AFL 2022: Gold Coast’s Jack Bowes nominates Geelong as club he wants to be traded to in salary dump deal

Jack Bowes has made up his mind on where he wants to be traded to after days of meeting with suitors who will also inherit pick seven in this year’s AFL draft.

Top-10 pick Jack Bowes has played his final game for Gold Coast. Picture: Michael Klein

Premier Geelong has won the Jack Bowes sweepstakes, which comes with the appealing bonus of Gold Coast’s pick seven as enticement for taking on the ex-Sun’s bloated contract.

Bowes narrowed his suitors to three on Monday – Hawthorn, Essendon and premier Geelong – before touring the facilities of each again on Tuesday before settling on the Cats on Wednesday afternoon.

The 24-year-old, who grew up in Cairns, agreed to defer money to help ease Gold Coast’s salary cap stress but that left him vulnerable as the Suns, like the Giants, try to sort out their player payments.

He will smooth out his wage, which was set to be more than $800,000 for each of the next two years, across four seasons to help his new club fit him in.

The AFL recently gave the green light for clubs to complete ‘salary dump’ deals that are commonplace in overseas sports.

Jack Bowes was used as a defender in his final seasons at Gold Coast but plans to reboot his career as a midfielder. Picture: Getty Images

It’s another great result for Geelong, which could end the exchange period with Bowes, pick seven, Tanner Bruhn, Ollie Henry and free agent Connor McKenna.

Bowes will become the third of Gold Coast’s four top-10 draftees from 2016 to depart the club, behind Jack Scrimshaw (Hawthorn) and Will Brodie (Fremantle).

Only Ben Ainsworth remains, after he inked a new two-year deal in April to remain at the club through the 2024 season.

Both Scrimshaw and Brodie have thrived since, with Bowes hoping to do the same as a 187cm midfielder after being deployed as a defender in recent years.

He played only five games this season for a total of 83, with shoulder surgery at the start of the year setting him back.

North Melbourne, Brisbane and St Kilda all showed a level of interest in Bowes as well once the Suns informed everyone of the draft package he came with.

Jack Bowes spent six seasons at Gold Coast after being the No.10 pick in the 2016 AFL draft. Picture: Getty Images

They let Bowes make the call on where he went, and his agent, Robbie D’Orazio, of Connors Sports, made it clear his client would pick the club that wanted him as much as the top-10 pick.

That sparked a charm offensive, with Cats list manager Andrew Mackie revealing they were interested in Bowes “for a long time” after club great and ex-Sun Gary Ablett told them how promising he was.

Mackie’s Bombers counterpart, Adrian Dodoro, also said during the recruiting process that he had tracked Bowes for the past two years.

Gold Coast also hopes to trade midfielder Brayden Fiorini and his roughly $600,000 wage for next season, with Collingwood his likeliest destination if he does find a new home.

Izak Rankine will also join Adelaide by Wednesday week in a deal centred on the Crows’ pick five.

Brayden Fiorini is another player Gold Coast is willing to trade to save salary cap space. Picture: Getty Images

Suns list boss Craig Cameron said the prospective trades were the right ones for the club in the long term.

“We’ve got to a phase in our strategy where we’ve brought in a lot of high draft picks in the last four years,” Cameron said.

“What’s really important for us going forward is to be able to build a team by bringing in a free agent or being able to trade a player in.

“We’ll secure an early selection through Izak, so what we really need to do is engineer our player payments to a stage where we’ve actually got the space to bring some players in.

“At the moment, we need space more than we need a number of early picks.”