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The trade period is always full of its shocks and surprises. A time when we see some of our favourite players hang up the boots of their club and walk into the welcoming arms of their rivals.
Most of the time we know weeks in advance what clubs the players are linked to, but sometimes there’s a move that no one sees coming.
The stage looked set for Buddy Franklin to begin his 2014 campaign as a Giant but he was stolen from under the noses of GWS by the Sydney Swans.
The thought of Buddy playing up on the forward line with the likes of Jeremy Cameron and John Patton, as well as likely number one draftee Tom Boyd was more than just exciting.
Seeing him don the black and orange and running out onto Skoda Stadium to sell-out crowds was the beginning of a new era for the fledging AFL club trying to stamp its position in the NRL-dominated Western Sydney.
However it was not meant to be.
With a move that shook the whole AFL community, as well as raising eyebrows yet again on the issue of the COLA given to the Sydney teams, the Swans swooped in with a mind-blowing lucrative deal that was kept completely under ropes for almost a year.
Before we knew it Buddy was a Swan and the Giants were left scratching their heads trying to figure what had just happened.
They lost the star that had been linked to moving to the struggling club all year. All their plans for the off season had to be rethought.
Yet out of the shadows of the subsiding disappointment came new revelations.
The Swans have blown a very large portion of their salary cap yet again after securing star forward Kurt Tippet during last year’s free agency period.
And now with room running out on the Swans roster to keep their many stars, some players are already beginning to be offloaded.
The Giants have already picked up premiership winning ruckman Shane Mumford who will provide a massive improvement to the control and structure of their game.
However this is just the start of a nine-year deal. Talented young forward Jed Lamb is on his way to leaving the Swans and cross the bridge to be the second player this year to join the Giants.
Sydney have been unable to offer him a new contract worthy of his developing talent, and it has been realised that it may be easier to lure players from the Swans then try and convince players to make the move interstate to join the club.
It was a huge blow losing Buddy Franklin, but by backing out when the price got too high, GWS made the right choice and have now placed themselves in a surprisingly good position.
With each year Franklin’s payments increase.
Therefore, it could be that each year more Swans are squeezed out of the roster, and where better to go than down the road to their up and coming young rivals who are cashed up and always on the hunt for proven talent.
So not securing star forward Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin might have been a blessing in disguise.
Their loss of one of the games biggest stars may instead build the path to bringing in more and more talent from the big city to the outer suburbs.
It’s going to be a long nine years for the Swans, but for GWS it’s going to be the gift that keeps on giving.
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