AFL: Is today the day Jack Viney gets to the Eagles?
The Melbourne veteran is among a string of players league-wide who enter the final days of the trade period with their futures unclear, with plenty of potential deals in the works ahead of Wednesday’s deadline.
Follow all the news and developments on the third-last day of the AFL’s trade period here!
That’s a wrap
We have just two days of the trade period left and we still have some deals to be made.
Will Jack Viney get to the Eagles? Will Nick Blakey go to North Melbourne and can Essendon add Kideon Coleman to their stocks?
We’ll find out some of the answers when we are back from 7am tomorrow!
Blakey stalemate
Nick Blakey is the only one of the ‘Pullman Five’ who has requested a trade but so far North Melbourne and Sydney are struggling to come to a deal.
The Swans want more than just pick six for the defender while North Melbourne know they can’t throw all their resources into one man, even if he is very talented.
Coleman update
And we’ve got late-day word that Keidean Coleman has requested a trade out of the Lions.
Coleman wants to go from the premiers to the wooden spooners - the reverse Oscar Allen, if you will - and land at Essendon, in search of greater opportunity.
Recapping today’s news
If you’re just tuning in to see what’s gone down today, here’s the pick of the action:
- Hawthorn sent Aidan Schubert and Sam Butler to Gold Coast, as well as a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 third-round pick, in exchange for a 2028 first-rounder and two second-rounders across each of ‘27 and ‘28
- Keidean Coleman is a man in demand, with the unlucky Lion a trade target for Essendon and others across the final days of the trade period
- The reported offer from North Melbourne for Nick Blakey is Pick 6 and a pick in the 30s - which they don’t yet own - in exchange for Blakey and a pick in the 50s
- Zak Butters says he “definitely contemplated” coming clean and revealing this season would be his last at Port Adelaide in the middle of the year, ahead of his eventual shift to the Bulldogs
More from the draft combine
There’s little action in the trade space as we approach the end of the day on east coast.
While we wait for more developments, here’s more of what went down at yesterday’s WA draft combine.
Next Generation Academy graduates Garrison Kenh (West Coast) and Fin Yeo (Fremantle) both produced efforts which would have impressed the roughly 20 recruiters for top-level clubs on hand on Sunday morning.
In the 20m sprint, Kenh produced a blistering unofficial time of 2.931sec, just beating out Yeo’s effort of 2.95sec.
Experience re-load?
If Jack Viney and/or Trent Rivers find their way to West Coast across the coming 52 hours before the trade deadline, it’ll continue a recent theme of the Eagles bringing in experience in a fashion they very rarely did through the first three decades of their history.
By way of games played for rival AFL clubs before joining the Eagles, Viney (238 games) and/or Rivers (140 games) would join Brandon Starcevich (132), Jack Graham (131) and Liam Baker (128) in having that similar range of experience as West Coast recruits in the past two years.
Outside of the twin one-season recruits of Sam Mitchell and Drew Petrie for the 2017 season, the Eagles have precious few examples of players that experienced joining the club.
MOST GAMES FOR RIVAL AFL CLUBS BEFORE JOINING WEST COAST
- Drew Petrie 316
- Sam Mitchell 307
- ***Jack Viney 238***
- Ross Glendinning 190
- Daniel Chick 149
- ***Trent Rivers 140***
- Brandon Starcevich 132
- Jack Graham 131
- Jack Redden 129
- Liam Baker 128
*** = if recruited this week
Bold = recruited in the past four years
Butters pondered making exit public mid-season
As he addressed the media today, new Dog Zak Butters admitted he thought about coming clean mid-season and making his impending exit from Port Adelaide public.
“I definitely contemplated and thought about that,” he said.
“But I think the AFL landscape isn’t probably quite ready for it.”
Today’s action so far
Here’s a short wrap of the morning thus far, which includes one trade and some updates on where things sit in a range of other prospective deals.
Eagles hit the track
While we await some more action in the trade space, there’s been some movement at West Coast’s training base this morning despite weeks remaining until they’re required back at the club.
The likes of Harry Edwards, Liam Baker, Brandon Starcevich and Jobe Shanahan all took part in an unofficial running session this morning.
It’s looming as a big pre-season for Edwards, whose career is in limbo due to a string of concussion issues.
Read the full story and see the exclusive pictures here.
Coaching movement
The trade period isn’t just for players!
Former Eagles assistant coach Daniel Pratt - who’s spent the past four seasons at the Western Bulldogs - is set to make the move to Essendon.
It’s part of a raft of changes as the Bombers retool under new coach Mark McVeigh.
Pratt joined West Coast as a development coach in 2014 and filled a range of roles, including being the team’s backline coach for the 2018 flag triumph and serving as the club’s AFLW coach in 2021.
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