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Monster trades, near misses & bitter ends: The beauty of the trade period
Ashley Browne • October 15th, 2025 11:42 pm
The beauty of the final few hours of the trade period is the domino effect it has for almost the entire football industry.
Think about the conversations the AFL fixturing and broadcasting teams, and by extension, the broadcasters themselves are having at this moment as a result of the deals that did – and did not – go down at the death on Wednesday night at Marvel Stadium.
A few years back, Essendon and Hawthorn convinced the AFL of the merits (pun intended) of being fixtured to play each other in Round 1 every season.
For a while there, it looked as though Zach Merrett, Essendon captain and six-time best and fairest winner, would be rocking up to the MCG in brown and gold, but the deal was nixed minutes before the deadline, as the Hawks baulked at Essendon’s demand for four first-round picks and a second thrown in for good measure. The Hawks offer was three firsts and a second.
Merrett’s continued presence in the red and black will add further spice to next year’s Round 1 clash, one that the broadcasters will be salivating over. You can add the vision of his agitated manager Tom Petroro angrily pounding the Marvel corridors as the deadline approached to all the other storied images used to illustrate the deep-seated enmity between the two clubs in the lead-up to Round 1.
There was plenty of spin afterwards. Essendon list manager Matt Rosa admitted the first day of pre-season will be “awkward” as Merrett walks back through the door but also expressed the hope that the entire episode might serve to galvanise and unite everyone who is Essendon.
The Hawks seemed genuinely surprised that the Bombers didn’t take the deal, but this was more than a straightforward football negotiation, what with the bold words from Essendon president Andrew Welsh on the very day he was appointed. This was cultural as much as anything as the new president charts a bolder future for the club.
The Hawks promised after their preliminary final defeat to leave no stone unturned in trying to get better as their flag window opens. Two first-round picks in a compromised draft is not exactly that. Let’s hope Will Day’s foot is OK, but coach Sam Mitchell will ponder whether a best 23 player should have been offered to Essendon to seal the deal.
Things are always salty between the Bombers and the Hawks and now they are also between Adelaide and Brisbane. In a trade period marked by the deals that did not get done, Callum Ah Chee remains stranded at Brisbane in somewhat of a surprise.
The Lions reckon there wasn’t much between their offer to retain him and the Crows. Adelaide and Ah Chee’s manager Ben Williams were fuming however and said there was “zero chance” that Ah Chee will return to the Lions and that walking him to the pre-season draft is now a live option. Ah Chee has been a terrific player for the Lions, but this brings his tenure at that club to a tawdry end.
Bailey Humphrey remains at Gold Coast after hawking himself around to potential suitors – and there were a few – while on his break. Suns list manager Craig Cameron said there might be an awkward conversation to be had when he returns to pre-season training. But he also said that while Humphrey remained under contract, “no means no”, the same dictum that applied at the Bombers with Merrett.
Rowan Marshall’s bid to join Geelong also went nowhere. St Kilda retains its erstwhile No.1 ruckman to partner with newly acquired big man Tom De Koning, with coach Ross Lyon pointing to Brisbane’s premiership success this year with Darcy Fort and Oscar McInerney and Hawthorn’s three-peat last decade that also included two specialist ruckmen.
And nor did Collingwood come close to extracting North Melbourne skipper Jy Simpkin.
The big names that did move were headlined by Charlie Curnow. The former Blue joins Tony Lockett, Barry Hall and Lance Franklin in the conga line of big-name key forwards to move to Sydney to continue their career, supposedly out of the Victorian limelight.
The big names that did move were headlined by Charlie Curnow. The former Blue joins Tony Lockett, Barry Hall and Lance Franklin in the conga line of big-name key forwards to move to Sydney to continue their career, supposedly out of the Victorian limelight.
Once the midfield was reassembled in the middle of the season, the Swans rattled home with eight wins from their last 11 games. They were a tough out at the end – Brisbane at the Gabba were among their wins – but adding the occasionally mercurial Curnow elevates them into premiership calculations.
The deal did go down to the wire. So much so that the Paul Connors camp, which never fails to get deals done, thought they might not get this one over the line. But three first-round picks in the next three years, plus Will Hayward ended up being just enough with a bit coming back the other way.
The Blues have had a good October.
So too did Melbourne. The champion midfield trio of Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver were traded to Gold Coast and GWS respectively, but a stack of early picks (from the Suns) are coming back the other way. The Demons have an eye for young talent so expect them to use them wisely. And St Kilda skipper Jack Steele and ex-Hawk Changkuoth Jiath will walk into Melbourne’s best 23.
Oliver will boost the Giants, and shapes as a handy replacement in 2026 for Josh Kelly, who might miss the entire season due to a hip complaint. And Petracca is a wonderful acquisition for the Suns and will play with a point to prove.
Those for whom the picking each club’s best 23 is a hobby will have pause to think when it comes to Gold Coast. Petracca is a certainty, but Jamarra Ugle-Hagan is now a Sun and there seems no way that Damien Hardwick can accommodate Ugle-Hagan into the same forward line as Ben King, Ethan Read and Jed Walter.
Doubtless, Ugle-Hagan will be coming from a long way back. Gold Coast the club offers a fresh start, although navigating life on the ‘Glitter Strip’ will be a challenge for a footballer who has never seen a night club he hasn’t wished to frequent.
Still, it has been a shocking fall from grace for the ex-Dog, the No.1 pick at the 2020 national draft. All of it self-inflicted, to be sure, but perhaps the cut in pay from $800,000 to $250,000, with no guarantees past 2026, might finally spark him into action. It would be a great footy redemption story if it did.
The Western Bulldogs farewelled him with a classy media release that acknowledged his “complex personal challenges”, but you could also sense the relief that accompanied the final sentence, “Today’s trade means the Bulldogs’ contractual relationship with Ugle-Hagan ends and no ongoing obligations exist.”
It is a sentiment a few clubs have offered at the end of trade periods past. Can’t quite remember it being spelled out quite so specifically.
