AFL trade: Inside the wheelings and dealings that saw Jack Ginnivan and Lachie Schultz change clubs

Collingwood made it crystal clear to Lachie Schultz he would ‘go straight past Jack Ginnivan’ in the pecking order at the Magpies, then the Hawks swooped. Go inside the trade drama here.

Lachie Schultz and Jack Ginnivan.

Hawthorn had a long-range small forward succession plan and it certainly didn’t involve Jack Ginnivan.

As the Hawks scoured the football landscape for small forwards to improve their list they had zeroed in on nuggety Fremantle tackling machine Lachie Schultz as far back as 2021.

Having narrowly missed out on getting him then, they were one of multiple clubs, including Collingwood, Greater Western Sydney and North Melbourne, monitoring Schultz’s intentions throughout the 2023 season.

Most believed he wouldn’t leave the Dockers at the end of last year, but there was genuine hope he was ‘gettable’ as a free agent at the end of 2024.

Then came the October bombshell.

In the afterglow of Collingwood’s thrilling 16th VFL-AFL premiership success, the Magpies came from the clouds.

They executed an audacious heist and stole Schultz from under the noses of the Dockers - and some AFL rivals - allowing the Moama-raised forward to get back home.

Lachie Schultz is finding his feet as a Pie. Picture: Getty Images

Collingwood’s pitch to the Schultz camp was emphatic - their football boss Graham Wright made it clear the forward would “go straight past Jack Ginnivan” in the club’s forward line pecking order.

The Dockers were shocked, believing Schultz would see out the final year trigger of his deal.

The Hawks swiftly moved to a new plan of attack, chasing another small forward, Jack Ginnivan, who had just played in the Magpies premiership but whose spot within the team had loosened with Schultz’s decision.

Six months on from a frantic trade period, this masthead can reveal the extraordinary machinations and detailed negotiations that played out late last year.

Those trades would send Schultz to Collingwood, Ginnivan to Hawthorn, and Taylor Adams to Sydney - all unrelated deals but with connections.

If Schultz had not expressed a return east in 2024, Ginnivan would still be wearing black and white.

If Adams had not wished to leave for more midfield time, the Schultz deal - for a future first round pick and last year’s pick 34 which shuffled down to pick 41 - might have been a little harder to orchestrate.

If Ginnivan had wanted to stay and fight for his position at Collingwood, he could have. Instead, the confident and at times controversial forward wanted a change, and the Hawks were happy to give up last year’s pick 37 as well as a future second and third round pick for the now 21-year-old.

Fast forward to Sunday’s twilight Gather Round finale fixture, Ginnivan and Schultz will square off at opposition ends of Adelaide Oval, with the focus on how both players are faring for their new clubs almost as intriguing as how their teams are travelling.

It will provide a fascinating early audit of the two much-talked about small forwards.

Schultz, 26, is taking some time to find his feet in the Magpies’ attack, with his pressure game strong but his offensive output sitting at three goals in four games.

The Magpies maintain he will come into his own in the second half of the season, as he becomes more in-tune with the system and becomes more of a target for his teammates with great familiarity.

Ginnivan has provided a much needed spark for the Hawks in what has been a brutal start for his new club.

He has kicked three goals in three games, with his footy IQ and work rate impressing some of his more senior teammates.

THE ‘GINNI’ EFFECT

Few 45-game AFL players have fuelled as many back - and sometimes front - page headlines as Jack Ginnivan.

There were more this week when the AFL acknowledged umpires got a few head-high contact rulings wrong in the Easter Monday clash with Geelong.

Ginnivan taken high. Picture: Michael Klein

It was a familiar narrative across his three seasons with the Magpies, without the AFL concessions.

He has been a walking headline for an assortment of reasons including a two-game drugs ban, attending Moonee Valley races (in a corporate box) on grand final eve with coach Craig McRae saying he hadn’t “read the room”, and his on-going capacity to slide into tackles.

But the one headline avoided was just how close he came to missing out on the Magpies’ 2023 premiership success.

After a rollercoaster year in terms of his form, he found himself back in the side at the business end.

But this masthead understands there was a long discussion in grand final week about whether Ginnivan could be replaced by young talent Harvey Harrison.

In the end, the selection committee stuck with the status quo and Ginnivan played, having seven disposals, kicking a behind and getting his premiership medal.

No one knew then that it would be his final game in Collingwood colours.

Ginnivan said recently his Collingwood interview hadn’t provided him with the comfort that he wanted, and it played a role in his decision to seek a new home.

“I had the exit meeting with Fly (Craig McRae) and a few things in there were a bit… that was a bit eye opening, that exit meeting,” Ginnivan said on the Tommy Talks podcast.

Sam Mitchell chats with his small forward. Picture: Getty Images

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

Collingwood’s acquisition of Schultz didn’t have to mean a Ginnivan departure.

Despite great speculation, the Magpies never actively put the forward onto the trade table. They believed he would play out the final year of his contract.

But Hawthorn’s interest in securing the flashy forward - who better fitted the club’s age demographic and trade options than the now 26-year-old Schultz - intensified during the trade period, after the outgoing Docker made a call on his future.

Sources have told this masthead that Schultz felt as if he had “done the hard yards” at Fremantle in playing for a club still building a base rather than one in the premiership window.

Opportunity was about to knock for Ginnivan, the newly-minted premiership player, who was presented with what looked like a tantalising deal.

Stay at Collingwood, and run the risk of playing fourth small forward fiddle behind Jamie Elliott, Bobby Hill and now Schultz with only one year remaining on his deal.

Or take up a more commercially attractive four-year deal with a big monetary uplift from a club he had supported as a kid.

As a business decision, Ginnivan to Hawthorn was “a no-brainer”, and the Hawks offered him more than just a very good deal - they told him they wanted him to unleash his flair.

He had been charged with playing a more disciplined role in the grand final further up the field, which allowed Hill to dazzle closer to goal.

Bobby Hill is congratulated by Ginnivan after kicking one of his four goals in the 2023 grand final.Picture: Getty Images

But Hawthorn’s game style under Sam Mitchell promised an attacking flair which appealed to him, and to his management group.

He stepped off the plane from Bali on the Monday of trade week, met his one-time childhood hero Sam Mitchell the next day and by Wednesday one of the Magpie Army’s favourites had traded in his black and white stripes for brown and gold.

Collingwood’s 1990 premiership hero Mick McGuane said given Ginnivan’s connection to the Magpies, he was initially surprised he hadn’t chosen to fight for his spot.

“(If I had been Ginnivan) my mindset would have been ‘Yeah, you can bring Lachie Schultz in to make us better, but he is not going to get my role, I am going to roll my sleeves up and get to work’,” McGuane said this week.

“But I also understand the other point of the conversation is that there is another club in the background knocking on the door with four years … on a bigger wage.

“What are you going to do? You have one year at Collingwood with no guarantees the year after, or you have four years (at Hawthorn) for job security. Not many small forwards get a four-year opportunity, so from a business decision sense, I understand what he and his management have done.”

TWILIGHT ZONE

Ginnivan joked recently that he cannot understand the AFL putting such a juicy storyline in the Sunday twilight spot, but it will be Gather Round’s final curtain call for 2024.

The Hawks may have been keen on Schultz as far back as three years ago, but have been pleased with how Ginnivan has settled into the club.

“He’s come in and he has settled really well, he is a young fellow who has really earned respect with his work ethic on training track and his intelligence off it,” Hawthorn head of football Rob McCartney said,

“With his contributions to team meetings and how he sees the game as a player we didn’t even realise we were going to get that talent.

“The perception of him didn’t highlight the strengths of the young kid.

“We were always confident he was a good fit for us and he hasn’t done anything to suggest that isn’t the case.”

Ginnivan has fit in well at the Hawks. Picture: Getty Images

Fellow forward Dylan Moore said he had been very impressed with Ginnivan’s footy IQ both on the field and off it.

“He’s got a high footy IQ,” Moore said of Ginnivan. “I have been really impressed by him. He has been dominating on the track and he is one of the ones speaking up in the team meetings.”

“He has a lot of confidence. But it is nice to see a player like him come in and surprise everyone with how hard he works.”

Asked how Ginnivan wil deal with the pressure of meeting his former club and premiership teammates on Sunday, McCartney said: “That’s a question you would have to ask him but from the outside looking in, he is a young boy who has had to manage a lot of spotlight for a number of different reasons.”

“I couldn’t see it being overbearing for him. Like any player going back and playing against their previous club, there is a little more in that game and he’s human so he would feel a bit of that.

“He is the first to say he had some growing to do on and off the field. Hopefully he keeps evolving and building strings to bow. He is a clever forward close to goal, showing that he might make a significant contribution.”

Ginnivan would have earned around $200,000 plus match payments on his old deal if he had chosen to stay at Collingwood this year. The Herald Sun believes he will now earn in the high $400,000s, with the prospect of more on offer if his performances spike.

The Magpies are just as bullish on their investment in Schultz, who signed a five-year deal on a contract believed to be worth at least $600,000 per season.

As the club gathers momentum, and he knows the system better, they are confident he will become a real forward threat.

Collingwood are confident in their new man. Picture: Getty Images

McGuane is fascinated to see the two forwards’ evolution at their new clubs.

He says each could borrow a bit of the others’ game to improve their own.

“I understand Collingwood’s move (to chase Schultz) because you could see some issues with Ginnivan’s game,” McGuane said.

“Is he highly-invested? Is he going to have limited game time or be the sub?

“Pressure should be a huge part of a small forward’s mantra and Schultz can contribute to the pressure, which is aligned to the coach’s message and philosophy.

“I can understand why, but I still expect more of him (Schultz) to not only apply pressure but with the attributes to hit the scoreboard.

“If Jack had Lachie’s work rate and intent … it would be great, but you would like Lachie to have some of Jack’s footy IQ, instinct and forward craft too.”

Originally published as AFL trade: Inside the wheelings and dealings that saw Jack Ginnivan and Lachie Schultz change clubs