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Wednesday was a pretty busy day for the Hawthorn football club. They landed one of their major targets in Tom Mitchell, but in news that shocked the league, they appear set to move on a legend of the club.
AFL fans woke up to new AFL trade rumours on Wednesday morning that a deal to see Sam Mitchell traded to West Coast was all but certain. It was a pretty confusing thing to see right off the bat, but as details emerged it has started to make a bit more sense.
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It seems that Mitchell has already made an agreement with the Eagles some time ago that he will move to the club as an assistant coach when he finishes his playing career.
However, a few weeks ago he was approached by Alastair Clarkson asking him if he might consider moving to the Eagles as a player this off-season, and finishing his playing career in the west.
Why? There hasn’t really been a good reason given just yet. The Hawks appear to be the source of the idea – and both West Coast and Mitchell have bought in – but they’ve not yet given an explanation of why they would recommend such a move in the first place.
They’ve stated that it’s not part of their goal of securing all three of Tyrone Vickery, Tom Mitchell and Jaeger O’Meara, but personally I suspect that is simply the party line and may not reflect the reality.
After all if you’re going to make the suggestion a club legend – and there are few names bigger in the Hawthorn history book than that of Sam Mitchell – you’d better have a damn good reason for doing it.
Making some significant room in the salary cap, and just maybe getting something handy in the deal from West Coast to on-trade, is the only explanation that makes any sense at the moment.
So, wrap your head around that one, because the language being used around it suggest it’s happening. Sam Mitchell will be an Eagle in 2017. What a bizarre time of year the trade period is.
They seem to have done so incredibly cheaply, giving up only their first-round draft pick, No.14 overall – although, the Hawks and the Swans have agreed to swap around some draft selections next week, which will no doubt see the Swans get a bit more back.
Still, it looks like a huge win on the face of it. And the Roarers agree – from the early numbers in our rate-the-trade poll, a massive 70 per cent of you believe the Hawks won the exchange, while less than 10 per cent believe the Swans came out the victors.
Fremantle got – brace yourselves, people – pick No.23 for Mayne, a second-round compensation that is tied to the finishing order. That pick will soon belong to Hawthorn is the word, in a straight swap for Brad Hill that could be finalised as soon as tomorrow.
The majority of the rest of the news on the day was things being ruled out – and many of them were wild scenarios that seemed implausible to start with.
The manager of Liam Shiels and Charlie Cameron confirmed that neither player was going to move clubs this off-season despite reportedly being targets of Gold Coast and Carlton respectively.
However a potential move for Josh Caddy was notably not ruled out, suggesting he could still move to Richmond in a Brett Deledio if the Cats acquiesce.
Jack Riewoldt was reportedly approached by Essendon but after conversations with the big wigs at the Tigers has decided he definitely won’t move this year.
Despite reports, Collingwood aren’t looking keen on Tom Rockliff. He met with new coach Chris Fagan for the first time on Wednesday and looks likely to remain with Brisbane.
Zac Clarke seems likely to re-sign with Fremantle despite being an unrestricted free agent, though it’s believed he has received an offer to join West Coast that he could still pursue.
North Melbourne have put some interest in to both GWS’ Jarrod Pickett and the Bulldogs’ Nathan Hrovat. Hrovat is open to going to either Carlton or North Melbourne, the two clubs pursuing him, but Pickett has his heart set on the Blues.
In what would’ve been the most left-field news of the day were it not for the Sam Mitchell story, Damian Barrett reported that Collingwood threw up the names of recent recruits Levi Greenwood and James Aish in trade discusions with at least one club.
Who knows how serious that is, but I certainly look forward to two years from now when they’ll be trying to trade away Chris Mayne.