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Fremantle’s Lachie Schultz pumps his fists and roars with delight as a teammate runs towards him and his opponent looks depressed. Lachie Schultz’s move from Fremantle to Collingwood led the trade season, but what will its long-term impact be?
It is the regular one that starts in March and lasts until the end of September, with each side with 23 players every week, while thousands watch from the stands and millions from home.
AFL trade season deadline drama
Essendon and Port Adelaide ran the clock to secure trades for Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and Xavier Duursma, while Jack Ginnivan made a surprise move to Hawthorn at the AFL trade deadline. Graphics by Brandon Zerk-Thatcher, Xavier Duursma, Esava Ratugolea, Jack Ginnivan and Ivan Soldo. Read more
The greatest prize is the honor of the prime minister. You may have heard that Collingwood won it last month.
Every year, the second season is infinitely dumber. With the professionalization of the AFL, player movement has become a staple in the October shops. Every year a boutique radio station pops up discussing player and draft pick moves, with column inches filled with hypothetical moves and whispers.
Fans of seventeen different clubs will be dreaming of a one-off relegation away from the Premier League in two sweet weeks, and fans of the league leaders will be hoping they’ve done enough to get by.
With the 2023 transfer window in the books, the ABC crunched the numbers and looked at players on the move and clubs to choose from to find out who could be moving on next year and who longer-term.
Instead of the 2022 cavalcade of major players, top picks and mega-stores, the 2023 shopping season has progressed with a quiet hum.
Instead of last year’s 34 players, 32 players changed hands. No one has moved with the profiles and potential balance-changing impact of Luke Jackson, Jason Horne-Francis, Izak Rankine or Josh Dunkley.
Instead, the moves were made by fringes, disaffected players looking for fresh starts, or former high draft picks looking for a new environment to thrive.
Overall, the projected future impact of these players this year is about half of last year.
A quieter season could be a sign that more clubs see themselves close to promotion to the Premier League. The clubs have just seen Collingwood reach the finals after several tight wins and a recent run on the bottom side of the ladder. Hope lasts forever.
Fremantle’s Lachie Schultz – a name unfamiliar to some on the east coast – is likely to headline this year’s crop. Schultz was Fremantle’s biggest bright spot last year and was not far from All Australian selection.
Big names like Taylor Adams, Brodie Grundy, Jack Ginnivan and Ben McKay have also moved clubs, but their stars are either on the wane or continue to rise.
This series of inferior moves may be evidence of a slightly altered approach – misfit over pure talent. Talent alone is not enough to make a business successful, as Melbourne and Brodie Grundy found out in 2023. A player’s “fit” in the club’s system and fit with existing talent is also crucial.
Brodie Grundy walks to his knees as two Lions players try to tackle him
Schultz will be hard to match with Jamie Elliot playing a similar role for the Pies.
There are more obvious matches. Either Jordon Sweet or Ivan Soldo will be Port’s top priority next year. Brodie Grundy, Taylor Adams and James Jordon should add contentious steel to a pack of Swans junior midfielders who have proved vulnerable.
A number of high-profile former top picks – such as Paddy Dow, Elijah Hollands and Nick Coffield – were also picked up at low cost towards the end of the season and could be much better suited to their new clubs.
Adrian Dodoro’s day off
There are winners and losers in every trading period, but after that it can be difficult to understand. At first glance, the biggest lead in this competition seems to have gone to the side that many claim to be the October “experts”, Essendon.
The Bombers’ outgoing long-time roster, the sometimes notoriously difficult Adrian Dodoro, left them with a distribution of three free agents who will get their draft spot for free. Todd Goldstein, Jade Gresham and Ben McKay should step in and contribute immediately without costing the club draft picks. The Bombers also received promising youngster Xavier Duursma in exchange for Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and some fourth-round draft picks.
The following year, three other clubs also achieved it. Half of the 32 clubs that traded players went to Essendon, Sydney, Port or Hawthorn – four at each club. Unlike the Bombers, the costs of the other three came from the league’s biggest losses in draft capital. Taking the draft
Players aren’t the only ones who change hands during a trade. A draft pick tends to be the most valuable asset at most clubs. This year, a somewhat odd approach was taken to the draft.
Most of the 2023 draft picks have changed hands at least once so far. The golden coast owns almost a third of the second ring. Hawthorn and the Bulldogs have almost half of Round 3 combined.
Gold Coast is targeting four highly-rated players from the Talent Academy to pick up – AFL recruitment points are needed to match offers from other clubs. Due to some smart contracts, there is a real possibility that some of these offers will be lower than otherwise expected.
The bill itself is expected to continue
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