| If | you're dealt a bad hand ... | then | all you can do is work with it, hang in and play the long game, and blast out late. A big well done under the circumstances of Trade Period. |
| If | this side's best players can all regain full fitness ... | then | 2018 is looking more than OK after solid work in the past three weeks. |
| If | you needed proof SOS was the Trade Period master ... | then | you got it this week. But it's now time this club started winning games of football, not just games of trade. |
| If | anyone knows where the Pies were the past three weeks ... | then | can they please let us know? |
| If | SOS was again the Trade Period master ... | then | the 2017 king was Adrian Dodoro. Getting the three Ss to commit to the Bombers was brilliance. Landing them was genius. |
| If | we thought we'd seen it all in Trade Period ... | then | we realised we hadn't until the Weller for pick No.2 deal went down. We've now seen it all. |
| If | you add it all up ... | then | there's now three Cats who have collectively accumulated 12 best-and-fairest awards, 19 All Australian nominations. Oh, and three Brownlows. |
| If | Ablett and Saad are disastrous outs ... | then | Weller and Young are more than OK ins. But Stuey Dew is in for one almighty challenge in 2018. |
| If | two years ago we had never seen playing list depth like the Giants ... | then | right now the listed talent pool is looking decidedly shallow by comparison. A strange, sudden turnaround. |
| If | he wasn't talked about much in Trade Period ... | then | we reckon Jarman Impey's time will come when the matches unfold next year. Reckon there's big upside. |
| If | there was an award for the club which approached Trade Period with a minimum of fuss, and which didn't deviate from a hardline Plan A ... | then | it's this one. Loved the decisive work, both with the Lever acquisition and Watts exit. |
| If | it was Boomer last year and Swallow this year ... | then | look out, Jack Ziebell. Past captains at this club get messy career endings these days. |
| If | there's been a more attacking forward line set-up than what the Power's now is on paper upon entering 2018 ... | then | we can't remember it. Wingard, Gray, Dixon, Motlop, Rockliff, Watts. Nice work. |
| If | you win a flag with a heap of more-than-handy fringe players who either didn't want to leave or have stayed on the list after failing to get adequate outside offers ... | then | there's nothing wrong with not landing a big fish. |
| If | the 2017 season was one of major disappointment ... | then | you needed to land someone of note in the Trade Period. |
| If | the 2017 season ended disappointingly ... | then | you too needed to land someone of note via a trade. |
| If | this time last year the Eagles were clearly all-in on a premiership in 2017 ... | then | given their relative inaction the past three weeks they see themselves rebuilding in 2018. |
| If | there's one thing this club is not short of ... | then | it is big guys. They're not all going to get a game. |
And by popular request ...
| If | you doubted our conspiracy theory on the Cats getting pick No.19 from the AFL as compo for losing Motlop ... | then | we know you'll be coming round to it now ... after that pick itself was actually used to facilitate the Ablett deal, and ultimately end up in the hands of the most worrying club under the AFL's watch. |
Follow Damian Barrett on Twitter: @barrettdamian
