Look, there's a few here going perhaps a bit hard at "we won't trade" and "walk him to the draft". Lions have now come out pretty publicly saying we're very interested, so I don't believe that would happen, much as many Lions supporters would get a bit of savage joy at the idea (myself included).
At the end of the day though, Dodoro doesn't have a reputation that he's hard to deal with for threatening to match. He has that reputation because he pushes everything, and has no concern for ruining working relationships, if it gets him 1 cent more in a deal. I haven't always agreed with our list management team, and have sometimes thought we've overpaid for players, but at the end of the day, they've maintained good working relationships, so we're one of the first that other teams come to for pick swaps and the like, because we're happy with a win-win.
Dodoro doesn't have that relationship with other list managers, not for threatening to match, but things like declaring that Essendon want a top 10 pick plus a sweetener. I'll lay bets that even >50% of Essendon fans don't believe that this is a serious and reasonable demand given the last 3 years.
I wouldn't be surprised if Dodoro matches. And if he does, I reckon the Lions would trade. And then we'd end up at one of our first two picks, maybe with a late pick swap in your favour, given that Dodoro will scrounge every cent he can.
