AFL 2023 trade news: Collingwood star Taylor Adams requests move to Sydney Swans

Just weeks after ruling himself out of Collingwood’s premiership victory, vice-captain Taylor Adams requests a trade to an interstate rival.

An emotional Taylor Adams. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Collingwood vice-captain Taylor Adams has requested a trade to Sydney after making the agonising decision to leave the Pies only weeks after he ruled himself out of the premiership victory with hamstring soreness.

Adams believes he needs to find a club that can give him greater opportunity playing midfield as Sydney’s off-season plans come to fruition.

The Swans are poised to dominate the trade and free agency period like Collingwood 12 months ago by bringing in four key role players while still retaining an elite draft hand.

The AFL trade period kicks off on Monday with Sydney set to lodge a contract on a two-year deal for Fremantle defender Joel Hamling and having already signed Melbourne’s James Jordon.

Sydney will also hope to secure Melbourne’s star ruckman Brodie Grundy with pick 44 given the Demons need to get him off their books as a VFL regular.

The Swans met with Collingwood’s Adams last week and have convinced him to help fill the clearances void left by co-captain Callum Mills’ catastrophic shoulder injury.

An emotional Taylor Adams on grand final day. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

After a draft-night trade with Hawthorn to help the Hawks secure Josh Weddle last year the Swans have picks 11, 23, 31, 44 and 52 and will also secure a selection from North Melbourne in the Dylan Stephens trade.

It means they will take two early picks to the draft even if they hand over a pick as high as 31 for Collingwood’s Adams, who is 30 and has one more season on his current contract.

He is expected to sign a deal of two or three seasons to play in Sydney.

Sydney have maintained publicly there is no official succession plan for John Longmire to hand the reins to West Coast premiership player and assistant Dean Cox.

But it is clear Sydney believes it is in the premiership window and must cash in within the next two years under Longmire after aggressively targeting Ben McKay, Harry Himmelberg, Tom De Koning, Tom Doedee and Aaron Naughton.

Taylor Adams with one of Collingwood’s strength and conditioning trainers before the grand final. Picture: Michael Klein.

This masthead revealed last week Naughton could have accepted a 10-year offer from Sydney but instead signed a new eight-year deal.

If Sydney can take two early selections and bring in that quartet of talent they can win from the draft, free agency and trade period.

Last year the Pies brought in Bobby Hill, Billy Frampton and Tom Mitchell, with all playing key roles in the Grand Final despite coming at modest cost.

Sydney’s Luke Parker led the club for clearances this year (5.7), ahead of James Rowbottom (4.7), Chad Warner (4.5), ruckman Peter Ladhams (4.1) and Errol Gulden (3.8) but the Swans need more depth in that position and elite clearance domination.

Hamling had been offered a single-season deal at Fremantle but secured two years at Sydney, with the Dockers then upping their offer but unable to retain him.

Originally published as AFL 2023 trade news: Collingwood star Taylor Adams requests move to Sydney Swans