THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2007: DAY THREE

THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2007: DAY THREE by The Oracle

THE EMPTY PASSENGER SEAT

Yesterday was one of the toughest days of my working life. For the past week and a half I've been dreading the prospect of facing up to the coming ordeal but I knew that the day would eventually come and when it came, I was going to hurt badly ...

The organisation for which I work has two or three regional offices and yesterday was the day when I had to make my monthly trip down Princes Highway to Corio Bay and our branch office in the very heart of Cat country. It was my first visit since the team that the locals call the "greatest team of all" won the AFL Premiership Cup and the Norm Smith Medal and the Brownlow Medal and the VFL Premiership and the JJ Liston Medal and the Nab Rising Star Award and weren't the locals going to be keen to tell me all about it?

I was set to travel down with a junior staff member but I received a call from management the evening before advising I would be travelling solo. Something about the company cutting costs and the lad had been given the pink slip. That was fine by me because the kid is a Blues fan and I much preferred having an empty passenger seat to an hour of earbashing about the man with the golden groin as an entree to what was going to hit me at the end of the ride.

The blue and white streamers were evident even before the Ford Factory came into sight. The locals carried ear to ear grins and the entire flock of them weren't backward in coming forward about their recent triumph. Once the usual formalities were over, I was on the receiving end of sufficient earfuls about the local football team to last me a lifetime. I stopped them all in their tracks when I mentioned the fact that head office was currently heavily into cost cutting. They understood that part well because as delightful as it might be for their team to win a flag, it was less fun to celebrate it while on the dole!

So we rolled up our sleeves and got down to some work. Everyone tried their hardest but such is the extent of the euphoria around the place that eventually our concentration lapsed and it was back to some sort of football related discussion. The thing that I learned was that Geelong's triumphant football season was working wonders for the psyche of Victoria's second city. The average citizen here has undergone an enormous boost in morale and I was happy for them because they've been through some tough times over the years.

I found it strange however, that nobody was interested in what was going on in the rest of the country during the trade week. They simply didn't care. Mention the possible trading of Steven King to the Saints and you were met with a yawn. Bring up Henry Playfair or Charlie Gardiner and the subject would turn back to a description of Steve Johnson's miracle goals and Paul Chapman's aerial display in taking that hanger.

As for Chris Judd, who in hell was he?

The locals were happy with life, with the reappointment of Bomber Thompson as coach and with their football team. It was perfect just as it was thank you. They were content to grab Larry Donohue's boy as a father/son selection and maybe they would pick up another couple of locals in the draft, hopefully from the Geelong Falcons, and that was it. It was as if the rest of the world simply doesn't exist.

The only person wanting to discuss anything other than the Cats' premiership victory was a relative newcomer to the organisation, a young lady from New South Wales who said she didn't know much about the game but she did have a football scoop for me. Suddenly, I was all ears. It seems that the son of someone from home has been offered a position on the Eagles' rookie list for 2008. His name is Ryan Davis and apparently he is their NSW scholarship holder. She wanted to know if he might step straight into the team to replace Chris Judd. I'm such a terrible liar so when I eventually stopped laughing, I simply responded in the negative. At least she was right about not knowing much about the game!

It dawned upon me that as long as I remained in Sleepy Hollow the exchange week was going be a non-event. I had entered a time warp and had travelled back to last year when, at the half way mark of the same week nothing had happened - not even in the background and certainly not in the corridors of football power.

But back in 2007 and in the real world outside, things were stirring.

I knocked back the opportunity to take part in a liquid lunch at a fashionable bar near the office, worked through lunchtime and was on my way back in the direction of town by mid afternoon. I tuned into SEN and suddenly found that I was in a different world – a world that was buzzing with rumours as many new names were surfacing in connection with the trades. The trade week was gathering a momentum of its own and, by the end of the day, the key stories were:

• Judd was just about over the line in precisely the trade that certain Carlton fans in the know were boasting about almost a month ago when the Juddster announced he was walking out of Perth. Draft picks 3 and 20 plus Josh Kennedy. I needed no further convincing that the claims they had made at the time about it being a done deal were true from the start. It was the Carlton of old – "whatever we want we get because we’ve got the money and we’re prepared to splash it around to get what we want." The rest of Juddmania was a mere charade. Ironically, there was also a story about the multi-million dollar out-of-court settlement that had been brokered for Vizy with the ACCC – the group belonging to the Blues' chairman over some alleged collusion over price fixing. I was wondering what the kid might have been saying had he been in occupation of the empty front passenger seat of my vehicle.

• Port Adelaide was being offered Richmond forward Jay Schulz in a deal that would see Jordan McMahon end up with the Power and Damon White off to Whitten Oval.

• Adelaide was figuring strongly in a move for the Kangaroos' big man Brad Moran and Port Adelaide half-back Brad Symes while Crows' ruckman Ben Hudson was virtually signed, sealed and delivered by the Western Bulldogs.

• Sydney midfielders Jude Bolton and Adam Schneider were on the move, the latter bound for St Kilda.

• There was significant enquiry about Hawthorn forward Tim Boyle. In turn, the Hawks had their eyes on out-of-contract Richmond onballer Danny Meyer.

• Melbourne was active on a number of fronts but, like most of the other trades, nothing had yet been officially consummated.

Chris Johnson's name was associated with a possible move to St. Kilda in return for a third round draft pick. The Demons would then have two of those, one of which would surely be sent in the direction of Adelaide for ruckman John Meesen. Ironically, Johnson was due to leave next week on a 10 day trip to China with the Demons as part of a leadership program. I glanced at the empty passenger seat to my left, wondered whether there would be a similar void on Monday's flight and reflected on how much the sport of football had become like any other part of the business world.

It could well be that Brad Miller might take Johnson's seat on the flight to the Orient because the Demons seem to be adamant that he will remain at the club as will Brock McLean who has shrugged off the flak from a couple of incidents in Europe and re-signed for another two years.

The view from the outside seems to be that the club is heading in the right direction as Dean Bailey continues to imbue it with his own particular down to earth philosophy based on a strong work ethic. The first training session under the new regime at the end of the month promises to be full of interest.

The drive home in the direction of the city end of the highway was nearing its end. I couldn't help but feel the hope welling in my heart that perhaps this time next year, I would be like the folk down in Geelong - celebrating an event that hasn't happened for 44 years and not having a care about the trade winds blowing all around me.