Footy: The lowdown on a massive trade week

By Adam Bulman

Trade week is always one of the most exciting times of the off-season for an AFL fan, and the 2009 trade week was a particularly exciting one. I’ve decided to break down each of the 15 trades that took place during the week.

1. North’s Josh Gibson + pick 69 (Taylor Duryea) to Hawthorn for picks 25 (Ryan Bastinac) and 41 (Ayden Kennedy): Not a bad trade for both parties. Hawthorn filled its need for another key defender, even if Gibson is an undersized one. Bastinac is a highly rated junior and North could end up being the winners there.

2. Richmond’s Andrew Raines to Brisbane for pick 44 (Matt Dea): Richmond will probably be the winners here, as Raines may struggle to immediately fit into the Brisbane line-up. I’d expect Dea to debut for Richmond this year at some point as he has a mature body and has been impressive at training.

3. Melbourne’s Brock McLean to Carlton for pick 11 (Jordan Gysberts): McLean is a renowned hard nut who didn’t quite fulfil his potential at Melbourne. Gysberts is a tenacious midfielder that went somewhat higher than expected in the draft, which shows Melbourne must have rated him. Hard to pick a winner here.

4. Brisbane give away Bradd Dalziell and pick 28 (Mitch Duncan) and receive Brent Staker, Amon Buchanan and pick 47 (Ryan Harwood), West Coast give away Staker, Mark Seaby and picks 39 (Sam Grimley) and 55 (Trent Dennis-Lane) and receive Dalziell and pick 22 (Gerrick Weadon), and Sydney give away Buchanan and pick 22 and receive Seaby and picks 28 and 55. West Coast looks an obvious winner here, picking up Dalziell, a noted ball-winner, and a second-round pick, whilst only giving away players who they didn’t really need and lower draft picks. Brisbane looks like a loser, as I can’t see Staker or Buchanan adding much to the team.

5. Sydney’s Barry Hall to the Bulldogs for pick 47 (Ryan Harwood). The Dogs have been a highly competitive team for a while, but they have been on a search for a key forward since about the Middle Ages. Hall could be the missing piece to their puzzle, although he’s only got a couple of years left. Don’t know anything about Harwood except that he is a Tasmanian midfielder with good skills. A fair trade.

6. Essendon’s Andrew Lovett to St Kilda for pick 16 (Jasper McMillanPittard). A very lopsided trade to say the least. Lovett is known for his bad attitude, and may yet be axed or even put in jail if the rape allegations surrounding him are true. And I mustn’t forget that Lovett’s teammates allegedly don’t want him at the club. JMP bolted into contention before the draft, impressing recruiters with his kicking and high football IQ.

7. Freo’s Brett Peake to St Kilda for pick 48 (Jesse Crichton). Peake was widely considered to be a bit of a spud, and I know very little about Crichton. Peake will spend a lot of time at Casey, Crichton in the WAFL. Irrelevant trade.

8. Richmond’s Jay Schulz to Port Adelaide for Mitch Farmer and pick 71 (Ben Nason). When I heard we were getting rid of Schulz, I punched the air in happiness. A former first round draft pick, he failed to cement a role as a key forward, nor as a defender. Farmer is a small, quick defender, although he hasn’t been overly impressive so far this preseason. Nason is a quick, slightly built player with hair very similar to that of Dale Thomas.

9. St Kilda’s Xavier Clarke to Brisbane for pick 60 (Jesse W. Smith). Clarke is a former top 5 pick who was drafted ahead of Jimmy Bartel. Smith was a highly rated junior who has had terrible struggles with injury at the Roos. If he puts his injury worries behind him, he could be a handy player.

10. Sydney’s Darren Jolly to Collingwood for pick 14 (Lewis Jetta) and pick 46 (Ben Stratton). Jolly is one of the more underrated rucks in the competition, he’s a no-nonsense tap merchant who gets the job done with little fanfare. Having said that, I’m not sure Collingwood is suited to him, and Collingwood will need a premiership for this trade to be a success. Jetta is a lightning-quick, mature aged Aboriginal forward, and expect him to have an impact in 2010.

11. Geelong’s Shane Mumford to Sydney for pick 28 (Mitch Duncan). Like many ruckmen, “Mummy the Bunyip” is a former rookie draft pick who is an absolute giant. He impressed last year at Geelong and is quite mobile and good at tackling for a man of his size. Duncan is a versatile West Australian who is noted for his endurance running. Mumford and Seaby will be contesting for the “Jolly replacement” role.

12. Hawthorn’s Ben McGlynn and Josh Kennedy to Sydney for picks 39 (Sam Grimley) and 46 (Ben Stratton). This trade surprised me, as I thought McGlynn and Kennedy were players that were quite suited to Hawthorn. McGlynn is a fast, nippy little rascal who will probably slot straight into Sydney’s best 22, although it seems strange imagining him in red and white. Grimley is a mobile ruckman who will need time at Box Hill to develop. I’d rate Sydney as the winners of this trade as McGlynn is a proven player, although I don’t rate Kennedy particularly highly.

13. Port give away Shaun Burgoyne and picks 24 (Jake Carlisle), 40 (Allen Christensen), and 56 (Josh Cowan) and receive Jay Nash, pick 9 (Andrew Moore) and pick 16 (Jasper McMillan Pittard). Hawthorn give away Mark Williams and pick 9 and receive Burgoyne and pick 58 (Rhan Hooper). Essendon give away Nash, pick 16, pick 58 and pick 42 (Nathan Vardy) and receive Williams, pick 24 and pick 33 (Anthony Long). Geelong give away pick 33 and receive picks 40,42 and 56. Now that’s one monster of a trade! Hawthorn look like obvious winners, receiving one of the most dangerous midfielders in the league in Burgoyne. Williams could be a goalkicking option for Essendon. Moore looks a good chance to see senior action this year for Port. There are many talented rookies involved in this trade, but I think Jake Carlisle in particular has quite a lot of potential as a tall forward.

14. Freo’s Marcus Drum to Geelong for pick 49 (Dylan Roberton). Drum had a few opportunities at Freo but didn’t really cement his spot in the team. He will spend a lot of time in Geelong’s VFL team. Not a relevant trade.

15. Carlton’s BRENDAN FEVOLA and pick 27 (Callum Bartlett) to Brisbane for Lachie Henderson and pick 12 (Kane Lucas). Unquestionably the biggest trade of trade week. As I read about this on the AFL website in the school library, a big grin formed on my face as I visualised the angry reactions of Carlton fans that were to come. A forward line with Fev and Brown will strike fear into the heart of opposition defences, but you feel Brisbane need to win a premiership for this trade to be considered a success. Henderson will be under a lot of pressure and scrutiny now, but he was a promising talent as a junior and rarely got opportunities in Brisbane’s forward line. At Carlton he will have the chance to show us how good he is. The pick of Kane Lucas seemed a bit strange considering tall forwards such as Carlisle, Black and Griffiths were still available.

And that’s the end of the review! Feel free to comment, post feedback, talk about how good player X is, whatever.

Comments

  1. Still can’t believe Mumford left Geelong. :-( I’ve heard RUMOURS, now bare in mind this is all hearsay, but apparently Blake was quite keen to leave Geelong. Ever since the 2007 GF controversy, apparently there has been a bit of ill-feeling between him and his teammates. Perhaps they lost patience with the whole “pity me” stunt he pulled and the ultimatum he handed the club – Me or Kingy.

    Anywho, he was really keen to go to Sydney, but they were only interested in a ruckman who could compete in ground-level contests. Blake is a brilliant tap-ruckman, but can do little else.

    Mumford was going to stay with Geelong when the Swans were offering $750,000 over 3 years, but when the offer was extended to $1 million over four years, he felt the security of a four-year contract was too good to pass up. Needless to say, Geelong were far from impressed.

    Mummy cited his reasons for leaving as having the belief he would always be a number 3 ruckman at Geelong, but could be a number 2 or even eventually number 1 ruckman at another club.

    However Geelong had been pushing for Mumford to become the number 2 ruckman, with his age setting him up nicely to be Ottens successor in a few years’ time as the key ruckman. They took this news very badly.

    ALLEGEDLY Blake hit the amber liquid pretty hard during his end-of-season break, following his being overlooked in trade week.

    This is all just what I have heard on the grapevine, and should not in any way, shape or form be treated as absolute, correct and true information.

  2. Great article Adam,

    I believe the best trade of the week, from my point of view, was trade one. Losing Gibson hurt, but gaining the fast Bastinac and skilful forward Kennedy should see my team come off the better side.

    I also don’t rate Josh Kennedy, he has a good first name but that’s it. Oh and his last name might be a little famous too.

    Lol, i remember i got a text from my Mum when the Fevola deal was done, i had fun telling my school mates who didn’t believe me.

  3. Steve Healy says

    Nice work Adam, jeez you know your stuff.

    I also found out the Fevola trade in the school library, I love finding footy news in the library

  4. Oh and Lovett should be locked up and behind bars. St Kilda clearly lost out there.

  5. I found out the footy fixture for this year in the library, and spent period 3 texing Steve about it lol

  6. Steve Healy says

    oh yeah that was funny, lol

  7. Yeah you were supposed to be at the Athletics carnival but you weren’t lol

  8. Steve Healy says

    oh yeah that was funny, lol

  9. Comment Deledio: Oh well, I did use Wikipedia to get a list of the trades – as if anyone could remember every detail of every trade!

    Hurley should see some time in jail too.

  10. We all use Wikipedia at some point in our lives.

    Nah Hurley isn’t too bad, only one offence compared to Lovett, who has a history of abusing other people, sexually and physically.

  11. David Hale’s hurt his knee and chest area at training and will miss the NAB Cup and maybe more, oh no there goes our season :| (Note sarcasm)

  12. Oh, hush Josh – us Geelong fans are still smarting after Hale kicked 8 goals against us in a game – I think something ridiculous like 6 in a quarter. We are very glad he shall be missing the first NAB Cup game. We might win by 16 goals now, instead of 10 ;-)

  13. I’m sorry. I’ll stop teasing now – should be a good game. Can’t wait. 24 days to go!

  14. That’s how talented we are, our worst player kicked 8 goals on the best full-back of this era. Haha. I’m enjoying all the injuries to our senior players, as they aren’t serious but they’ll miss the NAB Cup and i’ll get to see some youngsters that i haven’t seen before.

  15. Got footy training AND tennis training tonight, what do i do?

  16. ..go to both josh lol

    nice work Adam.
    i will never forget how happy i was when i knew Fev WAS NOT comming to Collingwood and that i would still be a Magpie. :)

  17. Nah i won’t go to any.

  18. ..gee and they say IM LAZY! lol

  19. I don’t have any tennis shorts though, and i don’t wanna train with the Seniors yet

  20. you know what i have always wanted to do?
    call RACV and ask for Jason! :)
    lol

  21. Jason is a funny bloke

  22. lol hes always saying “call Jason”
    or “call me, im jason”
    its like OKAY I WILL :)
    lol

  23. The RACV probably gets people calling them up asking for Jason all the time now :P

  24. LOL well i have only called 4 or 7 times..

  25. Couldn’t help smirking at some of the names of some of the Thai junior players, following the scoreboard on the AO website.

    In the boy’s doubles: Kobkanok Upapong
    In the girl’s doubles: Luksika Kumkhum

    It’d be funny if they played mixed together.

  26. Lol, they probably sit at home laughing at our names Adam!

  27. ..cant wait for Fed’s match!! :)

    and im so upset Nadal lost :( poor guy had something wrong with his leg didnt he?

  28. You might catch a bit of it before 7 do their 6pm News/Today Tonight ritual.

  29. Wow, looks like Ziebell also escaped a re-break of his leg. Lucky

    Hale said that he could see his Tibia bone after he crashed into the fence, but got a tetanus shot and stitches and good as new

  30. Adam,
    nice work but I think you may have false started on Marcus Drum.
    Wasn’t happy at Freo. (who is?) but was a canny selection for the Cats.
    Remember every one poo hoo’d Harry Taylor after 2008 GF. The Cats need to look at developing their back line as that is where they are most chronologically challenged.
    We are owed a smokie backman since we cleared Mario Bortolotto to Carlton. He didn’t play many games there but I think they were both winning grand finals. Marty Christiansen’s nephew will be ok as well. Family club the Cats.
    Phantom.

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