Pies get away with Crisp deal

The early indications have the Pies as the big winners out of the Dayne Beams deal.

There’s no doubting the credentials of Brisbane’s acquisition – Beams is a premiership player, a best and fairest winner and an All-Australian – but the players Collingwood were able to trade him for are not just seemingly better value than first thought, their list looks a lot more likely to compete for silverware sooner than we originally thought.

Much was made about Beams’ decision to head home to Queensland to be around his family and play alongside his brother.

The Pies were after some of the Lions’ prized talent in the trade, and credit to Brisbane for standing firm and keeping their stars off the trade table.

The Pies got Pick 5, Pick 25 and Jack Crisp in the deal, and Lions fans were laughing.

Pick 25 was turned into Levi Greenwood, hardly the big fish Pies’ fans were after. An inside midfielder who was offered big years and money to leave Arden St, truth be told not too many Maggies fans could honestly say they knew who Greenwood was.

Pick 5 became Jordan De Goey, and while their track record at this selection holds up (the current captain was a pick 5) he was no Christian Petrecca.

So the Pies lost a premiership player for a kid and two question marks, and the pressure began to mount on the broad shoulders of Nathan Buckley.

However, a month in (a small sample size, granted) things are looking up at the Westpac Centre.

Firstly, let’s cover off Beams’ impact in Brisvegas. Put simply, there hasn’t really been one.

Yes, the tattoo enthusiast has surpassed 30 disposals twice in four hitouts, but his influence on the games, especially when his side needs him given the team’s start to the year, hasn’t been where Justin Leppitsch would expect.

In Round 1 against his former side, Beams stacked up plenty of the ball but not only was his first half barley hurting the Pies, he wasn’t even one of the real catalysts for the home side’s second-half comeback.

Brisbane sit zero and four and with a local derby against the fellow struggling Suns this week, zero and five would be nothing short of disastrous for the Lions. The Beams coup has hardly paid off thus far.

Over to the emerging Pies and things don’t look half bad.

De Goey wore the substitute vest in the first game, didn’t do a whole lot with his limited game time, and was sent back to the magoos for further conditioning and development. Since then he has been the Pies’ best player in the first two VFL rounds and he looks destined to be a gun AFL midfielder for the next 10 years plus.

Jack Crisp, the proverbial steak knives in the deal, played 18 games at Brisbane but has played every one of the four rounds so far. Rounds 1 and 2 he was a solid contributor without being outstanding, but in the Pies’ big win over St Kilda he moved into the centre square and looked properly comfortable.

On Anzac Day – the game’s biggest stage bar a grand final – Crisp was among the side’s best as they took down a bonafide top-four contender, firstly doing a great run-with role with the likes of Jobe Watson and Dyson Heppell and then having a real impact going the other way.

He looks to be a long-term player for the Pies and where he isn’t likely to develop into an a-grade midfielder, he certainly has the makings of being a key member of a midfield rotation that’s going to scare a lot of teams in the years to come.

While Collingwood’s good start to the year needs to be tempered as they’ve had a relatively easy draw to date, the inclusion of a player such as Levi Greenwood in the second half of the year all of a sudden looks immense.

Here’s a man who came runner-up in the 2014 North Melbourne best and fairest. Even though he comes across as slightly unfashionable and under the radar, he is 26 years old, entering his prime, and those in the know will tell you that North’s remarkable second-half comeback in the final last year against Essendon had a lot to do with the skills, grunt and ticker of one Levi Greenwood.

That sort of player, alongside the likes of Scott Pendlebury, Dane Swan, a returning Steele Sidebottom, an emerging Taylor Adams, incumbent Anzac Day medalist Paul Seedsman plus the aforementioned De Goey and Crisp? Before you know it, the Maggies could be right back on track.

It’s not quite ‘Dayne who?’ just yet, but credit to the Pies for getting a very reasonable return against very early assessment.