Whispering_Jack

Yes, why not milk this for all it’s worth?

The day was rather surreal because of the AFL’s rule preventing deals from being lodged before 3.00pm. I have a feeling that by clogging up the works it placed greater pressure on the clubs that were trying to sort out the megadeals - most of them got done but it all seemed messy. The disastrous look in the case of Collingwood couldn’t be explained away by Ned Guy’s post draft spin and Eddie McGuire’s relative absence from the scene was particularly telling in the circumstances. Adrian Dodoro had so many balls in the air that he was unable to produce the crowning achievement of bringing Josh Dunkley into the fold which has to be considered a major failure given that more than half the battle would have been to convince the player to cross. At least, he can hang his hat on the fact that the Bombers hold picks 6, 7 and 8 in the draft which is more than you can say for the Pies who probably have more work to do with their current draft hand that starts with 14 and 16 which might be challenged by an early bid for their NGA player Reef McInnes from the Oakleigh Chargers. If a few list managers are walking around with embarrassed looks on their faces then so to should be the AFL which has taken its own good time in sorting out new Covid era list sizes and salary caps. Yesterday, they announced that clubs need only take one pick into the draft instead of three as on previous occasions. Geelong finished the day with its trifecta of seasoned players all secured when it gave away a swag of picks to the Giants who might have lost some talent but will definitely feature prominently in the draft. Melbourne got its man in Ben Brown and held on to Tom McDonald and Neville Jetta while substantially improving its draft position. Here’s how the trades unfolded in the chaotic final 4 ½ hours:- • Richmond's Jack Higgins was traded to St Kilda along with pick 21 and a future fourth-rounder. The Tigers got pick 17 and a future second-rounder. • Ben Brown was traded from North Melbourne to Melbourne. North traded Brown, pick 28 and a future fourth-round pick to Melbourne for 26, 33 and a future fourth-rounder tied to Brisbane. • Brisbane’s Alex Witherden and pick 86 were traded to the West Coast Eagles in exchange for pick 58 and a future third-round pick. • Sydney traded pick 25 for Melbourne's 31 and 43. • Collingwood traded Jaidyn Stephenson, Atu Bosenavulagi and pick 39 to North Melbourne for 26, 33 and 70. • Collingwood traded Tom Phillips to Hawthorn for pick 65. Essendon traded Orazio Fantasia and pick 73 to Port Adelaide for pick 29 and a future third-round selection • Brisbane traded 18, 19 and a future second-rounder to Melbourne for a future first-rounder, and 25, 68 and 69. • Greater Western Sydney traded Jeremy Cameron and two future second-round picks (one tied to Essendon) to Geelong for 13, 15 and 20. • Greater Western Sydney traded Jye Caldwell, pick 44 and 74 to Essendon for pick 29 and a future second-round pick. • St Kilda traded Nick Hind and pick 77 to Essendon for 67 and 74. • Collingwood traded Adam Treloar and 26, 33 and 42 to the Western Bulldogs for 14 and a future second-round selection. And this leaves the indicative draft selections at the end of the trade period as follows:- Adelaide 1 9 22 23 40 56 66 80 Brisbane Lions 25 53 58 63 68 69 94 Carlton 38 48 78 Collingwood 14 16 65 70 75 92 Essendon 6 7 8 44 67 74 85 87 Fremantle 12 32 55 Geelong 51 96 Gold Coast Suns 5 27 37 76 84 GWS Giants 10 13 15 20 44 52 74 88 Hawthorn 4 24 45 46 49 72 Melbourne 18, 19, 28, 50, 89 North Melbourne 2 11 30 39 71 81 Port Adelaide 35 47 57 59 73 95 Richmond 17 36 61 79 97 St Kilda 21 64 67 74 93 Sydney 3 31 34 43 60 82 West Coast Eagles 62 86 91 Western Bulldogs 26 33 41 42 54 90

I don’t like these ratings because they’re not particularly objective and nor do they take in the entire picture of the end of season recruiting process. Every club enters this period from a different position and they have different aims. Richmond’s recruiting was always going to differ from that of Adelaide or North Melbourne. Geelong was interesting in that many were advocating that the club with the oldest list by far should start looking to freshen up its list with young blood but instead, it refreshed with experience and ends with a relatively poor hand at the draft. Even so, the Cats have a good record through Stephen Wells with its recruiting. A better assessment would be achieved after the drafts and an even better one when a few years have passed and we’re aware of the outcome of all of the player movements including their effect on the player group. I wouldn’t be that. confident of the future today if I were a Collingwood fan.

INDICATIVE DRAFT ORDER (after the 2020 Trade Period) ROUND ONE 1. Adelaide 2. North Melbourne 3. Sydney 4. Hawthorn 5. Gold Coast 6.Essendon 7. Essendon 8. Essendon 9. Adelaide 10. Greater Western Sydney 11. North Melbourne 12. Fremantle 13. Greater Western Sydney 14. Collingwood 15. Greater Western Sydney 16. Collingwood 17. Richmond 
 18. Melbourne 19. Melbourne 20. Greater Western Sydney 21. St. Kilda ROUND TWO 22. Adelaide 23. Adelaide 24. Hawthorn 25. Brisbane 26. Western Bulldogs 27. Gold Coast Suns 28. Melbourne 29. Greater Western Sydney 30. North Melbourne 31. Sydney 32. Fremantle 33. Western Bulldogs 34. Sydney 35. Port Adelaide 36. Richmond 37. Gold Coast Suns 38. Carlton 39. North Melbourne 40. Adelaide ROUND THREE 41. Western Bulldogs 42. Western Bulldogs 43. Sydney 44. Essendon 45. Hawthorn 46. Hawthorn 47. Port Adelaide 48. Carlton 49. Hawthorn 50. Melbourne 51. Geelong 52. Greater Western Sydney 53. Brisbane 54. Western Bulldogs 55. Fremantle 56. Adelaide 57. Port Adelaide 58. Brisbane 59. Port Adelaide 60. Sydney 61. Richmond ROUND FOUR 62. West Coast 63. Brisbane 64. St Kilda 65. Collingwood 66. Adelaide 67. St Kilda 68. Brisbane 69. Brisbane 70. Collingwood 71. Collingwood 72. Hawthorn 73. Port Adelaide 74. St Kilda 75. Collingwood 76. Gold Coast Suns 77. Essendon 78. Carlton 79. Richmond ROUND FIVE 80. Adelaide 81. North Melbourne 82. Sydney 83. Hawthorn 84. Gold Coast 85. Essendon 86. West Coast 87. Essendon 88. Greater Western Sydney 89. Melbourne 90. Western Bulldogs 91. West Coast 92. Collingwood 93. St Kilda 94. Brisbane 95. Port Adelaide 96. Geelong 97. Richmond

Since you can keep trading picks right up to the National Draft, is there any limit to Josh Mahoney’s pick trading finesse? Could we possibly even finish with pick 1?

And, as if the Magpie faithful aren’t furious enough, they also threw Joffa’s nephew into the deal.

Traded to North as the first pawn in Collingwood’s fire sale.

The two obvious ones are to secure Ben Brown and to improve our draft position if possible (although we know the latter can be done at any time right up to and including the actual draft). I don’t have any further hopes or expectations for today but I would like to think that Tom McDonald, if he stays, can revitalise his career and show all the naysayers that they were wrong.

Aussie Rules Draft Central on Finlay Macrae

The hype level of the trade period is reaching a crescendo as the penultimate day of business nears a close. After days of back and forth meetings and handwringing Carlton and Essendon have agreed to a deal for Adam Saad and it was an Adrian Dodoro supersonic special that saw - Saad, pick 48 and 78 to Blues in exchange for picks 8 and 87. For the moment, the Bombers have picks 6, 7 and 8 but, in a dramatic moment of karma, the Bulldogs have demanded two of these picks for Josh Dunkley - otherwise there’s no deal. What a pity the trade period wasn’t designed to end at around Xmas/Boxing Day! The Cats got involved but the impasse over Jeremy Cameron wasn’t part of it. They offloaded Lachlan Fogarty and pick 38 to Carlton for picks 30 and 51 and flicked Nakia Cockatoo to Brisbane for a future 3rd round selection. They then moved pick 30 on to the Kangaroos for Shaun Higgins. The overall effect of these moves pushed the average age of their list into the stratosphere and it ain’t over yet. Meanwhile, Port Adelaide Power struck a deal for versatile Swan Aliir Aliir in exchange for a future second-round pick. And in a very late in the day deal, Sydney receives Tom Hickey, picks 34 and 60 in return for picks 58, 62 and a future second-round and future third-round pick. There are lots of balls still in the air and a few new names came up for discussion (including a “Chip” Frawley” comeback at the Saints) which leaves us with a really exciting day ahead tomorrow. Apparently, the AFL’s idea of adding to the drama of the final day of trading is that while clubs can still agree on deals, they can only lodge them between 3.00pm and 7.30pm. How exciting?

The player’s name is Deakin Pereira and he was at training at the club’s last training session for 2019. His mother @kyliepereira was good enough to report on here how much Deakin enjoyed training and that he was due back early in the new year but was then off to try out in the States as a basketballer. He was projected to grow to 211cm. Would be interesting to know how it all turned out - he did look massive and given our Covid-19 situation compared with over there, it would be interesting if he gave footy another go. https://demonland.com/forums/topic/47503-training-wednesday-18th-december-2019/page/6/?tab=comments#comment-1787476

Dodoro would demand a future round one draft pick.

Things appear to have gone quiet about Brodie Smith who was mentioned as a possible trade earlier on in the piece.

The provisional draft order with 2 days to go in the trade period — Adelaide 1 9 22 23 40 56 66 80 Brisbane Lions 18 19 53 63 86 94 Carlton 8 30 51 87 Collingwood 16 39 42 75 92 Essendon 6 7 48 67 73 78 85 Fremantle 12 32 55 Geelong 13 15 20 38 96 Gold Coast Suns 5 27 37 76 84 GWS Giants 10 44 52 74 88 Hawthorn 4 24 45 46 49 65 72 83 Melbourne 26 31 33 43 50 68 69 89 North Melbourne 2 11 28 70 71 81 Port Adelaide 29 35 47 57 59 95 Richmond 21 36 61 79 97 St Kilda 17 64 77 93 Sydney 3 25 58 62 82 West Coast Eagles 34 60 91 Western Bulldogs 14 41 54 90

I’m wondering whether the fact that we’re hearing rumours about ANB and and AVB being mentioned as trade possibilities that the club has given up the idea of moving Tom McDonald on but still wanting to make more salary cap room available for a further trade?

It took ninety-one hours after the last deal was done for the trade period to emerge from hibernation for the first of the day’s trade deals to be announced and shock horror, Dodoro was involved. The player traded was 2 metre Peter who once was a #8 draft pick for the Suns who didn’t play a game in 2020 and was duly dispatched to the Bombers for a future fourth rounder. Then followed three deals that involved the trade stars of the day - the Melbourne Football Club. Take a bow, Josh Mahoney, even if the Roos are holding up the big trade for Ben Brown. The final deal was a three way deal that involved a fellow Demon. The day ended with most of the big deals still to be done and we wait on tomorrow or Thursday to learn the fate of likes of Treloar, Cameron, Dunkley, Saad and, of course, Brown. The big news is that Adam Treloar has spoken with the Bulldogs and had a medical there (late news suggesting the medical wasn’t great) while his Collingwood teammate Jaidyn Stephenson is in talks with North Melbourne about his future. GWS and Geelong are still haggling over the number of first round picks required to get him to Corio Bay. And Dodoro still has many balls hanging in the air. Today’s deals ~ • Peter Wright to Essendon for a future fourth-round pick to the Suns • The Crows traded their No.33 selection and 50 to the Demons this year for Melbourne's future second-round and future fourth-round selection • Melbourne has traded Mitch Hannan to the Western Bulldogs for its future third round draft pick. • Melbourne has traded Braydon Preuss to GWS Giants for pick 31 • In a 3 way deal, Stefan Martin was traded to the Western Bulldogs and Lachie Young ended up at North Melbourne. Brisbane traded Pick 70 to North Melbourne, which gave Pick 63 to the Lions. And the beat goes on ...

Moving his contract off our books will also help us a little.

AFL trades: Tom McDonald won’t be part of Ben Brown deal “He does have some interest from Essendon. Having said that, Adrian (Dodoro) has a lot of balls up in the air. I would think Tom sits (behind the other deals). Sometimes it just takes one deal, the Adam Saad or (Jeremy Cameron) deal and the dominoes start to fall”. Alex McDonald - Tom’s manager. Well, that explains a lot.

The trade period is becoming a time of rejection. Players and teams are rejecting each other even though, in some cases, they’re contractually bound together for another year or two or four. Clubs are rejecting offers from other clubs and, as a consequence, the days end with little achieved on the surface. We know that will change by 7.30 pm on Thursday evening but for now, we mostly wait as we always do on Essendon’s Adrian Dodoro. While a number of potential deals surrounding the Essendon Football Club remain in limbo and one — Orazio Fantasia’s move to Port Adelaide’s — may be about to fall apart, St Kilda seems to be pressing its claims as the competition’s home of choice to players on the move. Today’s big news was Jack Higgins’ request for a trade from Richmond to St Kilda. And apart from that ...

Jack Higgins has officially requested a trade and wants to join St Kilda.

The most likely outcome for Oscar is that one of the clubs will him as a delisted free agent.

I’ve now been told that it’s 7.30pm on Thursday.

Now Sam Edmund saying that Essendon has emerged as the latest potential suiter for the out of favour Melbourne forward, Tom McDonald. The Bombers have registered their interest and are canvassing their options to soften the blow of Joe Daniher's departure.

AFL Trade Radio reporting that Tom McDonald is not on Gold Coast's radar. Seems that he’s not on anyone’s radar at present and if so, we have to manage our list and our trading on the presumption that we keep him.

In the past they’ve turned off the fax machines at 2.00pm but who knows in 2020? The clubs still don’t know about list sizes and the salary cap limit going forward which is a bit of a surprise given that the (usually) loudest club Collingwood has the most at stake in that decision.