Part of the reason for hating the extended trade period is that I have a very limited tolerance for some of the buzzwords/phrases associated with trades. My least favourite is ‘wantaway’ - just an awful word. But close behind is ‘overs’, or its cousin ‘sell the farm’. None of these words really mean anything, because underpinning them is a subjective assessment on the value of the target.
No-one wants to pay ‘overs’ for Hogan, by definition. But what is his true value? Right now, that value depends on how healthy he is. I have no idea, and I doubt even Rosich or Bell know for certain.
But even if you know a player’s value, in deals like this you don’t always get what is fair – you get what you negotiate. The market for Hogan is shallow. From time to time I point out the disadvantages Freo often has to overcome in he AFL, but one of its few advantages is that in a two team town it has a good opportunity to capitalise on Western Australians who want to come home.
If Hogan was 100% healthy I would say our offer was insulting – including to Hogan himself – and lowballing Melbourne is probably not the way I would do the deal. But picks in the 5/6 range of this draft are incredibly valuable, so if there is any doubt about Hogan’s fitness then I would probably keep those off the table, and offering two first round picks at the lower end is probably a reasonable offer. Perhaps that’s where we are heading. I don’t know.
