The 2010 trade period revisited: How Gold Coast lost four trades before playing a single AFL game

For some AFL fans, the trade period is almost more exciting than the season itself.

Player movement time is the crown jewel of an otherwise overwrought offseason news cycle, with quickfire verdicts on who ‘won’ or ‘lost’ the trade period always making for a great read.

Rarely, however, do you actually see a proper retrospective. So, with footy on an indefinite pause, we’ll be doing just that on The Roar until the end of April.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we’ll be revisiting a trade period from last decade – skipping 2019 for obvious reasons – and delivering a definitive verdict on who won each trade.

Without further ado, let’s cast our minds back to 2010.

Collingwood had just won their 15th premiership following a dramatic draw and replay against St Kilda, while a new side known as the Gold Coast Suns were just about to join the AFL.

A quick note, the draft pick numbers presented here have been changed to reflect where they actually landed after compensation and priority picks – so they make look a little different to how you remember.

Trade 1

Sydney received: Andrejs Everitt
Western Bulldogs received: Patrick Veszpremi, pick 88

Not exactly a blockbuster to start us off. Neither player went on to do anything extraordinary at their new club, although Everitt did stick around longer and won two games with late goals during his stint with the Swans.

The Bulldogs used pick 88 on Zephaniah Skinner, which doesn’t swing the pendulum back their way at all.

Fun fact for Swans fans: Patrick Veszpremi was drafted by the club with pick 11 in the 2007 draft. Cyril Rioli (12), Brad Ebert (13), Harry Taylor (17), Alex Rance (18) and Callan Ward (19) went before pick 20. Yikes.

Winner: Sydney – but who cares?

Trade 2

Adelaide received: Richard Tambling
Richmond received: Compensation pick (Nathan Bock), pick 51

Clubs were allowed to trade the compensation picks they received from the AFL for losing players to the Suns, with those picks being eligible for activation at any draft between 2010 and 2014. The situation with a lot of these picks is hairy – they were often traded again in later drafts for other draft picks – but it does make for some interesting evaluations.

In this case, Richmond were able to turn the Nathan Bock compensation pick, via another trade the next season, into the draft pick they eventually used to pick Kamdyn McIntosh, so a pretty handy win to the Tigers here, even if pick 51 (Dean MacDonald) never debuted.

Winner: Richmond

Trade 3

Fremantle received: Peter Faulks, pick 61
Gold Coast received: Pick 56

Pretty much the dictionary definition of a nothing trade. Both clubs ended up trading the picks they received again later in the week, while Faulks went on to play a whopping three games in the purple.

Winner: Nobody

Trade 4

Collingwood received: Andrew Krakouer, Jonathon Ceglar, picks 56, 77 and 92
Gold Coast received: Pick 25

Seeing this trade on paper makes me think we really should’ve seen the Gold Coast trainwreck coming. The man who stole mark of the year, a man who would go on to become a serviceable ruckman and three picks, all shipped for a late first-rounder. What did the Suns do with pick 25? They traded it again, of course!

The Magpies didn’t do much at all with their suite of picks here either, trading one to Fremantle while selecting Trent Stubbs and Lachlan Keeffe, but Krakouer alone is enough to get them the points.

Winner: Collingwood

Trade 5

Western Bulldogs received: Nathan Djerrkura
Geelong received: Pick 58

Nathan Djerrkura played 21 games in his two seasons with the Dogs, not the worst return for such a low draft pick. The Cats ended up using their pick to elevate James Podsiadly off the rookie list so, even though that’s not really a ‘draft pick’, the fact they were able to essentially do so for free gets them the points.

Winner: Geelong

Trade 6

Hawthorn received: David Hale, pick 53
North Melbourne received: Compensation pick (Campbell Brown), pick 71

Hale won three premierships at the Hawks and goes down in the history books as the last player ever to be subbed off in a game. It was solid maneuvering from Hawthorn too, who managed to outbid Melbourne by offering a pick they didn’t actually have at the start of the trade period.

They also went on to flip pick 53 efficiently – but more on that later.

North, for their part, were the only club to activate their compensation pick in the same draft – picking 40-gamer Kieran Harper at the end of the first round and Ben Mabon in the middle of the fourth.

2010 has proved to be a somewhat unspectacular draft, so you can’t ridicule them too much for those picks, but this was always going to be a Hawthorn win.

Winner: Hawthorn

Trade 7

Brisbane received: Rohan Bewick, picks 5, 25 and 28
Gold Coast received: Compensation pick (Jared Brennan), picks 10 and 49

This trade more or less sums up the plight of AFL football in Queensland last decade, up until last season.

Brisbane said, “You know what, just have that Jared Brennan compo pick back” and managed to con the Suns into giving them two first-rounders and the first pick of the second round back.

The real kicker is the list of players both teams ended up drafting.

The Lions picked up two of the ‘go-home five’ in Jared Polec and Patrick Karnezis, while acquiring the serviceable Ryan Lester at 28. The Suns, on the other hand, squandered pick 10 on Twitter star Daniel Gorringe and selected Jacob Gillbee with the other pick.

They then swung the Brennan compensation pick to the Giants two seasons later for a Greater Western Sydney ‘mini draft’ selection – which they used on Jack Martin.

Jack Martin now, of course, plays for Carlton. (AAP Image/Joe Castro)

A blockblunder of a trade if there ever was one. In any case, the Suns overpaid – essentially trading a contracted player and a second-round pick to get a third-rounder in return – so I’m giving it to Brisbane.

Winner: Brisbane

Trade 8

North Melbourne received: Ben McKinley
West Coast received: Pick 84

Not much to say here. Ben McKinley – who kicked 42 goals in a season once(!) – requested a trade, and his plummeting stock made it hard for West Coast to get anything back for him.

Still, McKinley played two games for North while the Eagles drafted Callum Wilson who played zero.

I guess we have to give it to the Roos?

Winner: North Melbourne on a technicality

Trade 9

Richmond received: Shaun Grigg
Carlton received: Andrew Collins

An exceedingly rare straight swap – player-for-player, no picks involved. You love to see it.

Except this is early 2010s Carlton we’re talking about so, of course, they got fleeced. Eleven games was all the Blues got out of the Bendigo-born forward, while Grigg was a superb contributor for the Tigers all decade and, as we hear every second day, eventually paved the way for Marlion Pickett to join the side.

Winner: Richmond

Trade 10

Fremantle received: Tendai Mzungu, pick 45
Gold Coast received: Pick 39

Mzungu was a handy contributor for the Dockers, while the Suns got just ten games out of subsequent draft selection Jeremy Taylor. This could have been a historically lopsided trade had Freo drafted smarter, but you can read more about that in the Chris Tarrant section a few paragraphs down.

Winner: Fremantle

Trade 11

Adelaide received: Sam Jacobs
Carlton received: Picks 34 and 67

Sam Jacobs (R), during his time with the Crows. (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)

Big ‘Sauce’ Jacobs shouldered the load in the ruck for Adelaide virtually all of the last decade. While he was never mentioned in the same breath as the game’s best ruckmen, he often had little to no help in the middle and was a bigger part of the Crows’ success than many realise.

No question the Crows won this trade, Carlton got a combined 18 games out of draft picks Patrick McCarthy and Andrew McInnes. McCarthy was taken off the board six picks before Luke Parker, by the way.

Winner: Adelaide

Trade 12

Western Bulldogs received: Justin Sherman
Brisbane received: Compensation pick (Jarrod Harbrow)

This is a tough one to really work out, although it’s going to leave Lions fans with a bitter taste either way.

Justin Sherman looked to have the world at his feet at various points of his career, but could never quite string it together consistently. So you could say the fact the Bulldogs gave up a first-rounder for him and got just 24 games across two seasons in return makes them the loser.

But Brisbane used that compensation pick next season to nab Elliot Yeo – who they also got just 24 games out of across two seasons.

I’m really interested to see what you all think of this one, but a team that spends a first-rounder on an established player is under more pressure to get a good return than the club that spends that pick at the draft.

Winner: Brisbane – but a very hollow win

Trade 13

Fremantle received: Jonathon Griffin
Adelaide received: Pick 61

Rare to see a team give up a former Rising Star nominee for a fourth-rounder and come out on top – but that’s what the Crows did when they nabbed Jarryd Lyons.

Griffin gets a bit of a raw rap given the injuries that cruelled him, but it’s hard to make the case Fremantle came out better here.

Winner: Adelaide

Trade 14

Carlton received: Jeremy Laidler, pick 42
Geelong received: Picks 37 and 54

Another hard one to gauge. Jeremy Laidler didn’t have a great stint at the Blues, but Carlton didn’t exactly sell the farm to get him.

Geelong’s ensuing draft haul of George Horlin-Smith and Jordan Schroder marginally beats out Laidler plus one-gamer Luke Mitchell, though.

Winner: Geelong

Trade 15

Hawthorn received: Kyle Cheney, pick 66
Melbourne received: Pick 53

This is the blockbuster trade we never knew we had. Kyle Cheney incredibly goes from being the only named player in the deal to the steak knives in retrospect.

That’s because Melbourne used the pick they received here on Tom McDonald, while the Hawks just casually snagged Paul Puopolo with pick 66.

McDonald traded for Puopolo – imagine the headlines if that went down today!

Who knew? Poppy was involved in a blockbuster trade before he was even drafted. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)

The three medals around Puopolo’s neck means the Hawks get the edge here, but neither player would have had their careers if not for this trade. McDonald would’ve never been given a crack behind Lance Franklin and Jarryd Roughead, while no small forward could have possibly done well at the Demons up until recently.

Winner: A win-win, but a winner-win for Hawthorn. Typical.

Trade 16

Collingwood received: Chris Tarrant, pick 45
Fremantle received: Picks 44 and 56

The Dockers could have emerged the decisive winners of this trade period if they’d called out a different name with pick 44. Tarrant’s 2011 season in the back six is underrated, so that puts Collingwood at an advantage, even if the returning utility only played half of the next season.

It all comes down to the picks 44 and 45 they swapped. Fremantle picked Viv Michie at 44, the Magpies took Alex Fasolo next. Oh dear.

Michie and pick 56 Josh Mellington combined for just 28 games – seven fewer than Tarrant managed in his two-season return – while Fasolo topped 20 goals four times in a strong career with the Pies.

Was this close to being a Fremantle win but, instead, becomes a crushing loss.

Winner: Collingwood

Trade 17

North Melbourne received: Cameron Richardson
Gold Coast received: Pick 36

Cameron Richardson played eight whole games for the Kangaroos, while Gold Coast traded pick 36 away two trades later.

People got paid to negotiate this.

Winner: Nobody

Trade 18

West Coast received: Compensation pick (Josh Fraser)
Collingwood received: Pick 46

A surprising heist here for the Eagles. Collingwood picked Daniel Farmer – who never made his AFL debut – while West Coast tossed the Fraser compensation pick to the Suns in 2013. Their reward? The draft pick they used to select Tom Barrass.

Winner: West Coast (but Gold Coast and Collingwood share the loss).

Tom Barrass (centre) was actually a steal for the Eagles. (AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)

Trade 19

Port Adelaide received: Simon Phillips, pick 36
Gold Coast received: Compensation pick (Nathan Krakouer)

When my younger sister was in year five, Simon Phillips (he was a Sydney Swan, once upon a time), Jarrad McVeigh, Nick Smith and a bloke by the name of Earl Shaw made the trip to her school and she used her one question to the Swans quartet to ask them if they were allowed to eat Tim Tams. This is a 100 per cent true story.

Phillips allegedly responded yes, but only as a reward for a particularly good game. Can’t imagine poor Simon enjoyed too many Tim Tams in his time.

They can’t have been handing out Tim Tams in the war room after this uninteresting trade either. Phillips played just nine games in his two seasons at Alberton, although they did use pick 36 to pick up Aaron Young – who, funnily enough, finished his career with Gold Coast.

That’s enough to give the Power the win, especially with the Suns eventually turning the compensation pick – via one more trade – into Jack Leslie.

Winner: Port Adelaide

Trade 20

Geelong received: Pick 15
Gold Coast received: Compensation pick (Gary Ablett)

This could have been history-altering if things worked out. Not only did Gold Coast steal the little master away from the Cats at the height of his powers, they also took Geelong’s compensation pick back in exchange for Pick 15.

Sounds like a risky trade, until you hear the Cats spent that pick on 47-gamer Billie Smedts, while the Suns turned the Gazza compensation – through another trade with GWS – into Jaeger O’Meara.

Holy smokes. If O’Meara hadn’t been cruelled by knee injuries, this could have been the heist of the century – Smedts for Ablett and O’Meara.

Alas, it’s the Suns, so it went pear-shaped. Still, they won this trade despite only getting O’Meara for four seasons.

Winner: Gold Coast

There you have it, definitive verdicts on all of 2010’s trades.

Keen to hear all your thoughts in the comments, and make sure to check back on Friday as 2011 goes under the microscope.