In total there were 22 deals signed off in the last day of trading with 16 players finding a new home on Thursday.

Fremantle were one of the biggest players in trade week, and were especially active on deadline day, while West Coast were barely sighted.

So, why are the WA clubs trade strategies so different and what does trade period mean for both clubs going forward?

Here's everything you need to know.

West Coast

After a week and a half of trade action, the only player to arrive at the Eagles was fringe Port Adelaide onballer Brendan Ah Chee who was swapped for a future third round pick.

The club's only other deal was a pick swap with Gold Coast, which saw West Coast move on a potentially fruitful first round draft selection in next year's draft for three second round picks in the 2017 draft.

The inactivity from the club in trade week will be a source of frustration for fans, however there is a clear reason behind the Eagles' lack of involvement.

Elliot Yeo is out of contract at the end of 2018.

West Coast's trading strategy has enabled the club to clear crucial salary cap room to launch multi-million dollar contract talks with rising superstars Elliot Yeo and Jeremy McGovern who the club judged as its best two players this season.

Preliminary talks with Yeo and McGovern's management and Eagles officials have been launched and are tipped to escalate in the coming months after the completion of the trade period.

McGovern, 25, will be a restricted free agent at the end of next season and will be a nation-wide recruiting target if the brilliant key-defender has not reached terms of a new Eagles agreement while Yeo, 24, will also be out of contract at the end of next season.

Yeo, who won his first club champion award and All-Australian selection in 2017, is expected to double his pay packet, which should see his value rise from around $500,000 a season to around a million dollars a year for his new deal.

Jeremy McGovern is expected to earn in the region of a million a season next contract. Photo: AAP

McGovern, who finished runner-up to Yeo in the Eagles' best and fairest and won back-to-back All Australian selection, is also tipped to command in the region of a million a season for up to five years.

West Coast is also gambling heavily on a high premiership finish next year with its approach to the draft.

The Eagles prioritised an influx of youth this off-season on the back of the retirements of champion onballer Matt Priddis, ex-Hawthorn legend Sam Mitchell, premiership defender Sam Butler, ex-North Melbourne forward Drew Petrie, journeyman ruckman Jonathan Giles and Irish import Paddy Brophy.

Young utility Simon Tunbridge, who has battled a spate of serious injuries during his time at the club, has also been delisted by the Eagles.

Matt Priddis and Sam Mitchell have retired from the Eagles. Photo: Graham Denholm

It emerged during the trade period that West Coast list officials were strategically targeting five picks inside the top 50 at next month's draft and the club has accomplished its goal.

The Eagles managed to keep hold of its prized first selection and now have picks at 13, 21, 26, 32 and 37 - all inside the first two rounds.

It is understood the club is eyeing off a host of West Australian young guns in the 2017 intake.

In trading next year's first round selection, in a swap of draft picks with Gold Coast just hours ahead of the closing deadline in Melbourne, Eagles football managers are playing roulette with next year's choice in what experts tip to be one of the best drafts in AFL history.

Management predictions are clearly on a highly successful replenishment through draftees and the highly anticipated return from star ruckman Nic Naitanui from his full year out of action in recovery from a full reconstruction of his left knee.

If West Coast accomplish an ambitious top four to sixth-place finish with their distinctive youth selection and development policy, that 2018 draft pick will be late into the selection process.

However a tumble out of finals contentions and a low-down-the-ladder finish will see the strategy backfire with the club surrendering a crucial top-10 pick.

Brendon Ah Chee, left was the Eagles sole acquisition in the trade period. Photo: Jeffrey Chan

West Coast's sole player acquisition saw the club import West Australian product Brendon Ah Chee from Port Adelaide.

Ah Chee, 24, was swapped for a future third round pick as the Eagles attempt to shore up and on-ball division diminished by the retirements of Priddis and Mitchell.

He joins West Coast on just a one-year contract and is no certainty to win regular appearances in the starting 22 with Ah Chee competing for spots alongside a handful of other ambitious youngsters, drafted by the Eagles in the past three to four drafts, who have not yet settled into regular berths.

Fremantle

Fremantle pulled off a sensational heist late in the piece by convincing Gold Coast to part with the prized second pick in the 2017 AFL National Draft as part of a deal which sent rising youngster Lachie Weller to the Suns.

The blockbuster deal, which also saw WA product Brandon Matera land at the Dockers and Fremantle give up pick 41 and a future third round selection, sees the club finish the trade period with two selections in the top five of the draft.

The last time Fremantle had such a prime position in the draft was almost two decades ago in 1999 when the Dockers snapped up club legend Paul Haselby with pick two, their greatest ever player Matthew Pavlich with pick four and journeyman utility Leigh Brown with pick five.

Matthew Pavlich, Paul Hasleby and Leigh Brown were drafted by the Dockers in 1999. Photo: Sharon Smith

Dockers stood firm on insisting that Weller would not be released for less than pick two while also critically retained their original choice at number five.

The vital two selections inside the opening five is tipped to be a lifeline to local Mandurah product Aaron Naughton as well as allow the club to potentially pluck one of the finest young budding midfielders in the country at the draft.

Nathan Wilson has joined Fremantle. Photo: AAP

Fremantle also completed a widely-expected deal for dashing Greater Western Sydney defender Nathan Wilson for a future second round selection.

Wilson's exciting run and dash and sublime foot skills will be a perfect fit for a Dockers side lacking in polish and class and he fits snugly into a calculated Dockers recruiting strategy of attracting players back to their home state to continue their blossoming AFL careers.

Brandon Matera is back in WA at the Dockers. The Age. Photo: Sebastian Costanzo

Opportunist small forward Matera, 25, was one of the last deals completed in another frenetic last day of trading after being linked with a switch to Fremantle for almost the entire 2017 season.

He was released to a Dockers forward division in the switch for Weller, who emerged as central to frantic and calculated trading inside the last two hours of the now annual hectic closing stages of the trade period.

Fremantle won Gold Coast's cherished number two pick in this year's national draft while releasing Matera to continue his 101-game career back in his home town.

Ironically, the return of the WA products is on the back of departures from former Fremantle inter-stater players Hayden Crozier, who heads to the Western Bulldogs, and the nippy Weller.

Weller dropped a bombshell on the club with his demand to be traded to the Gold Coast Suns. Photo: AAP

Weller, just 21, dropped a bombshell on Monday with his request to be traded to Gold Coast at the height of discussions with Dockers management on a lucrative new contract intended to extend his time in the west for up to five more years.

Dockers list officials steadfastly put a hefty price on Weller's head and refused to budge from demanding a top five choice in this year's national draft.

Weller has played 44 consecutive Dockers games over the past two years in his tally of 47 overall however has not finished among top-10 fairest-and-best voting in either season.

The trade with the Suns, which saw Gold Coast get Fremantle's pick 41 in this year's draft in the deal, is estimated as a clear win overall for the Dockers.

Budding youngster Harley Balic also departed the Dockers in the trade period with the homesick midfielder traded to Melbourne for a fourth-round pick.