All-Time WORST AFL Trades

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,381]

What did St Kilda give up to get Andrew Lovett?

Also, going back a long time, but surely John Pitura to Richmond in return for Graeme Teasdale, Whale Roberts and Francis Jackson (did I get that right?) has to be right up there.

 

[layzie 28,498]

4 hours ago, Tony Tea said:

Freo gave away Pick 1 and mid range picks to Hawthorn for Trent Croad and Luke McPharlin. Croad  went back to Hawthorn and played in a flag with Hodge and Mitchell, who the Hawks got with the Freo picks.

And when Hawthorn got him back they traded pick 10 which turned out to be 8 gamer Riley Dunn.

[Demon Jack 6,272]

Any of Fremantle's successful attempts at landing a key forward

Jesse Hogan - Pick 6 and 23

Cam Mccarthy - Pick 3 

[spirit of norm smith 12,836]

Freo effectively trading a teenager called Jeff Farmer to Dees for Phil Gilbert

Freo trading out a young Peter Bell

Though they got them back to try to save face 

 

[Palace Dees 1,961]

21 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Freo effectively trading a teenager called Jeff Farmer to Dees for Phil Gilbert

Freo trading out a young Peter Bell

Though they got them back to try to save face 

 

Peter who?

Edited October 5, 2022 by Palace Dees

[Demonland 64,407]

 

[layzie 28,498]

1 minute ago, Demonland said:

 

And Kane sits no.1 on my list of all time stupid trade predicitons.. 

[Bang Bang Bang 5,431]

The Biz was an absolute gun for us in the later Daniher years, and the Wiz was just so-so at Freo and wanted to leave anyway. That trade was perfectly fine in my eyes. 

Some that stick out off the top of my head are North trading a first rounder for Jonathan Hay. He played 8 games for them. The Hawks got Max Bailey with the pick so didn’t make  full use of the pick. Still worth a mention. 

Hawks trading a first rounder for Jonathan O’Rourke who ended up being as bad as Toumpas.

Carlton trading Shaun Grigg for Andrew Collins. Straight swap. Grigg played 150+ games for the Tigers and Collins was delisted pretty quickly.

Speaking of straight swaps. Mitch Farmer for Jay Schulz. Oops. Schulz was awesome at Port and Farmer was a bust. 

Port Adelaide trading pick 14 for Nathan Lonie. That pick became Grant Birchall. Lonie played 40 forgettable games at Port and retired at 25.

Weller for pick 2 is an obvious one. Can see why the Suns did it though and it’s a shame for them that pick 2 Brayshaw became a bonafide superstar. They don’t always.

Not sure if this should count but Melbourne trading Jack Watts to Port for pick 31 (Bailey Fritsch). I put that down to good drafting more than good trading. 
Speaking of which, Lever and a second rounder (Petty) for two firsts which became Lochie O’Brien and Liam Stocker anyone? 

Not going to include trades from last century as clubs generally had NFI what they were doing in those days.

I’m sure I’ve missed many. 

 

Edited October 5, 2022 by Bang Bang Bang

[Queanbeyan Demon 5,874]

8 minutes ago, Bang Bang Bang said:

The Biz was an absolute gun for us in the later Daniher years, and the Wiz was just so-so at Freo and wanted to leave anyway. That trade was perfectly fine in my eyes. 

Some that stick out off the top of my head are North trading a first rounder for Jonathan Hay. He played 8 games for them. The Hawks got Max Bailey with the pick so didn’t make  full use of the pick. Still worth a mention. 

Hawks trading a first rounder for Jonathan O’Rourke who ended up being as bad as Toumpas.

Carlton trading Shaun Grigg for Andrew Collins. Straight swap. Grigg played 150+ games for the Tigers and Collins was delisted pretty quickly.

Speaking of straight swaps. Mitch Farmer for Jay Schulz. Oops. Schulz was awesome at Port and Farmer was a bust. 

Port Adelaide trading pick 14 for Nathan Lonie. That pick became Grant Birchall. Lonie played 40 forgettable games at Port and retired at 25.

Weller for pick 2 is an obvious one. Can see why the Suns did it though and it’s a shame for them that pick 2 Brayshaw became a bonafide superstar. They don’t always.

Not sure if this should count but Melbourne trading Jack Watts to Port for pick 31 (Bailey Fritsch). I put that down to good drafting more than good trading. 
Speaking of which, Lever and a second rounder (Petty) for two firsts which became Lochie O’Brien and Liam Stocker anyone? 

Not going to include trades from last century as clubs generally had NFI what they were doing in those days.

I’m sure I’ve missed many. 

 

Wiz's stats at Free were very similar to those of when he played for us. At most, a couple of percent drop off. 

[Queanbeyan Demon 5,874]

13 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

What did St Kilda give up to get Andrew Lovett?

Also, going back a long time, but surely John Pitura to Richmond in return for Graeme Teasdale, Whale Roberts and Francis Jackson (did I get that right?) has to be right up there.

 

Brilliant get @La Dee-vina Comedia. But I suggest there is one even more Fd-U from the same era that, arguably, in the sliding-door moment, has repercussions today. Care to guess?

Edited October 5, 2022 by Queanbeyan Demon

[Earl Hood 5,787]

13 minutes ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

Brilliant get @La Dee-vina Comedia. But I suggest there is one even more Fd-U from the same era that, arguably, in the sliding-door moment, has repercussions today. Care to guess?

South Melbourne trading the Daniher brothers to Essendon for Neville Fields?

[Queanbeyan Demon 5,874]

14 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

What did St Kilda give up to get Andrew Lovett?

Also, going back a long time, but surely John Pitura to Richmond in return for Graeme Teasdale, Whale Roberts and Francis Jackson (did I get that right?) has to be right up there.

 

 

36 minutes ago, Earl Hood said:

South Melbourne trading the Daniher brothers to Essendon for Neville Fields?

Cost South a dynasty. I would suggest no other trade comes near the level of clusterphucary this has turned out to be.  

Edited October 5, 2022 by Queanbeyan Demon
Typo

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,381]

1 hour ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

 

Cost South a dynasty. I would suggest no other trade comes near the level of clusterphucary this has turned out to be.  

As a matter of interest, did Geelong have to trade anything to get Gary Ablett Sr from Hawthorn or was he "delisted" (in today's language) and available to anyone? It may not have been a disaster for Hawthorn, but it's certainly been a great success for Geelong.   

[Demonstone 19,050]

Hawthorn parted ways with Ablett after he struggled with city life and wasn't keen on turning up for training.  He played the following year at Myrtleford under the coaching of his Uncle Len before Geelong recruited him.

Along the lines of the Daniher balls-up, Sydney also relinquished the rights to two Riverina products in Wayne Carey and John Longmire to North Melbourne for a packet of chips.  To be fair, they were Samboy Barbecue, the king of chips.

[Stiff Arm 4,410]

L Jackson for 13 and Freo F1st

[Wilson7 2,474]

Sydney accepting $60,000 for Longmire and $10,000 for Carey.

[one_demon 826]

Tim Kelly.  West Coast sold the farm to get him and he's been ordinary 

[Queanbeyan Demon 5,874]

3 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

As a matter of interest, did Geelong have to trade anything to get Gary Ablett Sr from Hawthorn or was he "delisted" (in today's language) and available to anyone? It may not have been a disaster for Hawthorn, but it's certainly been a great success for Geelong.   

Alan Jeans was once asked about this. His answer was broadly along these lines . . . in the time Abblett has been at Jeelong, we've won four premierships and they've won none - we're happy with our decision.

This was Jeans effectively saying "we are better off without him".

Edited October 6, 2022 by Queanbeyan Demon
Typo

[Queanbeyan Demon 5,874]

2 hours ago, Wilson7 said:

Sydney accepting $60,000 for Longmire and $10,000 for Carey.

Is that technically a trade? Difference days back then of course. But you're right @Wilson7 - a Swans disaster to go with the Danniher shambles. 

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,381]

3 hours ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

Alan Jeans was once asked about this. His answer was broadly along these lines . . . in the time Abblett has been at Jeelong, we've won four premierships and they've won none - we're happy with our decision.

This was Jeans effectively saying "we are better off without him".

Mind you, it would take some bold (and lateral) thinking not to trade a player on the basis that you lose future father-son rights as well as the player himself.

[John Crow Batty 8,222]

IMO our worst trades were when we got Kelvin Templeton and Peter Moore. Two stupendously highly paid superstars for the time who gave us absolutely nothing. Tellingly we only improved more or less immediately after they left. Templeton never really recovered from a serious knee injury sustained before he came to us and Moore just basically played for Brownlow votes. 

[John Crow Batty 8,222]

3 hours ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

Alan Jeans was once asked about this. His answer was broadly along these lines . . . in the time Abblett has been at Jeelong, we've won four premierships and they've won none - we're happy with our decision.

This was Jeans effectively saying "we are better off without him".

With Ablett’s issues at the time every other club would have let him go if they had him.

[Queanbeyan Demon 5,874]

36 minutes ago, John Crow Batty said:

With Ablett’s issues at the time every other club would have let him go if they had him.

Blight was probably the only bloke on the planet that could deal with him. 

[dice 566]

19 minutes ago, John Crow Batty said:

IMO our worst trades were when we got Kelvin Templeton and Peter Moore. Two stupendously highly paid superstars for the time who gave us absolutely nothing

Templeton kicked 99 goals in 34 games and Moore got a Brownlow. Hardly nothing, but yes, seemed to offer a lot more at the time for the $300k price tag.

The Phil Carman trade with Ross Brewer in '79 was worse. Carman played 1 [censored] season for us and Brewer went on to play in 2 (losing) grannies for Collingwood. Also, the Greg Wells trade in '81 to Carlton for $35k and Vinny Catoggio hurt too.

And I know this will upset a lot of Demonlanders but arguably our worst trade of recent times was done during Prendergast's disastrous draft pick era (2008-2012): Mitch Clark (36 goals in 2 seasons) for pick 12 (Sam Docherty)

[Jontee 3,634]

32 minutes ago, dice said:

Also, the Greg Wells trade in '81 to Carlton for $35k and Vinny Catoggio hurt too.

Greg had been a faithful servant of the club and towards the end of his career we let him go to seek success.  Not every trade can be judged on face value.