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Find your Sport Nation frequency“Gagging for it”: Why the mid-season trade period would revitalise the AFL
SEN • April 7th, 2025 3:03 pm
Is it time for the AFL to unleash the mid-season trade period?
While it likely won’t happen this year, the recent events involving West Coast’s Oscar Allen have given the industry food for thought.
SEN’s Crunch Time team of Luke Hodge, Kane Cornes, Gerard Whateley and Josh Gabelich discussed the possibility of the AFL implementing a trade period mid-season which would change things dramatically.
Hodge got the conversation rolling by speaking of Eagles co-captain Allen and his meeting with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell while Cornes discussed players in the recent past - including Dan Houston and Tom Barrass - who said they would stay at their clubs before leaving months later.
It morphed into a discussion about the mid-season draft and how the sensational NBA trade of Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks to the LA Lakers is something the AFL can look at and learn from.
“If the space is this far advanced, why are we holding out on the mid-season trade period?” said Whateley on SEN.
“A critical mass of clubs have said no whilst they’re all doing this, so which is it?
“Are we in it? Or are we not in it? They seem to object around the media reporting of what's happening in the trade space, while also chastising us that, ‘Oh, you blokes just don't understand that this is going on everywhere’.
“Oscar Allen would go in the mid-season trade period. I have no question about that. There's too much damage that's been done this week, and West Coast would get more for him in season than they will at the end of the season.
“That’s been the contradiction of the week. ‘Oh, you all don't understand, we're all doing this, this is all going on’. Yet somehow we're voting against a mid-season trade period.
“We’re all in or all out, aren’t we?”
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Cornes effusively agreed, referencing the situation at Melbourne who perhaps would consider trading Christian Petracca for enormous gain.
“Rip the Band-Aid right off. If you're going to do it, do it properly,” said Cornes.
“Don't restrict it to the top 5 per cent who are highly paid and the rest can't be traded. If you're going to do it, do it properly.
“You can imagine the Melbourne situation unfolding right now. What would Freo give them for (Kozzie) Pickett? Would it be the best chance to absolutely capitalise? Could you entertain Petracca?
“These are questions for the club, but what would someone give for Petracca right now to potentially win a premiership and Melbourne be extremely well compensated for it?
“I think it's an opportunity missed. We see what it does. People hate mentioning the NBA and American sports, but just what the Luka trade did for the whole of the competition. We started talking about ratings declines and people’s interest in the sport waning, it revitalised the whole season on one trade.
“That's what would happen for us as well.”
Whateley then proposed that a club like Carlton would love to take part in a mid-season trade period in a bid to improve their flailing fortunes.
He is of the belief that the vast majority would love to see it happen.
“Carlton's best chance to overhaul their list in the middle of the season would be in-season trading where they could build up a cache of players or picks for how to execute for where they are going to go next," he said.
“Instead they’ll make those calculated decisions for the end of the year.
“I find we sort of tiptoe into the space, but we put so many caveats around it. If the if the industry is this far advanced, what are we waiting for?
“I know there are the cultural views that people don't like it. People are gagging for it.”
AFL Media’s Gabelich says the frenzied interest in anything to do with trade makes it a very appealing scenario.
However, he cannot see the mid-season trade period happening anytime soon.
“I think Trade Radio is about to expand for this very reason, because it drives so much interest,” Gabelich added.
“Even the mid-season rookie draft drives so much content, and these are players that are rarely stars. There's not many Jai Newcombes running around the competition right now, so I think there's a huge appetite for it.
“But as we get closer and then we come back a little bit so I just don't think it's that imminent.”
