AFL trade period live updates: Nick Blakey set for North Melbourne move, Keidean Coleman requests late trade to Bombers

How much time have you got on your hands, because I could go all day on Brisbane.

I think in an ideal world, a team, regardless of who they are, shouldn’t be able to get the top free agent and grab their top academy prospect.

Brisbane has already eaten, so it’s only fair that everyone else gets to eat too.

But the AFL has tightened its bidding rules to avoid this exact scenario because if the Dogs aren’t in a position to grab Khaled El Souki, it means that the open draft pool is strengthened a little more.

And ultimately that is good for equalisation purposes.

Do I think Brisbane should have been allowed to cobble up late picks to grab Will Ashcroft while also adding Josh Dunkley in the same summer? Absolutely not, but those were the rules at the time, and credit to them for pulling it off.

I’ll dish out credit to the Dogs as well if they’re able to still bring in El Souki.

I think the Bulldogs fans aren’t willing to let go of the El Souki dream just yet, I hear y’all.

Definitely never say never, it is possible that the Dogs could trade back into this draft and grab a higher pick.

Do I think they can get their hands on pick 5? That does seem a tad too high, even with the future assets, but somewhere in the teens might be doable.

The only problem is that no-one really wants extra picks in next year’s draft.

If I’m the Dogs, I’m probably aiming at the clubs who need to match bids in next year’s draft (Port and Essendon mainly).

Given El Souki is tipped to go around pick 20, I’d say the Dogs getting their hands on a pick between 15 and 25 is probably more likely than pick 5.

Having said that though, never say never!

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Still no real word on anything Jack Viney or Trent Rivers, both of whom have been linked with West Coast. The Eagles have been pretty much silent all trade period so far in truth, nobody in and nobody out.

I have seen it floated that a potential package deal – Viney and Rivers for pick 23 – has been looked at, but perhaps the silence out of the Eagles suggests they don’t fancy that. West Coast had also been linked to that chase for Port’s pick five, so perhaps that is taking up their attentions at the moment? We really don’t know, nothing is really getting out from the Eagles at the minute.

I would guess that Viney probably ends up getting done. Rivers, I would be less confident on. If that’s the way it plays out then all up, that’s a pretty underwhelming trade period for a club looking to make rapid improvements, especially when you consider the moves made by the teams around them.

Not a chance that happens, Sam.

I think you’re going to have to put El Souki in the loss column. He’ll be playing for another club next year.

You can’t win them all.

I’ve been on this hill for a while, LW.

I think you just abolish compensation and actually let free agents be exactly that.

The “gift” you get for losing a free agent is the cap space that is freed up, and it’s on you to use that wisely.

This whole compensation thing is really the AFL just rewarding mediocrity because, let’s face it, that’s more often than not why a player wants to leave.

If teams know there’s not a pot of gold waiting when a player wants to leave perhaps they’ll do more work on improving the culture to make players want to stay.

The AFL needs to understand that it cannot protect every club.

There is never going to be a season where every team wins 16 games, there will always be good teams and bad teams, that is just the nature of sport.

No news on this front as yet, James. I reckon you might have to throw the girlfriend a few future first-round picks.

She’s not going to want the picks in the Tassie draft as well, so pony up brother.

If she leaves you as a restricted free agent, does the AFL give you a band one compensation pick?

The AFL has been clear with any clubs looking at the Swans players currently under police investigation: Do so at your own risk.

That Vic Police investigation is ongoing and will probably still be weeks away from being completed. North Melbourne is now on the hook for whatever comes out of that in regards to Nick Blakey.

Even if Vic Police does not follow up its investigation with any charges, the AFL does still have the power to deliver further punishment to the players involved at the Pullman Hotel. At the moment, that is all up in the air and we don’t have a read on which way any of that is going to go.

North Melbourne would have had high-level discussions and debates taking all of this into account before it made the decision to bet its future on Nick Blakey.

I’ll grab this one for Deano if that’s OK!

I think it’s going to be pretty much impossible for the Bulldogs to match a bid on Khaled El Souki.

He’s projected to go around pick 20 and the Bulldogs’ best pick is pick 55 in this year’s draft.

They shouldn’t be able to land Zak Butters and grab their top academy prospect in the same summer. This is the system working.

If we’re looking for an early winner, surely it has to be North.

Until the events of late August, there was no way that the Kangaroos would have been able to get anywhere near a player of Nick Blakey’s calibre.

Not only have they got him, they’ve gotten him for what I’d say is about 65 cents on the dollar.

If not for the investigation hanging over his head, I’d say Blakey is a player that the Swans could have commanded three first-rounders for, given his standing in the game, and his five-year contract.

I think North is ready to win, they think they’re ready to win as well, that’s why Alastair Clarkson was punted.

Blakey is a genuine needle-mover.

On the Swans side of things, they’ll back their system as they always do, and it would not shock me if someone unexpected steps up and has a breakout year next year.

The pick 6 they get in this deal is a very good pick and they’re going to grab a potential future star there.

This will be a fascinating negotiation.

Brisbane has voiced that it would need a top-20 pick for Kiddy Coleman, who is under contract for one more year.

I reckon the Lions will ask for 17, arguing that it’ll be pretty much 20 when bids come in for Dougie Cochrane, Cody Walker, Ethan Matthews and Caylen Murray.

The Bombers will look to get it done with either pick 21 or 27, and ultimately they’ll meet somewhere in the middle.

I wonder whether the deal eventually ends up being 17 for Coleman and Brisbane’s pick 42 (the Neale compensation pick) which would allow Essendon to match a bid for their NGA product Blake Justice.

Everyone wins in that scenario.

Nick Blakey eh?

I reckon these list managers must want tomorrow off, because at this rate there are going to be no more deals to talk about.

What a massive move in the history of North Melbourne Football Club!

Let’s get stuck into it all shall we?

I think this is one of the most significant moves North Melbourne have made this century. And it comes at the end of a month in which the club has been aggressive, decisive and a little bit ruthless as it pursues meaningful progression.

Thoughts on Clarko’s depature notwithstanding, Jaymie Graham is a fantastic appointment to lead the club’s new era. I don’t think they could have got a better man for the job.

They have been assertive in chasing Nick Murray from Adelaide, and may yet still be rewarded on that front.

And now with Nick Blakey, an opportunity that presented late and probably unexpectedly, the Kangaroos have been prepared to put it all on the line and chase the big fish, the real difference-maker, with an offer that none of their rivals could match.

Blakey’s off-field situation is significant and can’t be discounted. But should he be able to continue his career without interruption, he immediately elevates North Melbourne. He is a fantastic footballer, surely the best and most damaging rebounding half-back in the game. He fills a position of need for North and will add top-line experience to a young group.

It’s a high price, but it’s a price worth paying for North Melbourne. They should now have realistic eyes on not only the top 10, but even an unlikely challenge for the top six.

I imagine this will go through by the deadline, probably for a throwaway late pick. The last word we got on this was from Jarryd Roughead at Adelaide, who basically just said Port Adelaide had bigger fish to fry and they’d get to Pedlar once the rest of the jobs were done.

Port are still auctioning off pick five currently, but aside from that the runway should now be clear for a Pedlar deal to be struck.

Not just that grand final too Rob, as I’m sure you don’t need me to remind you. For the entire month of September 2023, there weren’t many better players in the AFL than Keidean Coleman. It looked like he was ready to blow the league apart before the injuries kicked in.

We’ve all be robbed of watching him play. From a neutral perspective, hopefully he can get his body right and play another 150 games with the Bombers.

And as you mentioned there, if it helps get Caylen Murray to the Lions it’s a deal worth doing. Murray himself will be likely be the Zorko/Coleman successor off that Brisbane half-back line in a couple of years.