WHEN the Gillette AFL Trade Period is about to end at 2pm on Friday there's certainly the chance of last-minute intrigue - but it's unlikely to be anything like the drama that befell trade deadlines a decade ago.

In those days the trade period went for only a week. Club representatives often circled around each other for a few days before throwing all the paper up in the air and making deals in the minutes before the deadline.

Two former players, Heath Black and Mark Alvey, are among those who suffered from the annual ritual of the late charge towards the fax machine. In both cases the papers for their trades were lodged two minutes after the deadline and they were left to consider life at their originals clubs.

Black had made his debut with Fremantle in 1997. He went to St Kilda before the 2002 season, but after two seasons at Moorabbin he asked to be traded back to Fremantle because his wife wanted to return home.

Black, now 33, said trade week in 2003 was among the most stressful weeks of his life. "The anxiety and lack of sleep during that week was not healthy at all," he told AFL.com.au.

After admitting that he's a "worrier" by nature, Black described a week in which he was on the phone to his manager several times a day in an attempt to discover whether a deal had been done.

Black said his marriage was on the rocks and he had to return to Perth or risk a walkout by his wife, who was pregnant with their second child.

On the final day of trade week they walked up and down Beach Road while waiting for news. Black said that when he discovered that the forms had been submitted just over a minute past the deadline he was devastated.

"My wife went home (to Perth) for three weeks while I stayed and drank a lot - a lot - due to what happened on that day," he said.

"For two weeks I drank from 10 to 15 stubbies a day. It was my way of getting out of reality.

"I couldn’t believe what had happened. I couldn't believe the lack of support. You were just expected to crawl back to your club.

"I had to crawl back to St Kilda with my tail between my legs and front up to teammates who knew that I'd wanted to leave.

"It was very tough."

He found that St Kilda coach Grant Thomas welcomed him back with open arms, going so far as to include him in the Saints' leadership group. Black responded to Thomas's show of faith by playing arguably his best season.

"Being in the leadership group curbed my ways," he said. "I really knuckled down and had an important role in the side.

"That did help me forget about what had transpired through trade week."

At the end of 2003, by which time he was 24, Black again sought to keep his marriage together by requesting a trade to Fremantle. A deal was arranged in which he went to Fremantle, ruckman Troy Simmonds went to Richmond and Tigers wingman Aaron Fiora went to St Kilda.

Black played another four seasons at Fremantle, bringing his career games tally to 192, before his career ended after the 2008 season.

Alvey played all 22 games with the Western Bulldogs in 2002 but at the end of the season the Dogs offered only a one-year deal. Essendon, aware of the midfielder's close friendship with Bombers half-back Dean Solomon, offered a two-year deal.

"Essendon was really keen," said Alvey, who's now 32. "It was a good opportunity to play with a great club."

The Bulldogs and the Bombers spoke throughout the week, but as the deadline neared a trade between the clubs relied on Essendon's ability to trade 2000 premiership wingman Justin Blumfield to Richmond.

The Bombers wanted a draft pick that they could trade on to the Dogs for Alvey. As it happened the Tigers gave the Bombers the No.28 pick and the Bombers moved it on to the Dogs - but not before the deadline had passed.

Alvey was at his parents' home in Mildura when he heard that he would be forced to stay at Whitten Oval.

"It was to and fro all week," he told AFL.com.au. "Finally it got to the last day and it was decided what would happen. I missed out by a couple of minutes, which was ridiculous.

"You end up flirting with people's lives a little bit. With me, it wasn't much fun at all. It left me with a pretty hollow feeling, that's for sure."

In 2003, when Alvey was 22, he damaged his knee against Essendon in round three and required a reconstruction. At the end of the season he was traded to the Bombers in a deal that involved defender Danny Jacobs leaving Essendon for Hawthorn and Hawthorn defender Lochlan Veale going to the Bulldogs.

He played for Essendon for two seasons, bringing his career games tally to 59, before returning to Mildura, where he's going into his eighth season as the playing-coach at Wentworth. He works as a car salesman at Mildura's North Star Motors.

Black played in 2012 at Melbourne suburban club Vermont, but he returned to Western Australia most weeks through his work as a men's health consultant with Black Ash Productions.

In his work, he draws on his own mental-health problems, which led to alcohol dependency and his marriage breakdown. He describes those problems in his memoir, Black.

Black, who's remarried, said his experience when he was at St Kilda taught him that the trade period is a stressful time for players. Through his work with the AFL Players' Association, he has an avenue for addressing the issue.

"You could really write a program around trade week," he said.