THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2006: DAY TWO

A DULL DAY AT THE OFFICE by the Oracle

On Monday I was literally swept off my feet by an avalanche of work but yesterday, it was the opposite. The phones stopped ringing, appointments were cancelled and there was virtually no mail. So I decided to catch up with the backlog of my paperwork and ended up taking an early lunch break.

By that time, I was ready to lap up any news of the trade week but there was nothing much on offer beyond the now standard speculation, most of which had to be looked upon with much more than a single grain of salt. I tried to get in touch with my usual contacts but they were nowhere to be found so I walked into the local newsagents and checked out the sports sections of the various papers while the proprietor frowned disapprovingly at my clumsy attempt to appear as if I was genuinely browsing.

The Herald Sun provided a pretty comprehensive rundown of the latest news, most of which centred on Aker going to the Bulldogs. The rest was more of a regurgitation of what we'd already heard from the television reports or read on the internet the day before. The HUN mentioned a couple of Demons who might possibly be on the market - Alistair Nicholson, Clint Bizzell, Ryan Ferguson and Paul Wheatley, all of them allegedly being hawked around without eliciting any interest. Oh, and they said the Adem Yze was not for trade. I wasn't sure how I should interpret that!

The Age had a few snippets starting off with the suggestion that another Carlton youngster, 19 year old Jordan Russell might jump ship and go back home to Port Adelaide. I somehow doubt whether that's going to cause a ripple on the AFL scene but it will worry the folk at Carlton.

As I was flicking the pages of the Age, a courier dropped in the Adelaide paper and there it was - a suggestion that Demon defender Daniel Bell could return to SA as the Crows' only play in AFL trade week. The story wasn't corroborated by any direct sources and in the end it turned out that Bell had only recently signed on for another two years. The same paper mentioned that Essendon’s Jay Nash was also in the Crows' sights. By the end of the day, the radio reported that he too had signed a two-year contract with the Bombers. So much for the accuracy of the reporters at the Advertiser.

Back to the Age where Chris Tarrant's name continues to be linked with West Coast, the Saints are interested in Jason Johnson and have indicated that Stephen Milne is up for trade, the Tigers are pursuing a trade to secure Graham Polak and Geelong has indicated that forward Steve Johnson might be available "at the right price".

A mate who's a fellow Demon fan walked into the store and we decided to have lunch at a nearby deli. He's into this trade stuff too and he's as bored by this week as I am so we joked about the speculation in the papers. He told me he'd heard that morning about an absolute ripsnorter of a trade that's brewing involving Melbourne’s Nick Smith for out of contract Crow, Luke Jericho. We had a good laugh about that one. Compared to Jericho, Smith had a wealth of AFL game time in 2006 – exactly 20 minutes more than the Jericho who disappeared off the radar after a lacklustre performance in the NAB Cup grand final. If it happens, this will certainly not be the trade of the decade!

Mind you, it's the Crows who I blame for all of this inactivity in trading. Last year, they sold off a non-entity in Fergus Watts to St. Kilda for a first round draft pick. Watts spent most of the year injured and from all reports looked very ordinary on comeback with the Casey Scorpions twos.

The point is that if you can get pick number 17 for an absolute dud, then what is Collingwood going to ask for a dud who has "All Australian" written all over him like Chris Tarrant? What would Hawthorn want for Spida Everitt – even if he is already into his thirties? So to my mind, the Crows have gone and spoiled it for everybody because it's now well nigh impossible to trade as a result of that one deal from last year.

If the trade deals all dry up, then you can be sure as night follows day that somebody will decide to challenge this defective system in court one day.

In the absence of any trade talk, my mate and I discussed business, politics and weather before returning to the footy. Over our plates of steaming hot ravioli pasta, we decided to dabble in a bit of nonsense and came up with a very interesting scenario for Melbourne in 2007. Did you know that it's conceivable that the Demons could let go of Nathan Brown and Nick Smith and then pick up Nathan Brown and Nick Smith?

Nathan Brown and Nick Smith are two youngsters who attended last week's 2006 NAB AFL Draft Camp. Smith comes from the Oakleigh Chargers and played well on a defensive flank in his team's TAC Cup premiership. He's described as a "medium midfielder", is 183cm tall and weighs 78kg. He was one of the best at the camp in the standing vertical jump.

Brown is a tall defender from North Ballarat (194cm 89kg) who impressed with his pace at the Draft Camp. He was third in the 20-metre sprint and in the top half dozen of the repeat sprints and was named full back in the 2006 All Australian Under 18 team. Not bad for a big boy and he also has a twin brother who is a tall forward.

Apparently, there are a few young Motlops going round so the club could delist Shannon and recruit one of his family from the Northern Territory. If nothing else, it might save the club the cost of painting new names on the lockers in the clubrooms.

At the rate things are going, there aren't going to be many other changes as a result of this week's non-activity.