THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2013 by The Oracle NOT MUCH ADO

It's already two weeks since the end of the 2013 season and there are another two to come before the AFL's free agency and trade period ends. There will then be another four weeks to the national draft, the preseason and the rookie drafts ensuring that the media will be full of stories about the game for some time yet and before we've all settled down, with Christmas upon us, the run up to the 2014 season will be in sight.

Didn't the football media lap things up this week with a radio station dedicated to the trades pumping out interview upon interview and the print and electronic media churning out story upon story about the various intriguing scenarios that might come into play over the next two weeks?

The trouble is that since I last reported to you early last week, only one trade has been consummated. In that time, the world has witnessed the continuation of mass killings in Syria, various acts of violence elsewhere, storms, earthquakes, the shut down of one of the free world's major governments and countless other events raging from major importance to triviality.

Yet, with the eyes of the football world on the 18 AFL clubs, only one lousy trade was done and that came as a complete surprise. St. Kilda's offloading of key ruckman and potential team leader Ben McEvoy to Hawthorn for a relatively unrated medium forward and a late first round draft pick had the pundits divided. Was it a brilliant move by the Saints to build on its stockpile of early picks in anticipation of a major rebuild or a sign of desperation prompted by rumoured ailing finances?

The position of the Saints is very much a great unknown of the trade period, as is that of Brisbane which seems to be fighting a rearguard action to prevent the defection of its younger lesser lights. Then there's Adelaide and Essendon who must fight this campaign minus any starting first or second round draft picks. Both appear desperate to work their way into earlier draft contention which they can only do via trades or through picking up free agents.

Hence, the news of a possible deal between the Crows and the Demons involving Bernie Vince and possibly Jarryd Lyons, the son of former Demon, Marty. Time will tell what happens there.

On the other hand, Essendon remains the enigma of the trade period. The big question is whether the spectre of the ASADA enquiry will bring about a hail of infraction notices and who would want to trade for a player who potentially, could spend the next two years sitting it out on the sidelines?

The mooted trade of Stewart Crameri to the Bulldogs for pick No.22 is still on the cards but the deal is moving along, like everything else in this trade period, painfully slowly. Meanwhile the Bombers are eyeing Paul Chapman and even Nick dal Santo in moves that suggest they are confident they are on the cusp of being a premiership contender. The likelihood of that happening however, would no doubt be derailed if a dozen of its players suddenly had to take a holiday courtesy of the anti-doping authorities.

The Done Deal

Ben McEvoy (St. Kilda) traded to Hawthorn for Shane Savage (St Kilda) and draft pick 17.

Yawn.

To be continued