AFL trades round up

By Robert Bremner

The AFL trade period took place in October at Etihad Stadium, resulting in a number of surprising deals.

The trade period ran for two weeks and the AFL free agency period also took place during this time.

One of the big talking points involved Essendon ruckman Paddy Ryder. Essendon and Port Adelaide fought over a Paddy Ryder deal with the two clubs finally coming to a decision with the Bombers receiving picks 17 and 37 in exchange for Ryder. Their pick 37 was then immediately exchanged for Bulldog player and 2008 Brownlow medallist Adam Cooney. Essendon also managed to snare GWS ruckman Jonathan Giles as a replacement for Ryder in exchange of pick 53.

The period wasn’t without three-way deals either, with Melbourne, Collingwood and Geelong swapping players. Mitch Clark is now at Geelong, Travis Varcoe is at the Pies and Heritier Lumumba is now at the Demons.

In a big shock, GWS parted with their 2013 number one pick Tom Boyd who is now a Bulldog with the Doggies giving up captain Ryan Griffen as well as their number six pick. The deal came as a surprise as GWS had previously refused any trades regarding Boyd.

He has signed a seven-year deal with the Bulldogs worth around a million a year.

This year’s wooden spoon winners, St Kilda held onto their number one draft pick despite offers from numerous other clubs. They instead traded on Rhys Stanley and pick 60 to Geelong for pick 21. This gives St Kilda three picks within the top 22 in the upcoming draft.

Brisbane also did well receiving Pies player Dayne Beams and also Geelong’s Allen Christenson. The wait to see Beams against his old club won’t be long with Brisbane and Collingwood set to do battle in round one  of the 2015 season.

Fremantle, Richmond and West Coast were the only clubs who were not involved in any trades during the period.