Norm De Guerre
Left of the dial.
- Mar 27, 2004
- 13,338
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- AFL Club
- Western Bulldogs
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- Australian Farnarkling XI
Still think we should have sent him to the draft and let him end up wherever.
Sure, that makes perfect sense in the world of bigfooty where we invariably overvalue players and demand all sorts of ridiculous draft compensation. But trades tend to bend back towards what is achievable given the constraints placed upon teams with their draft hand. Of course Geelong could've strengthened their hand and sweetened the deal. But they knew months in advance that Smith had agreed to their terms thus removing all incentive to trade in good faith.
Im pretty sure that the most common refrain in the post trade wash up across bigfooty when elite talent moves clubs is that one party got hosed and the other made out like a bandit.
Top end trades are rarely equitable
I hope Hynes has a great career but it was so far off Smiths value, we could have sent a message.
The message would've been completely hollow though. Clubs just cannot sit out opportunities to get into the top end of the draft to prove a point to recalcitrant players and the opportunist clubs that they have been colluding with. Neither party could give a **** about our principled stance. They'd just see it as an opportunity to weaken an opponent who stupidly decided to forego a valuable 1st round draft pick.
We made the best of a shit sandwich and moved on.
If only our fans could do the same when it came to Bailey Smith.
Lets revisit this at the end of the season when Zac Butters nominates the Bulldogs and we don't offer Port anything like fair compensation for one of the best mids in the game.








