We never even got into trade discussions, once he heard the salary we could offer he stopped talking to us. Carlton had got in his ear about how much they could offer.
It wasnt that long ago mate, certainly not long enough for reality to disappear and replaced by a whole bunch of excuses and throwaway crap like that.
OKeefe not being able to get home was a low point for the AFL. In fact OKeefe not being able to move (for family reasons) after the 2008 season will go down as one of the most ridiculous amateurish moments in the games history. It was the final catalyst for a sustained push by the aflpa for free agency and proof that ultra conservatism and a total lack of risk taking had become the norm across the board. Hawthorn were just another club to have the same myopic vision and by no means the worst...they just came off an unexpected flag so at least they had an excuse and by no means anywhere near the dumbest. Carlton held that title.
A grand total of 6 trades went thru...players even of OKeefe's class simply couldnt move even when their own club spent an entire week of frustration trying to help out. Sydney had a running offer on the table but family issues (most Geelong fans will know what i;m talking about) trumped all that. He nominated Hawthorn coz he was used to playing finals and they'd just won a flag...Geelong was in the midst of trying to hold onto players with no room at all, and Carlton were just a bunch of ultra conservative draft pick junkies who seemed to think their prize Juddy was about to catapult them to 5 flags.
It was the height of the "rebuilding" period where it seemed the only way fwd was to snare draft pix and be prepared for a long haul back. OKeefe obviously wouldnt have wanted to go where he wouldnt be playing finals and Hawthorn actually had put pick 16 on the table...perfect you;d assume yeah ? Carlton couldnt get Warnock out of their head, and everyone's draft pix were being held onto like it was their clubs virginity at stake. I dont blame Hawthorn for being caught up in the same attitude...even the ignorant media were touting that due to the impending compromised drafts, clubs would need to be morons to trade any of their pix...certainly not a late 1st rnd or early 2nd rnd.
Pelchin simply pulled pick 16 off the table on the Thursday of trade week. Even he said that it was probably unders for him and they wanted Okeefe...his contract payments were of course the flexible part due to it being a request to be placed at a particualr club and werent an issue, but the following week hawthorn fans in here tried to wheel it out as an excuse for the trade being pulled at a late stage. Nothing to do with reality. Pelchin said he had a meeting late on the Thursday where he decided even pick 16 was suddenly too much to give up at that point and notified us on the Friday...kind of left one side of the trade totally screwed and now virtually impossible for OKeefe to move. Think Hawks used 16 on Schoenmakers a month or two later. They simply got caught up in the same hysteria about draft pix that yr...understandable at the time but now just looks silly which it was...wouldnt blame Hawthorn tho.
The other excuse some people mentioned in here was his age. I think most people remember that time in the game...when it seemed that being young was more important than whether you were any good. If you werent <22 you were "old". I think everyone in here remembers that period fondly. It really was a stupid period in the games history where administrations and footy dept's got sucked into being ultra conservative draft pick junkies not willing to take even the slightest risk. Far easier to do nothing than take any calculated risk which is the basis of all recruiting. The term "rebuilding" was like an excuse for half the clubs to just sit on their hands and do nothing to better their list, other than pretend they could hand pick one or two nuggets from a draft lottery. Free agency suddenly became inevitable and unstoppable after OKeefe couldnt move...and the aflpa immediately jacked up the issue afterwards.
As i said, the real dimwits in the OKeefe saga were Carlton, not Hawthorn. Hawthorn did leave OKeefe out in the cold at a late hour of course, with no choice but to turn back and accept Sydney's running offer to stay. Not the first time it'd happened to a player on the table. He couldnt nominate for PSD because non Melb clubs had the pix and he'd just land somewhere that meant he'd screwed himself...the whole idea was simply to get home to Melb coz he felt he needed and was now the right time. Didnt want to screw Syd on the way out the door either. An A grader left stuck out in the cold on the last day of trade week ?...naturally he was understandably grateful he had the backup of staying at Syd with the running offer in place, which was upped to 4 yrs.
Carlton were unbelievably anal and unbelievably short sighted. They also wanted him, but had some silly complex trade involving half the bloody pix in the draft going on for Robbie Warnock. They spent the family jewels on Juddy the yr before and were so damn up themselves they just assumed it'd be formality to start winning flags with the guys they had hoarded already. Turns out OKeefe would have been the ultimate perfect fit for what they needed. Its been 5 yrs since...Carlton fans in this place were saying he was "old" at the time. Would have handed them so much bite for a small outlay.
When a bloke of OKeefe's class, that misses only 1 game in maybe 6 seasons, actually nominates a club, thats a rarity you usually feel happy about and invariably take advantage of whenever u can....bird in the hand...instant list improvement..zero waiting period. You normally cant jemmy them lose with a crowbar, and it costs huge overs increasing the risk...it was just a very silly transition period. You were either in a "premiership window" or had to be seen as "rebuilding"...administrators and footy dept staff had every excuse under the sun to simply do nothing...in fact being seen to be aggressive was being seen as stupid. Nothing beats a nice early morning rant lol.