RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick has backed the idea of a mid-year trade period, suggesting the Western Bulldogs might have won the premiership if it had been able to secure disgruntled Sydney Swan Barry Hall in mid-2009.
Hardwick told the Sunday Herald Sun it was "an outstanding idea" and said the window would provide a big benefit for clubs requiring urgent list changes and players who were not getting opportunities at their clubs.
"I think it is an outstanding idea," Hardwick said. "It would be great for clubs in the position that we are at right now, and might help some to start to get off the bottom quicker."
Hall had fallen from favour at the Swans after a series of on-field indiscretions and played his last match in round 13 of 2009, and joined the Bulldogs at the end of the season after they lost a preliminary final by seven points against St Kilda.
"The Western Bulldogs might have won a flag if they were able to trade for Barry Hall," Hardwick said. "It may have cost them a flag because they didn't have the facility to trade then."
He also said the Tigers would be active in the trade market this October "whether it is a ruckman, a key back or key forward or a rover. Whoever is out there who fits our model, we will look at.
"As we have heard from the recruiting staff in the papers, the level of the draft this year isn't that deep. So we will see who is out there and if someone can help us out, we will chat to them."
Best and sometimes unfairest
The Age's Peter Hanlon has delved into the arcane world of the club best and fairest.
B&F results frequently do not reflect Brownlows or even media awards, rewarding in many cases the hard grafter ahead of the flashy showman. Hanlon pointed to the likes of North Melbourne's Brady Rawlings, three times a winner of the Roos' Syd Barker Trophy but collector of only 18 Brownlow votes in 13 seasons.
Former Essendon star Scott Lucas, twice winner of the Bombers' B&F, said the award was vindication that a player had performed the role the coaches wanted him to.
Geelong has introduced a new system that counts only a player's best 18 matches, a nod to coach Chris Scott's rotation policy, Hanlon says, but also a move that would eliminate discrepancies such as the Brisbane Lions' result in 2002 that saw full-forward Alistair Lynch finish 17th in the best and fairest despite kicking 74 goals.
There is also the complication of salary bonuses tied to B&F finishes.
Matthew Drain, formerly a senior football department figure at St Kilda, Essendon and the Western Bulldogs, pointed to the $100,000 bonus due to a Saints' B&F winner and the problems it and other incentives caused under a tight salary cap.
''The players agreed to give up the best-and-fairest incentives in 2008, to create more room in the cap which essentially fitted Adam Schneider and Sean Dempster in from Sydney,'' Drain told The Age.
"So you had to go and do 40-plus contract variations.''
The 2008 winner of the Trevor Barker award, Sam Fisher, was effectively denied $100,000, but Drain renegotiated his contract straight away to give him his due, and a year later the bonus system was back. ''It was just messy without it,'' Drain said.
Essendon's David Calthorpe had a clause in his contract that allowed him to accept a superior offer from the Lions after finishing fifth in the Bombers' best and fairest in 1998. Two years later after stints in Brisbane and with North Melbourne, he was out of the game. ''It arguably finished his career,'' Drain said.
Power play
It may not rank with Essendon's coaching panel of Hird, Thompson, McCartney, Wellman, Goodwin and Wallis, but Port Adelaide is trying to compile its own coaching dream team, Adelaide's Sunday Mail has reported.
It said former Power assistant Phil Walsh, who was at the club when it won the 2004 flag but now is opposition strategist at West Coast, was on the brink of a return.
Sacked Melbourne coach Dean Bailey, another former Alberton employee, and Collingwood defensive coach Scott Watters were also in the frame. the newspaper reported.
Football operations manager Peter Rohde said he wasn't able to comment on any approach to Walsh, but admitted "we have talked to a lot of people and I don't think it's a secret we are looking at strengthening that department".
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
