Both were veterans when they were discarded by their beloved Cats and forced to continue their AFL careers elsewhere.

 

The link between these two Geelong greats runs much deeper than that, and in fact goes back 14 years.

 

Mansfield's departure from Geelong was directly connected to Chapman's arrival at the club.

 

At the end of 1999, Mansfield was traded to Carlton for pick 31 – the very pick the Cats used to snare Chapman.

 

At the time, The Footy Show offered Mansfield a considerable fee to tell his side of the story, but he knocked it back because he was too heartbroken.

 

This is the first time he has spoken publicly about the most shattering episode of his AFL career.

 

And it's a story that features some surprising revelations, including the forging of a fruitful relationship with Geelong CEO Brian Cook – a relationship that initially appeared untenable.

 

As Chapman's move to Essendon was being finalised, AFL.com.au caught up with Mansfield in the plush offices of his wealth management business Morgans Financial Group in Brighton.

 

Despite Mansfield's subsequent triumphs away from football, the trade remains an emotive issue for the 42-year-old.

 

He is still unsure how he came to be sacked, but it seems he was a victim of a club in free fall.

 

Geelong was struggling on and off the field. Young skipper Leigh Colbert had walked out on the club to join North Melbourne, and the Cats were still looking for a coach to replace the sacked Gary Ayres. The club's new hotshot CEO, former West Coast chief Cook, was making tough decisions.

 

Mansfield suspects Cook was reluctant to pay the final year of his contract, which he admits had been inflated to ward off a lucrative Fremantle approach at the end of 1994.

 

Mansfield had been a star. An All Australian half-back flanker in consecutive seasons (1994-95) and the Cats' best player in losing Grand Finals in those same years, he had also represented Victoria in four separate seasons and been an acting captain at Geelong nine times over the previous three seasons.

 

At 28, he was widely regarded as a heart-and-soul Cat, and the type of professional, team-first leader that the Cats required in their time of need.

 

Yet he received an ultimatum: if he stayed, he would play in the reserves.

 

"I just couldn't conceive how a born-and-bred Geelong person who'd given blood, sweat and tears for the club could be treated like that by a CEO who'd only been there for three months," Mansfield said.

 

"I didn't think 'Cooky' was worthy of making that decision on me.

 

"I was furious. I'd never been more upset at an individual. I had a long love affair with the club and Cooky just came along and broke my heart by forcing me away. I had some serious hatred for him.

 

"And it's probably the only time a CEO has sacked a player without any input from the footy department."

However, their relationship has kicked on remarkably from such rough beginnings. And it's testament to the quality of both men that they have become close.

 

Cook made the first move, initiating a meeting some 18 months later, during Mansfield's second season with the Blues. Both lived in Albert Park, and they caught up over breakfast.

 

"I really respect Cooky for picking up the phone, because he didn't have to do it," Mansfield said.

 

"He showed me his strategy, direction, business model and plan for Geelong, and his criteria for analysing people within the club, which only confused me even more because I ticked every box for the required characteristics.

 

"But from that day on, we've become very good friends. In fact, I use him as a business consultant and we catch up regularly.

 

"History shows Cooky has done an incredible job, and I respect everything he's done for my club.

 

"Very few people can bring a business brain to a footy club and have the empathy of the player group and the supporters, be respectful of both, and make them both work. Cooky has been the best I've seen at doing that."

 

Mansfield plans to one day join the Geelong board, and perhaps even the AFL Commission.

 

He joked: "Down the track it'd be good to do the switch and be Cooky's boss. And when it's time, give him his marching orders!"

 

Mansfield, a Geelong member who regularly takes his two sons (Maximus, five, and Jai, two) to Cats games, has also become acquainted with Chapman.

 

They first met when the Blues and Cats were on their end-of-season trips in the Greek Islands at the end of 2000 – their first season at their respective clubs.

 

"I've watched 'Chappy' pretty closely for obvious reasons, and he's been fantastic," Mansfield said. "The irony of it, with Chappy facing the exact same situation I did 14 years ago, is amazing. He would have gone through the same emotions I did. Footy sure is a leveller."

 

Mansfield accepts he is an easy target for mates who give him "some stick" over that 1999 trade. After all, he played 54 games over three seasons with the Blues (for a total of 235) before retiring in 2002, while Chapman amassed 251 games and became a three-time premiership player and a Norm Smith medallist.

 

However, both will be remembered as Geelong champions who saved their best for Grand Finals.

 

"I wish Chappy all the best, just not against the Cats," Mansfield said.

 

"It's freedom. It gives guys a forum to express themselves and display their skills. The marks and goals will never go away from being what supporters and players want."

 

"The umpiring. I just feel that the purpose of what the umpires are there for has been lost. The umpires are there to guide and manage the game, not to influence it, and I think they influence it too much."

 

I'd have fewer rules, and relax the ones that are there. Having said that, the rules haven't really changed – only a few have been added or deleted – so it comes down to the interpretation of those rules. I wish every game was umpired like the Grand Final, when they let it go. I want that consistency. Just let the boys play."

 

"It's hard to split Corey Enright and Joel Selwood. But a champion for me is judged on sustainability and longevity, and Corey has been there longer. The way he's managed and controlled that backline, and being a former half-back flanker myself, I just think he's been so instrumental in the club's success. He has to go down as the best half-back flanker in the history of the game. He's certainly the best Geelong's had."

 

"A few. As a 15-year-old I broke my ankle and had a complete reconstruction and was told by a surgeon with no bedside manner that I'd never play footy again. But that was fine in six months. I had operations on my calves because I had cramping issues, and a little bit of stuff with osteitis pubis. And two years ago I had open heart surgery for congenital heart disease, where one of the valves in my aorta calcified and stopped working so they had to put a false one in. I dodged a bullet there. I came across it by accident. For about 12 months I found it harder and harder when I went for a run. Sometimes I couldn't run because I was short of breath. I got it checked out and they said another three months and I would've been brown bread. That was pretty confronting at 39. Now that it's been replaced it's 100 per cent."

 

"There's no doubt the Cats will be competitive again. It's a matter of that group of young players, who have made an incredible step in their careers already, taking that next step and becoming senior players who have big influences over games sustainably. A lot of experience has gone, but then again they lost the likes of Matthew Scarlett, Tom Harley and Cameron Ling, yet they continued to perform.

"I think the Blues have a lot of work to do. They don't seem to carry that maturity as a club and a team to enable them to be competitive enough yet."