THE TRADING CHRONICLES: DAY FOUR

HOME TO ROOST by the Oracle

I spent the better part of yesterday morning lying around the swimming pool of an AFL club recruiting officer.

My problem was that I was blindfolded, bound, gagged and chained to a deckchair, but I my assailants meant me no harm. They simply wanted to make the point that they didn't take too kindly to the thesis I had published here yesterday in which I revealed that most of trade week was nothing more than a period of rest and recreation for them.

Well they made their point and after a half hour's discussion and negotiation, I apologised, promised that there would be no more disparaging remarks about their noble profession and one of them drove me to an old car lot on the outskirts of the city where he removed my blindfold and released me. I managed to find my way back to my office where I caught up with the news of the day.

As I had predicted a day earlier, precious little was happening and, as the day wore on, nothing changed except for the fact that the Bulldogs finalised the Akermanis deal and picked up Andrew McDougall from the Eagles.

And so with only the final morning to come, this is the total product of the exchange period to date: -

Trade One

St Kilda get - Shane Birss

Western Bulldogs get - pick 59

Trade Two

West Coast Eagles get - pick 29 and pick 61

Western Bulldogs get - Andrew McDougall, pick 34 and pick 66

Trade Three

Brisbane get - pick 34

Western Bulldogs get - Jason Akermanis

The Bulldogs have been involved in every trade and seem to have done well by picking up two players at a relatively cheap cost.

The disturbing aspect of the trade period to date is that the players being traded are all in the not quite right category.

Sure, Akermanis is a great footballer but time moves on and his longevity in the game is limited. Not only that but there's always the risk that he'll continue to be problematic as a player. After all, he's been a pain in the Brisbane butt for a few seasons now and, is there any guarantee that he won't put his foot in that mouth again this year? Team harmony is so important these days!

Aker is the only player traded so far who reached double figures in terms of games played in 2006. Even then, his last game was his team's round 15 win over the Kangaroos. He didn’t play in the last two months of the AFL season.

Birss managed just three appearances for the Bulldogs in the past year – all of them coming during that period late in the season when the Doggies had about 24 players available. One can safely assume that had they not had their injury problems, he might have spent the entire year at Werribee.

McDougall managed just one appearance for the Eagles in 2006 and can't even boast of having played in a winning side in his team’s premiership year. His only game was in his team's defeat at the hands of Collingwood in round 16.

The thing about McDougall is that every AFL club has at least one player like McDougall running around. So far, the Eagles are the only club to have offloaded their "McDougall". The other club recruiting officers must be envious – but I can't really mention them here at the moment.

McDougall managed just one appearance for the Eagles in 2006 and can't even boast of having played in a winning side in his team's premiership year. His only game was in his team's defeat at the hands of Collingwood in round 16.

The thing about McDougall is that every AFL club has at least one player like McDougall running around. So far, the Eagles are the only club to have offloaded their "McDougall". The other club recruiting officers must be envious - but I can't really mention them here at the moment.

So today, the action really starts and no doubt there will be more trades to come. The bigger deals are still to be done and, as usual, other transactions await their outcome. Looking at the list of names for trade in the papers this morning raises some concerns. Most of the players left are in the not quite right category. That's what the trade week is all about these days - getting rid of your NQR's. But the concern for the AFL will be if there is little trading done and the majority of players wanting to switch clubs are forced into the pre season draft where they might find themselves a place where they don't want to be. From there, it's only a short walk possibly to the law courts and the entire AFL trade and draft system could well find itself under siege.

For that reason, if for nothing else, today shapes as an important on in the history of AFL recruiting.