After the previous three seasons each saw nearly 30 trades completed, 2014 was more relaxed with only 19 deals getting done.

Hawthorn had just won their second consecutive premiership, but their acquisition of the hottest free agent in James Frawley didn’t bring about any scrutiny from the AFL – much to the chargrin of Swans fans suffering a ridiculous trade ban.

I’ve been doing a retrospective on every trade period from 2010, and the series will continue until the 2018 one. You can check out the full series right here.

Trade 1

Hawthorn received: Jonathan O’Rourke, pick 43
GWS received: picks 19 and 40

The 2014 trade period started with a bit of a shocker. O’Rourke, just two years after being taken at number two in the draft, was shipped to the Hawks alongside pick 43 for picks 19 and 40 in return.

O’Rourke managed just 12 games in four seasons at Hawthorn, while all three picks involved in this deal were traded away again. The Hawks at least netted Daniel Howe in one of those deals, while nobody the Giants acquired through their picks ever played a game.

Winner: Hawthorn

Trade 2

Melbourne received: Jeff Garlett, pick 83
Carlton received: picks 60 and 79

With both clubs passing on the latter pick they each received, this essentially becomes Garlett for pick 60 Clem Smith.

Garlett was clearly a massive steal for the Dees, netting two 40-goal returns in his first three seasons with the club, before managing only 18 games across the last two seasons and eventually being delisted. I’d take that for pick 60 in a heartbeat.

Smith’s career comprised just seven games in 2015.

Winner: Melbourne

Trade 3

GWS received: Joel Patfull
Brisbane received: compensation pick (Jared Brennan)

Yes, the Jared Brennan pick (number 21 in this draft) from way back in 2010 was still floating around and it changed hands another two times after this!

Pick 21 was always very steep for a then 30-year-old Patfull, but he gave the Giants two excellent seasons and was instrumental in the development of players like Nick Haynes, Adam Kennedy and Matt Buntine.

The Lions flipped this pick in the next trade to get Allen Christensen, which despite the ex-Cat not setting the world alight, still earns them the points.

Winner: Brisbane, but close to a win-win

Trade 4

Brisbane received: Allen Christensen
Geelong received: compensation pick (Jared Brennan)

Christensen was in and out of the side last year, but improved his work rate off the ball immensely. Despite playing nine fewer games in 2019 than 2018, he managed three more tackles inside 50. He’ll be 29 in a few weeks, but there’s hope yet for him to take the final step.

The Cats used this pick to score Rhys Stanley from St Kilda later in the week, who’s also had his fair share of injury troubles. Given these two play extremely different positions, it’s hard to make an accurate comparison. I’m splitting the points.

Winner: A draw, for now

Trade 5

Collingwood received: Travis Varcoe
Melbourne received: Heritier Lumumba
Geelong received: Mitch Clark

It’s rare to see a three-way deal involving no picks – and it’s even rarer to see such a trade end up so lopsided!

The Magpies are laughing all the way to the bank with this trade. Varcoe has played 73 times for the black and white, while Lumumba and Clark combined for 33 games at their respective clubs and were both out of the AFL by 2016.

The Demons take silver here by virtue of moving on Clark and getting a decent rebounding defender – albeit past his prime – in return, while the Cats are clearly the losers having lost an excellent half-forward in exchange for a key forward who played just nine games.

Winner: Collingwood
Loser: Geelong

Trade 6

Brisbane received: Dayne Beams, pick 65
Collingwood received: Jack Crisp, picks five and 25

This was one the messier deals of 2014, with Beams requesting a trade home to be closer to his ailing father. The morality of the Magpies demanding heavy compensation came into question and led to our own Jay Croucher penning a superb piece about the fickleness of sporting fandom.

I will always have the utmost respect for Beams, with his openness about mental health struggles some of the most important off-field work we’ve seen from a player in some time. On the field, unfortunately, the Lions got stuffed a bit here.

Injuries and personal tragedy plagued Beams’ stint with the club, as he managed just 18 games in his first two seasons before going on to play 40 over the latter two. That, alongside pick 65 Josh Watts never debuting, does not stack up to Collingwood’s haul.

Crisp has played every possible game for the Magpies since coming over, which probably would have earned them the points anyway, but the fact the Pies scored Jordan de Goey with pick five and acquired Levi Greenwood from North for pick 25 really turns the screws.

Beams going back to his old club at the end of 2018 just hurts Lions fans even more.

Winner: Collingwood

Trade 7

Collingwood received: Levi Greenwood
North Melbourne received: pick 25

Another tick for the Pies this trade period, with Greenwood making good on what was quite a risky trade at the time. The tagger-turned-defender was fresh off his only full season with the Kangaroos when he requested a trade, so paying pick 25 was quite the gamble.

He hasn’t been free of injuries during his Collingwood stint, but his 78-game career easily trumps the seven games Daniel Nielson managed with North before being delisted.

Winner: Collingwood

Trade 8

Geelong received: Rhys Stanley, pick 59
St Kilda received: compensation pick (Jared Brennan)

Pick 21 in the 2014 draft was traded for the fifth and final time here, with the Cats receiving Stanley and the pick they’d later use on Jordan Cunico and the Saints using the pick on Hugh Goddard.

As intriguing as the tale of pick 21 is, the end result was pretty underwhelming. Goddard played just ten games in four seasons with St Kilda and is now in the last year of a make-or-break deal with Carlton. Even Cunico managed more senior appearances despite being picked 38 selections later.

This is all moot, of course, with Stanley’s Cats career more than enough to see them triumph.

Winner: Geelong

Trade 9

Carlton received: Kristian Jaksch, Mark Whiley, pick 19
GWS received: pick seven

Carlton overpaying for so-called GWS rejects has been a running trade gag for a long time, with this deal often used as the punchline. No matter how you look at it, Kristian Jaksch and Mark Whiley for pick seven is a horrible deal.

Jaksch managed seven games in two seasons, Whiley managed nine over the same span, while pick 19 Blaine Boekhorst had a comparatively bumper career with a whopping 25 games in three seasons.

But, wouldn’t you know it, the Giants flubbed hard on their pick, selecting Paul Ahern at seven – who never debuted before being shipped to North. There aren’t that many standouts who went just after Ahern, but no games out of pick seven is still a disaster.

Amazingly, the Blues actually won the trade we’ve all been pillorying them for all this time.

Winner: Carlton

Trade 10

GWS received: Ryan Griffen, pick six
Western Bulldogs received: Tom Boyd

Ryan Griffen’s trade request to GWS was one of the biggest surprises in trade history, with the drama of that only being surpassed by the Giants’ infamous declaration that Boyd wouldn’t be traded “under any circumstances” two days before signing off on the deal.

As underwhelming as Boyd ended up being overall as a pick one, his 52 games at the Bulldogs is only three fewer than what Griffen managed at the Giants. Of course, Boyd’s performance in the 2016 grand final was enough to make the whole ordeal worth it for some anyway.

Pick six Caleb Marchbank doesn’t swing things back the other way, with the defender only playing seven games at GWS before being squeezed out.

Winner: Western Bulldogs

Trade 11

Essendon received: Jonathan Giles, pick 62
GWS received: pick 53

Giles the journeyman played just three games in his one-season stay at Windy Hill but even though the Bombers passed on pick 62 as well, they remarkably end up the winners here as the Giants only used pick 53 in an absolutely horror trade you’ll read about in a bit.

Winner: Essendon

Trade 12

Port Adelaide received: Paddy Ryder
Essendon received: picks 17 and 37

Despite Adrian Dodoro demanding everything from Ollie Wines to Kochie’s gig on Sunrise, the Power managed to land their man in exchange for draft picks and draft picks only.

Ryder was touted as the missing piece in Port’s premiership puzzle for 2015 and despite that being inaccurate, he was superb in his five years at the club. His 2017 season in particular, coming off a lost 2016 thanks to the ASADA suspension, was stunning; 38 hit-outs and 13 disposals a game.

The Bombers used pick 17 on Kyle Langford, who at 23, still has plenty of time to turn this trade in their favour. Pick 37 was used to trade for Adam Cooney, which as adequate as he was, was always ill-advised.

Winner: Port Adelaide, for now

Trade 13

Essendon received: Adam Cooney
Western Bulldogs received: pick 37

This was the off-season that saw the Bombers grossly misunderstand the status of their list, going after Cooney and James Gwilt to top up a list still missing meat and potatoes.

The Bulldogs ended up passing this pick on to acquire Shane Biggs, whose stunning 2016 cameo is enough to earn them the points. Cooney was far from poor in his two seasons at the Bombers, but if you’re spending a second-rounder on a 29-year-old you need to move up the ladder to make it worthwhile.

Winner: Western Bulldogs

Trade 14

Gold Coast received: Mitch Hallahan
Hawthorn received: pick 47, compensation pick (Josh Fraser)

Hey, the Gold Coast Suns are back! We can put the Benny Hill music on hold for now though, because they probably came out ahead here.

Hallahan managed just the 20 games in his three seasons with the Suns, although he was brave enough to call the club out upon being delisted – claiming they were only focused on his weaknesses and glossed over his strengths.

That’s good enough to trump the 12 games the Hawks got out of Teia Miles at pick 49 (the Fraser pick), with pick 47 being traded on again in a deal nobody really won.

Winner: Gold Coast

Trade 15

Melbourne received: Sam Frost, picks 40 and 53
GWS received: pick 23

This might be the worst trade Greater Western Sydney have ever made. With Frost superfluous to requirements at the Giants, they’d normally get a tick for landing pick 23 – but did they really need to send 40 and 53 alongside him? Surely just one of the two would have done.

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In any case, GWS handed the Demons a superb key defender in Frost, while also giving them the picks used to select Alex Neal-Bullen (40) and Oscar McDonald (53)! What a heist!

All the Giants got in return was Pat McKenna, who never debuted. A shockingly lopsided deal.

Winner: Melbourne

Trade 16

Western Bulldogs received: Shane Biggs, pick 39
Sydney received: pick 37

This trade bit the Swans hard on grand final day in 2016, with Biggs playing out of his skin to help his new side to victory.

That may be as good as it got for Biggs, but that was better than it ever got for pick 37 James Rose, who managed 14 games across five seasons.

Declan Hamilton never debuted from pick 39 (the Nick Malceski compensation pick), but it matters little.

Winner: Western Bulldogs

Trade 17

Carlton received: Liam Jones
Western Bulldogs received: pick 46

I certainly didn’t believe Jones would ever succeed as a key defender, but his career revival at Carlton has been something to behold.

As nice a story as that is, however, the Doggies have to get the points here by virtue of nabbing Caleb Daniel with pick 46. The pocket rocket has racked up 92 games already and has a lot more football left in him than Jones.

Winner: Western Bulldogs

Trade 18

Adelaide received: Kyle Cheney, Luke Lowden, picks 43, 47 and 58
Hawthorn received: picks 31, 50 and 68

This is quite the odd trade, with only one player exchanged still at their current club. Right off the bat, the Hawks look like they gave up an awful lot just to move up to pick 31, which they used on Daniel Howe.

He’s still got time to carve out a decent career, but had 2019 and will likely have 2020 curtailed by injury after a promising 2017-18 period. He’s out of contract this year and could be at the crossroads.

Pick 50 Marc Pittonet was moved on to the Blues last off-season after only seven games, while they passed on pick 68.

I don’t see how moving on two contracted albeit out-of-favour players and three draft picks makes that worth it – especially given Adelaide nabbed Mitch McGovern with pick 43. McGovern may be with the Blues now, but he gave the Crows three very good seasons.

Cheney also enjoyed the best years of his stop-start career at the Crows, tipping the scales further in their favour, although neither Lowden nor pick 58 Harry Dear made an appearance at AFL level.

While Howe is the only player still at their respective club, he hasn’t quite been worth the hefty price Hawthorn paid to select him.

Winner: Adelaide

Trade 19

Geelong received: picks ten and 47
Adelaide received: picks 14 and 35

This should have worked out in Adelaide’s favour if not for the homesickness bug biting hard again. They clearly got the best player in this deal in Jake Lever at pick 14, with the Cats using pick ten on Nakia Cockatoo.

Lever had three excellent seasons with the Crows before crossing to Melbourne, while Cockatoo has had his career plagued by various injuries.

You could argue neither pick has quite worked out, but Cockatoo should eventually come good and get the Cats the points here.

Geelong also get a bonus for nabbing 39-gamer Cory Gregson at 47 over Harrison Wigg at 35, who never debuted.

Winner: Tied for now, but the Cats will end up winning

The 2014 trade period may have been on the simpler side, but strap yourselves in for 2015 on Monday – the year draft points, future pick swaps as well as academy and father-son bidding came into play.