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Opinion
The 2020 trade period began with Zac Langdon returning home to Western Australia for Pick 54, which is in the neighbourhood of his original draft pick, but the very same pick returned to the same state the same day.
Fremantle’s decision to cut bait with the Jesse Hogan experiment a year early was the first shock of the trade period, having just two years earlier traded the pick that ended up landing Ben King sixth in the 2018 draft to bring the local prodigy home.
Hogan’s departure seems indicative of the 2020 offseason where clubs have traded players far below their value in order to get bloated salaries off the books and free up list space in response to the new restrictions.
The Dockers took their medicine straight up and seemingly disappeared from the trade period altogether for three weeks, gradually announcing nine delistings and three players they would re-rookie before quietly trading their future fourth to get a couple of late picks to add to just three picks they had in hand with an eye to being able to move up the draft order and also match bids for their bright pair of NGA prospects.
Draft night inched along and Freo pounced on WA’s third prospect in the first round, Heath Chapman from West Perth, who adds to their already deep key defensive stocks. In addition to being homegrown, he was the best player available at the selection, having been in all the underage representative teams and talent pathways.
Then Fremantle became players in the live pick trading frenzy, the second most active behind Collingwood, moving up to Pick 27 at the top of the second round to collect the next Western Australia product, Nathan O’Driscoll. The versatile utility can play midfield or in defence, having been part of WA’s national championship-winning side in 2019 and made his senior for Perth in the WAFL this year.
Late in the third round, Essendon bid on the Dockers’ NGA-tied Ghanaian-Australian Brandon Walker from East Fremantle. He is a rebounding defender who’s come through the AFL Academy pathway that the club was never going to let slip.
Four picks later, the Western Bulldogs bid on Freo’s other NGA prospect, Joel Western from Claremont, who slid down the order from predictions and they duly matched. He is one of the smallest players in this year’s crop, with the versatility to play through the middle and get forward to find the goals as he displayed when named best on ground in the first All-Stars game.
The next day’s rookie draft allowed Fremantle to fill one more spot on their roster when they selected Josh Treacy from the Bendigo Pioneers, who may turn out to become a protege for David Mundy. He’s a solid tall forward who plays up the ground who is handy at stoppages and applies tackling pressure.
The Dockers recovered from their mea culpa with Jesse Hogan to land four Western Australian kids who will be part of their long term future and a project player from country Victoria. They still have list space to fill, so there could be a lifeline for Alec Waterman or Cedric Cox or one of a number of local talents vying to get onto an AFL list in the preseason.
Freo have yet again had a disastrous trade to add to many that have had fans pulling their hair out going all the way back to Andrew McLeod. However, this group of players holds no such risk or potential for doom, which will give long-suffering supporters some solace as they cut bait with their latest fishing expedition.
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