THE FAT CHRONICLES - CUT AND RUN

THE FAT CHRONICLES - CUT AND RUN by The Oracle

Looking back at the frenetic activity of Friday morning's AFL meat market, one is touched by a feeling of pathos. Much of the stock in trade was little more than horse flesh; pathetic off cuts of inferior quality destined for one or two seasons in and out of the limelight before the inevitable final dumping and football oblivion.

I could hardly believe how many were treating it all so seriously or that the AFL website was operating a facility such as Trade Week Radio with commentators rattling on and on ad nauseum about nothing much at all and talkback callers asking the same questions three or four times a day. I really do empathise with that sort of thing but only because I've been doing it here for years.

Just look at the efforts of the Demons in the dying hours of the exchange period that seemingly lasted forever. It started when someone spotted David Rodan walking into AAMI Park but he wasn't there to celebrate the Storm's NRL premiership victory. In the blink of an eye, he became Melbourne's first Fijian born player at a cost of humble draft pick 88 which was soon to be one of the biggest players of the week, overshadowed only by the Tippett scandal but more of both later. 

Melbourne finally got its man in North's Carl Pedersen who managed two games in 2012 so it had to be considered an absolute steal that the player they traded for him (Jordan Gysberts) played only half that number this year. In order to balance the ledger the Demons had to grudgingly give up the coveted pick 63 but they managed to claw back number 74. When it was all over, the football departments of both clubs were seen heading in different directions at Etihad Stadium doing high fives and giggling to each other. 

The next step was to despatch Cale Morton back home to WA and the club that hounded out his now premiership winning brother allegedly for lack of a work ethic. Somehow, the Eagles had managed to secure pick 88 from Port Adelaide in an obscure trade deal and the Demons were only too happy to accept it back for possible use in upgrading a rookie at some stage in the future. Sad to think that Morton was once a top four draft pick: his epic fall from grace will go down in the history books.

The Demon fire sale wasn't finished yet. Stef Martin joined Brent Moloney at Brisbane for two more useless draft picks (53 and 73). With that, the FAT had been well and truly chewed up by the club's football department and everyone pulled up stumps.

The overall impression one got from the last day in particular was that the Demons were doing a cut and run from previous drafting disasters and making space on their playing lists for more recruits. Pedersen was the day's only real prize.

For a full wrap of the club's four week marathon Octoberfest read this Melbourne’s free agency/trade summary.

So if there are more to come (apart from national draft pick 4 and father/son selection), from where will they come? Well, in the next week, the clubs will lodge their first lists for the upcoming month or so and then there is a fortnight up to mid November during which they can pick up delisted players from other clubs onto their own lists. Then follows the national draft in late November and the pre season and rookie drafts in mid December. More players will come and go.

One player who interests me is Port Adelaide's Ben Jacobs who indicated during the exchange period that he wanted to return home to Victoria and nominated North Melbourne as his preferred  club. The Kangaroos stuffed Melbourne around over the Pedersen deal for the better part of a fortnight trying to extract a better (and ultimately, non-existent) draft pick to secure Jacobs so it would be a touch ironical if he found his way to the Demons. The club could certainly do with another midfielder so one assumes they would be open to persuading him to come across via the pre season draft where only the two new franchises stand ahead of the Demons. This places the club in a good position to snare him if something could be worked out with his management.

Of course, GWS and GCS might well take him but one wonders whether Jacobs is the type of player they would want on their lists given their existing riches in that area. Moreover, those clubs might well have a bigger fish to fry.

The big fish is Kurt Tippett and he, his management and his old club are all well and truly in the frying pan at the moment as we wait on the outcome of yet another AFL investigation. While the Crows face massive penalties if found guilty of draft tampering and salary cap rorting, there is a view that the player himself might come out of it with a sanction involving deregistration for a brief period but leaving it open for other clubs to pick him up, possibly in the pre season draft. That's where those new franchise clubs in might enter the equation.

Whatever the case, recent events have shown us that the football season never ends. It just keeps rolling along.

The wash up for the month so far -

ADELAIDE

In: Angus Graham (Richmond), draft selection 54

Out: Michael Doughty (retired); Chris Knights (Richmond); Brad Symes, Will Young (delisted); draft selection 43

Draft selections: 20, 54, 64, 83, 101, 119, 137

BRISBANE LIONS

In: Brent Moloney (restricted free agent), Stefan Martin (Melbourne)

Out: Josh Drummond (retired), Amon Buchanan (retired), Cheynee Stiller, James Hawksley, Sam Sheldon, Bryce Retzlaff, Brad Harvey (rookie), Josh Dyson (rookie), draft selections 53, 73

Draft selections: 8, 24, 33, 91, 109, 127

CARLTON

In: Draft selection 71

Out: Jordan Russell (Collingwood); Bret Thornton, Rohan Kerr, Paul Bower (delisted); Nick Heyne (delisted rookie); Matthew Lodge (delisted NSW scholarship player); Blake Bray (delisted NSW scholarship player)

Draft selections: 11, 36, 56, 71, 76, 94, 112

COLLINGWOOD

In: Quinten Lynch (West Coast), Clinton Young (Hawthorn), Jordan Russell (Carlton), NAB AFL Draft selections 18, 21, 39

Out: Chris Dawes (Melbourne), Sharrod Wellingham (West Coast), Tom Young (Western Bulldogs); Paul Cribbin, Daniel Farmer, Shae McNamara, Lachlan Smith, Trent Stubbs (delisted rookies); draft selections 42, 48, 58

Draft selections: 18, 19, 21, 39, 82

ESSENDON

In: Joe Daniher (father-son), Brendon Goddard (St Kilda), draft selection 52

Out: Angus Monfries (Port Adelaide), Mark McVeigh (retired), Anthony Long, Brendan Lee (delisted rookies)

Draft selections: 10 (committed to Daniher), 35, 52, 55, 75, 93, 111, 129

FREMANTLE

In: Danyle Pearce (Port Adelaide), draft selection 37

Out: Greg Broughton (Gold Coast); Antoni Grover (retired); Jay van Berlo (delisted); Gavin Roberts, Jordan Wilson-King (delisted rookies); draft selection 60

Draft selections: 17, 37, 40, 80, 98

GEELONG

In: Josh Caddy (Gold Coast), Hamish McIntosh (North Melbourne), Jared Rivers (Melbourne)

Out: Simon Hogan, Matthew Scarlett, David Wojcinski (retired); Orren Stephenson, Tom Gillies (delisted); Shannon Byrnes (Melbourne); draft selections 36, 59, first-round compensation pick for losing Gary Ablett

Draft selections: 16, 79, 97

GOLD COAST

In: Tom Murphy (Hawthorn), Greg Broughton (Fremantle), Jack Martin (GWS trade incentive selection), 2011 compensation selection end round one (R.Palmer), 2010 compensation selection round one (G.Ablett), draft selections 13, 57, 59, 60

Out: Josh Caddy (Geelong), Tom Hickey (St Kilda), Josh Fraser (retired), Andrew McQualter (retired), Sam Iles, Lewis Moss, Piers Flanagan, Alik Magin, Hayden Jolly, Michael Coad (rookie), compensation selection end round one (J.Brennan), Draft picks 2, 26, 47, 69

Draft selections: 13, 57, 59, 60, 87, 105, 123

GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY

In: Stephen Gilham (Hawthorn); draft selections 2, 3, 12, 14, 28, 65

Out: James McDonald, Luke Power (retired); Steve Clifton, Tim Segrave (delisted); Jack Hombsch, Jake Neade (Port Adelaide); Jack Martin* (Gold Coast); Jesse Hogan*, Dominic Barry (Melbourne); Tom Lee** (St Kilda), Jed Anderson (Hawthorn); draft selections 20, 24, 29, 43, 68

Draft selections: 1, 2, 3, 12, 14, 28, 65, 69, 86, 104, 122

* denotes GWS 17-year-old list concession mini-draft

** denotes GWS pre-selection

HAWTHORN

In: Jed Anderson (GWS NT zone selection), Brian Lake (Western Bulldogs), Matt Spangher (Sydney Swans), draft selections 29, 68, 72

Out: Chance Bateman, Cameron Bruce (retired); Jarrad Boumann (delisted); Stephen Gilham (Greater Western Sydney); Thomas Murphy (Gold Coast); Clinton Young (Collingwood); draft selections 22, 44, 65

Draft selections: 28, 65, 66, 84, 102

MELBOURNE

In: Shannon Byrnes (Geelong), Jack Viney (father-son), Dominic Barry (GWS NT zone selection), Chris Dawes (Collingwood), David Rodan (Port Adelaide), Jesse Hogan (GWS trade incentive selection), draft selection 49

Out: Brad Green (retired); Kelvin Lawrence (delisted); Brent Moloney (Brisbane Lions); Jared Rivers (Geelong); draft selections 3, 14, 27 (committed to Viney), 48, 88

Draft selections: 4, 27, 49, 53, 70, 73, 77, 88, 106, 124

NORTH MELBOURNE

In: Jordan Gysberts (Melbourne), draft selections 42, 48, 63

Out: Hamish McIntosh (Geelong), Aaron Edwards (Richmond) Cameron Pedersen (Melbourne)

Draft selections: 15, 38, 42, 48, 58, 63, 78, 96, 114, 132

PORT ADELAIDE

In: Angus Monfries (Essendon), Jack Hombsch (GWS), Jake Neade (GWS NT zone selection), Lewis Stevenson (West Coast), Campbell Heath (Sydney Swans), draft selections 30, 31, 85

Out: Troy Chaplin (Richmond), Danyle Pearce (Fremantle), David Rodan (Melbourne); Mitch Banner, Simon Phillips, Steven Salopek, Jacob Surjan (delisted); Mitch Curnow, Jarrad Irons, Daniel Webb, (delisted rookies); draft selections 52, 29, 72, 88

Draft selections: 7, 30, 31, 85, 90, 108, 126.

RICHMOND

In: Troy Chaplin (Port Adelaide), Chris Knights (Adelaide), Aaron Edwards (North Melbourne), draft selection 43

Out: Angus Graham (Adelaide); Dean McDonald, Brad Miller, Kelvin Moore (retired); Andrew Browne, Jeromey Webberley, Dan Connors (delisted); Addam Maric, Piva Wright, Gibson Turner (delisted rookies); draft selection 50, 74

Draft selections: 9, 32, 34, 43, 92, 110, 128

ST KILDA

In: Tom Hickey (Gold Coast), Tom Lee (Claremont), Trent Dennis-Lane (Sydney Swans), draft selections 25, 26, 41, 44

Out: Brendon Goddard (Essendon), Jamie Cripps (West Coast); Sam Crocker, Brett Peake, Dean Polo (delisted); Daniel Archer (delisted rookie); draft selections 12, 37, 57

Draft selections: 25, 26, 41, 44, 77, 95, 113, 131

SYDNEY SWANS

In: Draft selections 47, 66, 72

Out: Jarred Moore, Mark Seaby (delisted); Eugene Kruger, Jack Lynch, Dylan McNeil (delisted rookies); Campbell Heath (Port Adelaide), Matt Spangher (Hawthorn), Trent Dennis-Lane (St Kilda); draft selections 72, 85

Draft selections: 23, 45, 47, 66, 67, 103, 121, 139

WEST COAST

In: Sharrod Wellingham (Collingwood), Jamie Cripps (St Kilda), Cale Morton (Melbourne), draft selections 46 and 62 

Out: Quinten Lynch (Collingwood), Koby Stevens (Western Bulldogs), Lewis Stevenson (Port Adelaide), draft selections 18, 41

Draft selections: 46, 61, 62, 81, 99

WESTERN BULLDOGS

In: Lachie Hunter (father-son), Koby Stevens (West Coast), draft selection 22

Out: Brian Lake (Hawthorn); Nathan Djerrkura, Lindsay Gilbee, Ryan Hargrave (retired); Tom Hill, Andrew Hooper, Brodie Moles, James Mulligan, Justin Sherman (delisted); draft selections 27, 44, 71

Draft selections: 5, 6 (GWS compensation for Callan Ward), 22, 50 (committed to Hunter), 51 (GWS compensation for Sam Reid), 89, 107 and 125