Bombers aim for in-demand Sun
Essendon has emerged as a serious player in the chase for Gold Coast young gun Jaeger O'Meara.
ESPN understands the Bombers are seriously attempting to trump Hawthorn's offer to lure the 2013 Rising Star winner.
Armed with the No.1 pick, Essendon could use the prized selection in exchange for the 22-year-old midfielder. The Bombers would also seek one of the Suns' first-round picks - probably No.8 - to sweeten the deal.
O'Meara, who has missed the last two seasons with a serious knee injury, has nominated the Hawks as his preferred club.
But the Hawks' salary cap pressures, which will likely result in the club off-loading club champion Sam Mitchell to West Coast, are hampering the club's ability to negotiate a trade for O'Meara.
The Hawks have an ageing midfield in need of rejuvenation. As part of that process, the club this week secured hard-nosed, in-and-under player Tom Mitchell from Sydney. Champion midfielder Jordan Lewis also reportedly considered a move to Melbourne before the Hawks rejected the possibility.
Mitchell move a masterstroke: Parkin
Legendary football figure and former Hawthorn premiership coach, David Parkin, believes Alastair Clarkson's push for Sam Mitchell to defect to West Coast is a masterstroke, with Hawthorn likely to reap the rewards by having the four-time premiership star return as their next senior coach.
Mitchell is considering a move to the Eagles as a player - if the right deal can be done - before likely taking charge as one of the club's assistant coaches from 2018.
The 34-year-old, who collected his fifth Peter Crimmins Medal last week, was presented with the left-field suggestion by Clarkson on Brownlow Medal night and asked to think it over. Mitchell and his wife quickly decided it was a great opportunity for the family.
Parkin, who captained and coached the Hawks to two premierships, says the trade could equip Mitchell with the skills to return to Waverley as a credentialed coach.
"When you think it through, it will be the best thing for Sam probably at this point in his career and it will be the best thing for Hawthorn now in what they have to do in their recharge and what they need from maybe as Sam as a coach in the future," Parkin told ESPN.
Parkin says the trade will be a win-win for both clubs and could slingshot the Eagles back into premiership contention.
"West Coast are going to get a very good player that might help them win a premiership and they'll get a bloke with probably the greatest football nous and understanding that I have had the privilege to work with, other than Brett Ratten," he said.
"Hawthorn have got to rebuild their midfield. They've got the three oldest inside players finishing, so they've got to do something about it."
Eagles coach Adam Simpson is a graduate of Hawthorn's successful coaching panel and still has a close relationship with Clarkson.
Mitchell is contracted to the Hawks for next season after signing a one-year deal in July.
While holidaying in New Zealand this week, the 307-game player rang SEN radio on Wednesday morning - once the rumours hit the airwaves - to say he was excited about the prospect of heading to the Eagles.
"I didn't go to the club and say I want to go to West Coast," Mitchell said. "Clarko came over and said, as a friend, 'Is that something you'd be interested in?'
"And you could have knocked me over with a feather to be honest. It's the first time in my 15-year career, that I've ever been a chance to be involved in a trade so it's a bit of an awkward situation at the moment and I can't jump into either camp at the moment."
Mitchell could yet be awarded the 2012 Brownlow Medal, along with Richmond's Trent Cotchin, should the AFL strip the award from Essendon's Jobe Watson after the Bombers' latest challenge to doping findings failed.
Hawk's departure ruffles feathers
While things are running beautifully for the Hawks on the field - the Mitchell move to West Coast seemingly a Clarkson stroke of genius - off the field, well, things are slightly bumpy.
Chris Fagan, until recently Clarkson's loyal and long-standing lieutenant, has ruffled some important feathers with his decision to head north and coach Brisbane.
Clarkson himself is not happy, claiming Fagan's discussions with Brisbane - which began late in the season and came to a head in the week before the Hawks' first final - had disrupted the reigning premiers' finals campaign. He felt Fagan was distracted by the discussions and did not perform at his best.
The Hawks were bundled out in straight sets by Geelong and the Western Bulldogs.
Fagan, who was presented as the Lions' coach on October 4, was effectively told not to attend the Hawks' best-and-fairest award four days later.
So they're a ruthless lot down there at Hawk HQ: either you're with them or you're agin' 'em.
The Hawks will now need to find someone in the coaches' box to keep a tightish rein on Clarkson's not insubstantial ego - and occasional flashes of temper.
Assistants need assistance
At least Fagan was given the chance of seeing out the season at Hawthorn - in defiance of a recent trend in the AFL.
In the past few seasons, if assistant coaches have been in discussions with rival clubs about possible coaching roles, they have been shown the door - even on the eve of the finals.
Brett Montgomery got the boot from the Western Bulldogs in the lead-up to the finals this year, and Brendan Bolton left Hawthorn at a similar stage last year after declaring he was going for the Carlton job.
Brenton Sanderson was sidelined by Geelong late in 2011 after winning the Adelaide job. In that same year, Mark Neeld was ushered out by Collingwood after landing the main role at Melbourne.
Clarkson himself was shown the door by Port Adelaide after winning the Hawthorn job before season's end in 2004.
Montgomery was at training at Whitten Oval on Tuesday August 9, but was cleaning out his desk the following day so he could 'pursue other opportunities' in the AFL.
That was thought to involve the soon-to-be-vacant Brisbane senior coaching job - which, of course, ended up going to Fagan.
Now Montgomery is a minister without portfolio and looking for his next opportunity in AFL coaching ranks.
The ruthless way in which he was sent packing by the Bulldogs drew the ire of former AFL Coaches Association boss, Danny Frawley, who slammed the club for its treatment of the highly-regarded assistant.
"I don't like it, because I think it's put a stain on Brett Montgomery to be brutally honest," Frawley said.
"You can still coach to the best of your ability at that particular club and then look elsewhere ....
"I think (senior) coaches better be very, very careful where you come from, to tip assistant coaches out like that puts a stain on them."
So what next - maybe an assistant coaches' trade period after Round 22 each year?
Hasleby points finger at Lyon
Fremantle great Paul Hasleby says he blames coach Ross Lyon for the side's astonishing fall from grace this year, when the Dockers went from 2015 minor premiers to 16th-placed easybeats.
The former Freo captain said he felt Lyon had abandoned his coaching philosophies that helped make the club a perennial contender, and win it a berth in its first Grand Final in 2013.
"I put (our downfall) on Ross Lyon. I think he was the one that changed his philosophy over the pre-season," Hasleby told ESPN.
"They got some players in from Hawthorn into the coaching structure (including David Hale and Brent Guerra) and I think they tried to play like a different side.
"As a coach, you've got to stick with what you know and what's been successful for you and as soon as you start changing your philosophy, it just doesn't work."
Hasleby anticipates the Dockers will improve markedly next season following a strategic approach to this year's trade period.
In the course of a disastrous season, the Dockers lost the opening 10 matches of 2016 in what amounted to one of the great collapses of the modern era.
Hasleby, who played 208 games for the Purple Haze, believes the players the club is targeting will fill the vacancies left by its departed champions.
"I think the Dockers are on the right track with the players that they're targeting," Hasleby said.
"Clearly over the last seven years at the trade table and at the draft they haven't been able to replace Matthew Pavlich with another couple of key forwards.
"It looks like with (Cameron) McCarthy, (Shane) Kersten, they're certainly going to add to that."
The Dockers are also likely to be bolstered by the arrival of Hawthorn's Brad Hill, who's set to reunite with his brother, Stephen.
Hasleby highlighted the team's backline as one area for concern, given its lack of key defensive stoppers.
"I think with the retirement of Luke McPharlin down back, Michael Johnson getting on, we really need to look at replacing those players with some key defenders," he said.
"I know they're heavily into Joel Hamling at the moment and he would be a very good fit.
"I think they can bounce back next year if they get those players in."
Behind the scenes during the trade period
From wining and dining a player's wife, to managers being incentivised to force a trade in exchange for inflated contracts are part of the whacky wheeling and dealings of getting deals across the line, says former agent Ricky Nixon.
Nixon, who was once the AFL's highest-profile manager, said clubs go to extraordinary lengths to secure trades during the frenetic end-of-season period.
"In my time it wasn't uncommon for clubs to fly a player's wife interstate, get them to fall in love with the club so they could hound their partner to move there," Nixon told ESPN.
"Sometimes you'd hear stories where agents would make a trade happen because, in return, another client at that club would have their next contract beefed up."
Nixon, who established the now defunct Flying Start management company, revealed iconic centre half-forward Wayne Carey nearly became a Geelong player in a deal that would have netted cash-strapped North Melbourne a million dollars.
"Geelong once offered the Kangaroos a million dollars for Wayne Carey because they were about to actually go under," he said.
"They (North Melbourne) were pretty much bankrupt and it was going to bail them out financially. It was under serious consideration at the time, but it never happened."
Nixon says we've entered a realm where contracts aren't worth the paper their written on, with players opting to move clubs, despite being under contract.
"An interesting one is Bryce Gibbs. His former agent is Justin Reid, now Adelaide's list manager. That would have a significant impact on why he's probably going to leave," he said.
"I don't see anything wrong with it. But out of respect, you wouldn't approach a guy on a five-year contract.
"It's proof that player contracts don't hold much value anymore."
The deregistered agent anticipates Greater Western Sydney to be a significant player at the back-end of trade week.
"GWS are the team that's holding all the trump cards because they have three picks inside 34 and either everyone wants those picks or players from them," he said.
"They'll deal late next week and hold off and see what the best deal for them is."
RANDOM FACTS AND FIGURES FROM THE WEEK:
850 - Roughly the number of accredited AFL journalists out there, none of whom got wind of the biggest trade story for years - the Sam Mitchell-to-West Coast bombshell which has been brewing since Brownlow Medal night on September 26.
5 - The number of AFL clubs who are yet to take part in the annual plundering of Greater Western Sydney talent. With the announcement that Cam McCarthy had been secured Fremantle, that left only Geelong, North Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sydney as Giant-free zones.
720 - The most number of handballs any player has racked up after 44 career games - and that player is Carlton whizkid, Patrick Cripps. The group of blokes he's leading gives you an idea of the sort of impact Cripps has had since his debut in 2014: 713 - Greg Williams 648 - Chris McDermott 599 - Michael Barlow