AFL trade period: Follow the latest developments on the third-last day of trading action

Tom Morris is reporting Port Adelaide, Gold Coast and Collingwood are ironing out a trade.

Rory Atkins looks like he will head back to South Australia to play for Port.

As part of the deal two other players and at least picks 13, 29 and a future third-round selection will head to the Power.

That would then mean Port can send Houston and pick 13 to the Pies while John Noble gets to the Gold Coast.

A young West Perth ruckman is shooting himself up the draft order after a strong finish to the WAFL season.

Kayle Gerreyn has also been testing well and could find himself on an AFL list in November.

Fixture equalisation has been a hot topic in the west all season, given West Coast and Fremantle travel more than anyone else.

But it appears the hot-button issue at AFL house is making sure Geelong play 10 of their 11 home games at GMHBA.

The Cats say they have secured a 10th home game in Geelong with Easter Monday against the Hawks likely the only home game they have to play at the home of football.

Fair enough, but not sure that is the point of fixture equalisation.

AFL.com.au journalist Cal Twomey believes the league should have brought in pick trades two years in advance this year, instead of waiting an extra 12 months.

Clubs can currently trade selections for this year and next (2025) but cannot trade 2026 picks, with that level set to be pulled for the next trade period.

Twomey believes it would have made this trade period more exciting, particularly given the depth of the 2024 draft.

“The demand for these picks showed that the AFL erred in waiting an extra year to bring in an extra year of future picks,” Twomey said on Gettable.

“Not having these selections to use has cost them extraordinary offers being made and I really think it should have been brought in this time around.”

Fremantle have reportedly offered picks 10, 11 and 18 on the table in exchange for Richmond pair Shai Bolton and Liam Baker.

It comes after Hawthorn did a deal to send pick 14 to Carlton, a selection that was linked to West Coast for Tom Barrass and expected to be on-traded for Baker.

Dockers footy boss Joe Brierty confirmed this morning that bombshell move had “potentially opened the door” for Fremantle to land both Bolton and Baker.

However, Baker’s preference is still to play for the Eagles with fellow Tigers premiership player Jack Graham already signed with the club.

West Coast are a contender to land out-of-contract Carlton forward Matt Owies as he weighs up his options before the end of the trade period on Wednesday.

Read the story here.

Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has declared AFL players should be able to be traded “without their consent”.

As clubs continue to haggle over getting the best possible deal for players who have declared their desire to move, Buckley said players had the “whip hand”.

“Clubs need to be allowed to trade players without their consent,” Buckley said on SEN.

“At the moment, the players have too much of a whip hand. Clubs are going down these long-term contracts and they’re doing it to prevent their players being poached.

“But it doesn’t stop that when the players choose to leave anyway with multiple years left on their contract or a club wants to move a player on with multiple years left.

“Why don’t we say, ‘If you sign a contract with us for a certain period of time, the AFL industry is going to honour that contract’. That doesn’t mean it has to be with us (the club), it might be with another club.”

West Coast’s Tom Barrass, Richmond’s Shai Bolton and Port Adelaide’s Dan Houston are among the contracted players looking to move clubs this trade period.

-(With Newscorp)

Another nugget from Freo footy boss Joe Brierty’s chat on Trade Radio: The Dockers are looking at external help to get Sean Darcy fit.

“We’re looking at some external support to work with Sean and obviously get some real strength around that knee that he’s had a few issues with.”

Melbourne have wasted no time getting busy on Monday morning, completing their second deal of the day.

The Dees bring in pick nine from Essendon, as well as a future third-round pick, in exchange for picks 28, 40, 46, 54 and 65, and a future first-rounder.

It gives Melbourne two selections inside the top 10 at this year’s draft as it stands: Pick 5 and pick 9.

Here’s the wrap from our reporter Mitchell Woodcock on Joe Brierty’s conversation on Trade Radio, confirming the Dockers are in a position to swoop on Liam Baker if a potential Eagles deal can’t be reached.