THE TRADING CHRONICLES - PART NINE

THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2011 by The Oracle

Part Nine: TRADING ANGST

The tweet from Trade Week Radio's Craig Hutchison announcing that it was a "... [M]assive day on @TradeWeekRadio from 8am ... " 

They promised us news of all the deals as they were happening and, while they did honour that promise, it was hardly a "massive" day.

There were no real surprises and many of the moves contemplated in the lead up to exchange period simply failed to materialise.

To be sure, almost twenty separate deals were concluded and posted on the AFL website but many of these were either small beer or worse still, "shandy" deals that involved the trading, not of players, but of draft picks. Some of these deals were convoluted and difficult to make sense of but someone out there thinks they were most probably worthwhile.

The prime trade of the exchange period was the move of former Brisbane Lion Mitch Clark to Melbourne for its first round draft selection (No. 12).

On the day that Mitch Clark was born (19 October, 1987), the world's financial markets were in turmoil. Almost 24 years later, it was Clark who was to throw the football world into turmoil with an about turn on his decision to knock back Melbourne's initial contract offer in favour of his original intended destination of Fremantle.

The 200cm forward/ruckman started his football career with East Fremantle in the WAFL and was drafted at number 9 in the 2005 AFL Draft.  

The young Clark was given the Lions' number 1 guernsey and made his debut in the opening round of 2006 against Geelong but illness and injury plagued him until his breakthrough year in 2009.

Clark was thrown into the first ruck out of necessity due to  injuries to season-ending injuries to Matthew Leuenberger and Jamie Charman. He played in all 24 games for the Lions and had a stellar season narrowly missing out on All Australian honours. 

Subsequently, he returned to mainly forward line duties with occasional runs in the ruck and was his team's leading goalkicker with 27 goals. He has played 81 goals resulting in 61 goals. 

While he might not yet be regarded as a noted goalkicker, Clark fulfills a major need on the Demons' list, filling one of those "gaps" in the team's line up of which new coach, Mark Neeld spoke when his appointment was announced last month. 

Moreover, his recruitment demonstrates a new form of determination and resolve on the part of Melbourne's hierarchy to get things done. The Demons went out and got their man and, in doing so, trumped others and caught the public and the media by surprise.

This evoked some positive responses such as former champion key forward, David Schwarz's pronouncement that Clark was "more valuable to the club than departed Tom Scully," because he would have  an immediate impact in his position and the signing was proof "the Demons were no longer push-overs."

However, others in the media were not so gracious and, indeed, showed some angst that Melbourne had the temerity not to turn over and accept things when first told that Clark simply wanted to be with the Dockers. 

Some were questioning his cost even though the contract figure was purely speculative. The Herald Sun's Jay Clark tweeted that all this might mean is that his namesake (no relation) is on more money than the number 1 at either Collingwood or Geelong. 

Sure thing.

Also on twitter, Sportal questioned Clark's statement that money wasn't behind his move to the Dees (which was not quite an accurate interpretation of Clark's words in the first place) and asked its readers:

 "What do you reckon?"

Very few were interested into analysing why Clark's recruitment was so important to Melbourne,  to the team's structure and to its style of play as to warrant being given such a strong contract offer but really, some of these blokes couldn't analyse some of those weird draft pick swaps or decipher the meaning of the Giants' recruiting if they tried (come to think of it, neither could some of the people at GWS).

In other Demon developments, Matthew Warnock's trade to the Suns got across the line for pick number 52 which will become Melbourne's second selection overall in next month's national draft. The club now has picks 36, 52, 54 and the possibility of 72 or a relatively early pre season pick depending on how many players it decides to delist. One of those delistments seems certain to be Addam Maric who was unable to find a new home at North Melbourne.

The good news for the Demons is that they are well placed in terms of draft picks and salary cap space to face the advent next year of free agency and the post new franchise era and more importantly, appear to have navigated safely beyond the angst and the odium of the Scully departure and the debacle of 2011's coach sacking drama. 

And a decent footballer might well be carrying the red and blue's famous number 11 out onto the field of play once again.

Completed Trades:

1.  Richmond get Steven Morris (West Adelaide) and first round draft selection (No. 15)

GWS Giants get first round draft selection (No. 14).

2. Collingwood get Marin Clarke (ex-Collingwood),  Jamie Elliot (Murray Bushrangers) and fourth round draft selection (No. 67)

GWS GIANTS get first round draft selection (No. 25).

3. Adelaide get first round draft selection (No. 24), second round  draft selection (No. 46) and third round  draft selection (No. 64).

Hawthorn get Jack Gunston (Adelaide), third round  draft selection (No. 53) and fourth round  draft selection (No. 71).

4.  Gold Coast Suns get first pick in the "mini draft".

GWS GIANTS get first round draft selection (No. 4) and a mid first round compensation draft selection for future use.

5. St. Kilda get Terry Milera (Port Adelaide, SA),  Ahmed Saad (Northern Bullants) and first round draft selection (No. 25)

GWS GIANTS get first round draft selection (No. 20).

6. Fremantle get first round draft selection (No. 20).

GWS GIANTS get an end of first round compensation draft selection for future use.

7.  Adelaide get second pick in the "mini draft" and Luke Brown (Norwood).

GWS GIANTS get first round draft selection (No. 10) and a late first round compensation draft selection for future use.

8. North Melbourne gets Will Sierakowski (Hawthorn rookie)

Hawthorn get third round draft selection (No. 58).

9. Richmond get Ivan Maric (Adelaide) 

Adelaide get second round draft selection (No. 37).

10. Adelaide get Tom Lynch (St Kilda)

St Kilda get on traded second round draft selection (No. 37).

11. Port Adelaide get Brent Renouf (Hawthorn)

Hawthorn get second round draft selection (No. 33).

12. Brisbane Lions  get Jordan Lisle (Hawthorn)

Hawthorn get second round draft selection (29).

13. Fremantle get on traded second round draft selection (No. 29), third round draft selection (No. 58) and fourth round draft selection (No. 71)

Hawthorn get second round draft selection (No. 38) and third round selection (No. 56).

14.  GWS Giants get on traded third round draft selection (No. 56)

Hawthorn get Jarrad Boumann (GWS Giants).

15. GWS Giants get Chad Cornes, Dean Brogan (Port Adelaide) and fourth round draft selection (No. 69)

Port Adelaide  get third round draft selection (No. 49).

16. Port Adelaide get Brad Ebert and second round draft selection (No. 45)

West Coast get second round draft selection (No. 28) and on traded third round selection (No. 49)

17. Melbourne get Mitch Clark (Brisbane Lions)

Brisbane Lions get first round draft selection (No. 12).

18. Collingwood get Peter Yagmoor (Cairns) and third round draft selection (No. 50)

GC Suns get second round draft selection (No. 47)

19. Sydney Swans get Mitch Morton (Richmond)

Richmond  get fourth round draft selection (No. 79).

20. Brisbane Lions get fourth round draft selection (No. 69)

GWS Giants get Luke Power (Brisbane Lions).

21. West Coast get Josh Hill (Western Bulldogs)

Western Bulldogs get third round draft selection (No. 49).

22. Brisbane Lions get Dayne Zorko (Queensland) and second round draft selection (No. 47)

GC Suns get Matthew Warnock (Melbourne) and second round draft selection (No. 34)

Melbourne get third round draft selection (No. 52).

23. Brisbane Lions get Ben Hudson (W Bulldogs)

W Bulldogs get fourth round draft selection (No. 70).

24.  GC Suns get first round draft selection (No. 26)

Geelong Cats get second round draft selection (No. 32) and on traded second round draft selection (No. 34).

25. Adelaide get first round draft selection (No. 27), second round draft selection (No. 31) and fourth round selection (No. 68).

GC Suns get first round draft selection (No. 24).

26. Adelaide get Lewis Johnston (Sydney Swans)             

Sydney Swans get Tony Armstong, second round draft selection (No. 35) and fourth round draft selection (No. 68).

27. Sydney Swans get Tom Walsh (St. Kilda)        

St. Kilda get second round draft selection (No. 35) and fourth round draft selection (No. 68).

28. Adelaide get Josh Jenkins (Essendon) and second round draft selection (No. 41)

Essendon get second round draft selection (No. 31).

29. GC Suns get 2010 end of round 1 compensation pick (Richmond)       

Richmond get 2010 round 2 compensation pick and on traded first round draft selection (No. 26).

Demonland thanks The Oracle for his analysis and insights into the trade period.