On trading

by LES EVERETT

THE AFL trade week is over. This year it didn't appear as frantic as in the past. Just plain weird.

Two of the highest profile players to walk away from their existing clubs - Jade Rawlings of Hawthorn and Nick Stevens of Port Adelaide - will now be consigned to the preseason draft after interested clubs couldn't come up with deals.

Hawthorn and Footscray appear to have done a deal which should see Rawlings go to the Bulldogs but Port will get nothing for Stevens who looks likely to be picked by Carlton.

Here's a summary of what happened...

The complicated ones

1. A three-way deal that saw David Loats (Hawthorn) go to Geelong; David Clarke from Geelong to Carlton and 152 game Blue Simon Beaumont to Hawthorn.

2. An even trickier three-way thing whereby Lachlan Veale (18-y-o; no games) went from Hawthorn to the Bulldogs who gave up Mark Alvey and pick six to Essendon who sent Danny Jacobs to Hawthorn. This looks bad for Footscray but it could open the way for Jade Rawlings to become a Bulldog and not be labelled a dog. That is, of course, unless something happens to keep the Bulldogs out of the preseason draft.

The homecomings

1. Trent Croad fulfills his boyhood dream of playing for Hawthorn for the second time. After two seasons with Fremantle (and a permanent place on the honour board as 2002 leading goal scorer) Croad has been traded back home for pick 10.

2. It's rumoured Corey McKernan saw the funny side of it when he left North Melbourne to get away from Dennis Pagan only to have Pagan turn up a couple of years later as his coach at Carlton. McKernan goes back to the Roos and the Blues get David Teague and Digby Morrell.

The more clubs than Ian Baker-Finch

Popular Blue Justin Murphy is off to his fourth club after stints at Richmond and Geelong and even a coming and going at Carlton. Murphy was swapped with Essendon's Cory McGrath.

The cheap as chips

Carlton has picked up Hawthorn pair Daniel Harford (153 games) and Brett Johnson (38) in exchange for pick 51.

Matthew Allan was an All-Australian ruckman in 1999. This week he was traded to Essendon for pick 60.

The done deal

The other high profile deserter, Footscray's Nathan Brown, went to Richmond for pick six. As mentioned earlier the Bulldogs on-traded six and will be looking to get Jade Rawlings in the preseason draft.

The who's that agains

Jason Gram, two games in two years at Brisbane, was traded to St Kilda for pick 23.

Adam Morgan, three games in five season with Port Adelaide, was deemed to be worth pick 34 by Footscray.

Adelaide got Scott Stevens plus pick 31 from Sydney in exchange for picks 29 and 45. Stevens was recruited from Perth and played 25 games in two seasons with the Swans.

The searching for greener pastures

Steven Koops from Fremantle to Footscray for pick 19.

Daniel Haynes (West Coast) plus 42 to Geelong for 20.

Brent Guerra (Port Adelaide) to St Kilda for 39.

Ben Holland (Richmond) to Melbourne for 20.

Heath Scotland (Collingwood) to Carlton for 35.

Peter Street (Geelong) to Footscray for 20.

You'll notice a couple of trade picks appear more than once (like 20 for instance) it's to do with on-trading and really we'd need to use calculus to explain so let's just leave it.

For a change not every club was happy after trade week. It's a good old Port Adelaide break from tradition...

And we'll leave the final word to AFL boss Andrew Demetriou: "After every trading period, the AFL will review all of the exchanges and if anything requires further clarification, we will do whatever is necessary to maintain the integrity of our rules."

The smash and crash style of Steven Koops will be on show at Footscray in 2004. Photo by Les Everett

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