Gold Coast received the Giants’ future second-round pick in a deal with Brisbane that saw Tom Berry become a Sun and also scored a future fourth-round selection from Fremantle for Josh Corbett.

Geelong will likely hand over a 2023 third-round pick in the salary dump trade with Gold Coast for Jack Bowes and the No.7 selection in this year’s draft.