Failed trade: How close Scotland came to never joining Carlton

SEN • September 7th, 2025 11:00 am

Former Carlton star Heath Scotland didn’t always play in navy blue at the top level.

In fact, he started his career at Collingwood in 1999 where he’d play 53 games including the 2002 and 2003 Grand Finals before moving to Carlton for the 2004 season.

While he eventually got to the Blues where he’d feature 215 times over a decade, he almost found his way to North Melbourne well before that at the end of the 2001 season.

It was from coach Dennis Pagan, who Scotland would eventually play under at Carlton, where North’s interest came from… until the player himself accidently scuppered the trade.

“I was unsure was where my future was at, so at the end of that year (2001), I explored a trade to North Melbourne with Dennis Pagan,” Scotland told This is Your Journey – thanks to Tobin Brothers.

“My last game of that year I ended up having a good game in the seniors against North Melbourne up in Canberra.

“Then Dennis wanted me to come over but wanted to keep it quiet and didn’t want me to let Collingwood know.

“But I tried to do the ethical thing and let them know I spoke to Dennis, then as soon as he found out he said, ‘No, trade’s off, I told you not to do anything’.”

Luckily for Scotland, Pagan was still interested in his services upon moving to the Blues in 2003 after a decade at North, bringing him over after he featured just 10 times in the black and white during that ‘03 season.

“Then the rest is history, so I went back to Collingwood where I made it work in 2002 where I was able to start to establish myself and played in a Grand Final,” Scotland said.

“But then it flipped in 2003, I battled for opportunity… I knew the writing was on the wall, the future wasn’t looking great at Collingwood.

“Fortunately, Dennis from a couple of years earlier was still interested and I went to Carlton.”

Scotland spoke about his career and much more in this week’s episode.

Listen to Scotland's full chat with Sam Edmund below.