1 more page to go tonight to hit my prediction this morning although it looks like i under-estimated it somewhat =/
Anyway...
I'm feeling really disappointed like everyone else however there's a few things to consider before we really determine whether it's been a good/bad trade period.
First is that if we pick up Martin for nothing in the PSD then that is an absolutely massive win considering most people were happy giving up a future 2nd for him. Look at that in isolation and we got 1 of our main targets for absolute peanuts!! Of course we won't know this for 5-6 week hence why we are nervous about this outcome until it happens. If it doesn't, then yes we've definitely had a very poor trade period. If it does, to me that still leaves us in a pretty good position as it allows our future 2nd to be used as a bargaining tool next year rather than spending it... hence Jack Martin for free!
Next if we look at our main target in Papley, which let's be honest is what we are all mostly upset about... Before today half of this board said 9 is overs and the other said 9 is Paps worth. Who knows what our best offer was but i imagine we'll find out in the coming days and i would expect we would have been willing to pay whatever the price was, even if it was just pick 9 in isolation. Given Sydney were dangling 9 to Essendon for days, that to me indicates they were happy with the deal we'd put forward to them. Of course in not getting Daniher, i think they've turned around to us and re-negged on a previously agreed deal about us getting Paps even if they didn't get Daniher. This would explain SOS' demeanor and some of the ITK comments around us being stitched up. Did we pony up enough to get it over the line, i think we did and had it over the line only for Sydney's pride to get in the way late in the piece.
Did we put all our eggs in the one basket? Possibly, but let's be honest, who else of note was available that we were keen on? Butler? I don't think too many wanted him. Langdon? Tomlinson? Ah Chee? Bruce? Keath? We didn't want any of these players The only player of value that we could have been interested in was Hill. We could just as easily get Sam Gray from port adelaide as a delisted free agent if we wanted depth in the small forward position. Crouch or Wines or Viney or Gaff? Lets be honest, they weren't really available. So the notion of we could have done better with pick 9 is somewhat true until you really consider that no-one we actually would have wanted was available and worth the pick.
And with pick trades still available for a while longer, i would be interested to see if we trade out 9 for a future first so we are stock-piled for picks next year to make a play at someone that would require 2 first round picks for. We don't need any young draftees this year so lets set ourselves up with double firsts next year so teams know we are serious.
So all in all i'm disappointed as Papley would have made such a big difference but i'll still be happy if we get Martin in the PSD knowing that likely Paps was pulled from us at the last minute and there were no other players worth the pick available.
