THE TRADING CHRONICLES Part Two: One Fell Swoop by The Oracle

[Demonland 73,207]

On his Twitter feed, Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley described the biggest (and the first) trade of the year in this way:

"Bravo to Geelong and Adelaide handling the Dangerfield trade. Professional, respectful to the player and win/win for each club #kudos".

The only reason I can put forward to support the view that the deal is a win for both sides is because it is perceived to be so by many in the media and the public.

But the Cats finished with a 25 year old dynamo - an elite player in the competition and parted with only national draft pick 9 and an untried 19-year-old. They also received pick 50 for good measure. Adelaide's "win" was essentially a four place upgrade over and above the one it would have received had the free agency compensation rules applied.

That's some win given that Melbourne received selection 3 for James Frawley last year. On that basis, the Crows were clearly forced into a deal for what was well below what one would otherwise consider to be the true market price for someone of Dangerfield's calibre!

The situation once again highlights the inadequacy of free agency compensation rules and the need for reform in that area. There are some who maintain that compensation should be removed altogether, especially in regard to unrestricted free agents. The problem is that in general, the main beneficiaries of free agency to date have been the stronger clubs. Remove the compensation and the weaker clubs will languish even further so if you really want to even up the competition, that aspect needs to be considered as well.

But getting back to Buckley, it's interesting that his own club has yet to enter the AFL post season trading room with a finalised deal.

This is not for a want of customers lining up to be traded to or from the club. The Pies have been mentioned as the suitor of choice in three high profile potential trades for Adam Treloar, James Aish and Jeremy Howe. On the other side of the ledger, there are at least three who want out although they are hardly as high profile as the above trio. Nathan Freeman, Ben Kennedy and Paul Seedsman have all been mentioned in dispatches as wanting to leave for other clubs leaving the Magpies in a quandary.

In assessing the draft value of these players it's obvious that the Magpies will have to give up a lot more than they will get (assuming that they act professionally as Buckley would prefer).

Any dealing these days is fairly intricate because there are some additional factors to be taken into account. Clubs can now trade future draft picks and some clubs also have to take into account the points system for academy and father/son player bidding. This factor has been mentioned as uppermost in the mind of GWS which has a raft of quality academy players in this year's crop so the Giants will definitely be after picks in any Treloar deal. That makes the dealing involving Collingwood so complex and it's why a number of potential trades appear to be in limbo as we pass the halfway mark of the free agency and player trade period.

We are just going to have to wait and see how things unfold in the coming week.

From Melbourne's point of view, the club is waiting upon the goings on at Collingwood to unravel as they involve Howe (going out) and Kennedy (coming in). Despite Melbourne Football Operations Manager Josh Mahoney's claim that the two were not dependent on each other, they are connected by the Magpies' situation. Indeed there are reports this morning of a massive multi-club deal which would (among others) involve Jimmy Toumpas moving to Port Adelaide and therefore would also resolve most of the issues surrounding the Demons' mooted trade movements at one fell swoop.

The departures of Howe and Toumpas and the arrival of Kennedy should result in an improvement in the club's draft position leaving it in a slightly better position than before it traded pick 25 from Jake Melksham. There is also talk of the club trading in for GWS's Tom Bugg but since the start of the week there have been very little indication of any surprise moves afoot at the club.

Hence, the 2016 Melbourne lists look like this at the present time:

Primary list

1. Brayshaw, Angus

2. Dawes, Chris

3. Dunn, Lynden

4. Frost, Sam

5. Garland, Colin

6. Garlett, Jeff

7. Gawn, Max

8. Grimes, Jack

9. Hogan, Jesse

10. Howe, Jeremy

11. Hunt, Jayden

12. Jetta, Neville

13. Jones, Matt

14. Jones, Nathan

15. Kennedy-Harris, Jay

16. Kent, Dean

17. Lumumba, Heritier

18. McDonald, Tom

19. McDonald, Oscar

20. Melksham, Jake

21. Michie, Viv

22. Neal-Bullen, Alex

23. Newton, Ben

24. Pedersen, Cameron

25. Petracca, Christian

26. Salem, Christian

27. Spencer, Jake

28. Stretch, Billy

29. Terlich, Dean

30. Toumpas, Jimmy

31. Trengove, Jack

32. Tyson, Dom

33. Vince, Bernie

34. Viney, Jack

35. Watts, Jack

36.

37.

38.

39.

40.

Rookie list

41. Harmes, James

42. King, Max

43. vandenBerg, Aaron

44. White, Mitch

ARRIVALS

Trade period: Jake Melksham (Essendon)

DEPARTURES

Retired: Daniel Cross

Trade period:

Delisted: Rohan Bail, Jack Fitzpatrick, Mark Jamar, Jordie McKenzie, Aidan Riley