Cerra did the right thing by Freo by not declaring a destination club, making it easier for Freo to ensure a decent return in a trade from Carlton. Jackson would be doing the right thing by Melbourne by not nominating Freo, to help ensure Melbourne gets a good return from Freo, with West Coast as a credible stalking horse.
This was always on the cards. Jackson went for pick 3, and something of that value was always going to be the floor price in a trade. West Coast has it, and we don’t (yet). Even if the AFL didn’t allow West Coast to use their current first round pick for Jackson, they could trade up from their second round pick this year to get an extra first, allowing them trade pick 2.
The question has always been, how to we cobble together the trades to get us something resembling pick 2, and how much of the trade period are we prepared to burn trying to get there?
This is why I’m less infatuated with the Jackson trade than most. There’s a strong chance Melbourne is going to do to us what Geelong did to West Coast with Kelly, and we did to Gold Coast with Weller.
