Damian Barrett Drops Trade News On All 18 Clubs

Damian Barrett gave a trade update for every club in the AFL on the Saturday Rub today.

Damo dished out his mail on all sides in alphabetical order, with some updates about big players like Josh Kelly, Jake Lever and Jake Stringer.

ADELAIDE

“Still the unknown about Lever and (Charlie) Cameron, those issues I believe will be parked until the completion of the year. Cameron contracted, Lever not… Melbourne footy club is the one that has shown most interest for him (Lever)… my gut feel is that he will go.”

BRISBANE

“Pick one they’ve got, and they will be prepared to move it on…  If they do that they’ll want probably two top ten picks back… They’re very keen on Charlie Cameron from Adelaide, despite being contracted there’s contact with him.

“Rockliff’s the one. We’ve got now through to this point where’s he not contracted, and as much the noises out of the club saying ‘he’s had a really good year and we want him to stay’, he’s saying ‘well I’ve had a good year, I wanna stay’, it hasn’t been done yet, and despite having a personal/family reason that might be conducive to him staying, I still think it’s something where he will leave.”

CARLTON

“Still haven’t ruled out the possibility (of Josh Kelly coming), [but] I still think Kelly will stay… the Gibbs situation there is the intriguing one. We know that he sought to leave to go to Adelaide Crows last year, still contracted way beyond this year but that question will be asked again and I reckon it will happen this time.”

COLLINGWOOD

“There’s not a lot of salary cap space left on the back of what they did last year with particularly Chris Mayne and (Daniel) Wells coming in, and prior to that they got (Adam) Treloar in, they’re all on pretty good money. There’s an issue there with Mayne but it’s probably one of those lower end issues.”

ESSENDON

“They are historically difficult to deal with for other footy clubs, that’s an issue they need to wade through, but they’re still gonna be active in some form. But in terms of the headline acts there’s nothing that’s coming out at the moment.”

FREMANTLE

“Fremantle is really keen on Nathan Wilson from the Giants and I reckon that will go down.”

GEELONG

“Geelong’s really intriguing, obviously the interest in Ablett is already fact and he will get there the way I read it. Stringer has emerged as the one they have had talks with on the back of the week’s news that he wants out of the Bulldogs. They are, and I’ll just use the term front running, things can change, but they’ve had some good chats… the other one they’ve had interest in is Devon Smith from the GWS team.”

GOLD COAST

“A lot of changes there on a lot of fronts, Rory Thompson’s the biggest name out of that… (Brandon) Matera, (Trent) McKenzie, and also (Tom) Nicholls were the other names that will be gettable should a club want them. 

GWS

“The unknown is still around Kelly and Smith. Whitfield contracted, but there’s an issue there of sorts — if it requires them to give up a lot of money to keep Kelly and others, well I think someone’s gonna spill out and it could well be Whitfield.”

Listen to the first half of Damo’s trade wrap here:

HAWTHORN

“Interesting development here with the Tyrone Vickery contract. Despite him being contracted for 2018, they’re quite happy for him to be moved out. Getting a taker for him is going to be difficult.”

MELBOURNE

“Not hearing anything strongly with the Demons at this stage.”

NORTH MELBOURNE

“North Melbourne’s approached just about every single person. They’ve have had, I believe, also an interest in Stringer, but they’re coming to the party late with that given they went really hard at Martin and Kelly. And while they haven’t been told officially as far as I know that Kelly won’t be coming, I don’t expect it to happen.”

PORT ADELAIDE

“They’re tight on the salary cap, but they have been for some time and they still get deals done. (Jackson) Trengove’s the one that I think will spin out of that given he was left out of this elimination final team (against West Coast) this weekend.”

RICHMOND 

“Richmond were big players last year, have been in the past… just depending on what they do for this year they’ll probably defer full judgement.”

ST KILDA

“St. Kilda still haven’t been told — as far as I know — that they’re absolutely out of the race for Whitfield and Kelly, but I’m not hearing anything strongly. There are a few decisions to be made on players they’ve got on the list; (David) Armitage who had a really interrupted injury-riddled year, his future will be in question. I imagine (Tom) Hickey may be looking for a new home, as is possibly (Jack) Lonie as well.”

SYDNEY

“Kurt Tippett’s going to be discussed… still on good money as far as I know for next year, but he’s gettable I believe this year, but the currency on him is not what it once was.”

WEST COAST

“West Coast is after a midfielder, but given they brought in (Sam) Mitchell and (Drew) Petrie last year they also need to sort of how this year unfolds.”

WESTERN BULLDOGS

The Western Bulldogs interest is also in (Todd) Goldstein of North Melbourne. I know he’s got two more years to run, but the big money is deterring a lot of clubs’ interest in him, and he was discussed as we’ve said a few times late in the trade period last year, has already been discussed throughout the course of this year, will be discussed again in this upcoming trade period, but his currency’s gone right off. The money attached to him is a real deterrent.”

Listen to the second half of Damo’s trade wrap here: