Draft picks were flung in so many directions at such pace in the final few hours of trading last Thursday that it was tough to keep up with which picks ended up where, let alone what was in it for the clubs that traded them.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Some conspiracy theories have since raged, but when you take a closer look at the most contentious or hard-to-understand deals, the logic behind them and the legality of them becomes easier to see.
First, Hawthorn.
The AFL erred when it sent around paperwork stating the Hawks had on-traded a 2017 second-round pick that originated with GWS to Gold Coast as part of the deal, rather than their own.
Because Hawthorn had already traded their 2017 first-round pick to St Kilda, they were not able to tie a future second-round pick into any other deals until they had brought another in.
As soon as they did that – receiving a future second pick from GWS via a deal with Carlton that we will get to shortly – they were perfectly entitled within future trading rules to pass either of them on to the Suns.
The rules are complicated and can be hard to make easy sense of, especially as clubs keep finding new ways to work them, but any inquiry since future trading was introduced ahead of last year's trade period would have been met with the same response.
First, clubs must make at least two future first-round picks in a four-year period. Those that don't will then face restrictions.
Secondly, clubs that have chosen to trade out a future first-round selection are not permitted to trade any other picks from the same draft unless they have brought in a replacement. As the AFL reiterated on Wednesday, it's about the net result.
This brings us, first of all, to Geelong, who sought clarification midway through the trade period that they were allowed to trade their 2017 first-round pick to Carlton as part of the deal for Zach Tuohy.
The Cats had already traded their 2015 first rounder to Adelaide, in the Patrick Dangerfield trade. They had also moved their first pick in this year's draft to Carlton, for Lachie Henderson. The Tuohy trade makes it three in a row. But if the Cats are (somehow) able to trade two first-round picks back in next year, and use them, they will have made the necessarily two first-round selections. They also have their 2018 first-rounder to come.
If they're not able to take those two picks in the next two years, they'll be prevented from trading any further first rounders. But given it is not yet impossible for them to do that, they could not have been prevented from trading a third.
The O'Meara trade would not have been possible without the involvement of Carlton, who had just done a deal with the Giants for Caleb Marchbank and Jarrod Pickett. The Blues received the Giants' 2017 second-round pick in that trade, in exchange for two third-round picks (45 and 58) and the 2017 first rounder they had received from Geelong in the Tuohy trade. They then moved the GWS second-rounder to Hawthorn, swapping it for picks 48, 66 and 70 in this year's draft.
Why would they do that, people wondered. Were they just helping the Hawks out, making sure they could get the O'Meara deal done?
They did help, but clubs aren't charity organisations and the benefit for Carlton became clear on Tuesday when they further trimmed their list, with Andrejs Everitt one of four new delistings.
Marchbank, Pickett, Rhys Palmer and Billie Smedts have come in, but that the club has ripped a large chunk from their squad in as many years means they need to replace those players with draftees.
Clubs are confident in the depth of this year's draft and taking those picks from Hawthorn means they are better placed in the coming draft than they would have been had they not replaced the picks they sent to the Giants. Had they not got them, their first three picks would have been 5, 25 and 63. Now they have 5, 25, 48, 63, 66 and 70.
The third trade that has come under scrutiny has been the Hawthorn-St Kilda pick swap, which was absolutely lopsided but driven by the Hawks' desperation to get their hands on the Saints' pick 10.
They had promised O'Meara they would get him, and with their own first-rounder used already used to secure Tom Mitchell from Sydney, needed to get that deal done.
According to the Draft Value Index, which assigns a points value to every draft pick, that trade is undoubtedly one-sided. But picks and points are very different things.
While many clubs use the DVI as a guide, points only matter to clubs that need them to match picks for academy or father-son players in the draft. The other clubs want the best-placed picks they can get. Or the picks they need – like Hawthorn did – to make sure they can get other work done.
