It would be an exaggeration to say that Geelong’s victories in trading were as comprehensive as their grand final rout of the Swans.
But if no post-season trade or acquisition is comparable to winning a grand final – although some, such as Richmond landing Tom Lynch, make premierships viable – it is a long time since a premier has been able to have the kind of outcomes that the Cats managed.
Ollie Henry has joined his brother Jack at premiers Geelong.Credit:Getty Images
The Cats were already 10 goals up, in trading terms, before they snared Ollie Henry from Collingwood at the death; the Magpies, having stood firm until the final hours, finally yielded and took a pragmatic approach, tying the acquisition of Tom Mitchell to the Henry trade, with the Hawks swapping Mitchell for Geelong’s Cooper Stephens.
While Collingwood didn’t fare badly, the Pies didn’t gain the return they wanted for Henry either.
Normally, a team at the head of the ladder would not have the salary cap room to pull off the once-in-a-decade heist of recruiting Jack Bowes and pick seven in exchange for picking up a heavily back-loaded Gold Coast contract.
That they won the auction for Bowes was a measure of Geelong’s unmatched capacity to: a) pay players less than their rivals; and b) sell their wares to players. Bowes chose the Cats when he might have gone to Essendon or Hawthorn, clubs where one would think he would be more assured of a game.
When the AFL changed the rules to allow salary-cap dumps this year, they cannot have envisaged that an expansion team would be the party giving up the high draft pick and the player (and Bowes was promising in his first few years) to the premiers. The AFL hierarchy was – and should be – embarrassed that the system worked in favour of the top team.
If the salary-cap dumping system worked, Bowes would be a Bomber or Hawk. But the AFL has given players control of their destiny and just as no one can make a player like Jaeger O’Meara play for the Giants (whom he spurned for Fremantle), Bowes wasn’t compelled to join a bottom team, as the AFL would prefer. The league must re-think how the salary dumps work.
Once the Cats had Bowes and pick seven in the bag, they were playing with house money and could spin the roulette wheel on getting Henry and Tanner Bruhn cheaply.
Bruhn was grabbed first, at the relatively cheap price of pick 18.
Henry, too, was a bargain recruit. Had he been in this year’s draft, he would have been picked in the first round, having booted 21 goals from 15 outings in his second season. Geelong have given up a raft of later picks (which became pick 25) and Stephens, not in their best 23.
The Cats couldn’t lose in the Henry dealings. If the trade couldn’t be done, they would have lost only an opportunity.
All the risks were carried by Collingwood and Henry; they either landed him, or walked away.
Henry had been one of the players they’d effectively given up when the Cats were forced to trade first-rounders for Jeremy Cameron (Bruhn having been taken by the Giants). What this trade period demonstrated is that Geelong, in effect, are operating a recruiting zone that stretches from Corio through to the western district – they have 17 locals on their 2023 list.
Lachie Hunter has jumped to the Demons.Credit:Getty Images
If the Cats did exceptionally well for a team that’s just won silverware, the 2021 premiers also enhanced their position.
Melbourne adopted what you might call a “replacements” strategy. Luke Jackson was replaced with Brodie Grundy, with Collingwood helping make his enormous five-year contract affordable. Jayden Hunt, traded to West Coast, was covered by Lachie Hunter – again, with the other team (the Bulldogs) contributing to the existing contract.
And the role of Essendon-bound Sam Weideman was filled, on the final day, by his stand-in from the Bulldogs, Josh Schache. The Demons, thus, could be seen as a veritable lost Dogs home.
The Demons, who already boast one of the stronger lists, also bolstered their draft position with Fremantle’s first (pick 13) and future first and second-round choices.
It is always risky to declare winners and losers in trade periods, given that we cannot know how players will perform.
But if AFL trades are a game of poker – with all the bluffs and bluster – the past two premiers certainly improved their hands.
