Of course the Worst had a dip as well.Blake Acres: The under-the-radar trade that has come back to bite Fremantle Dockers
In his own words, Blake Acres was “not a high priority” at Fremantle.
A low-ball offer, reportedly worth only $180,000, was offered to the winger after a career-best season at the Dockers in 2022.
It prompted Acres to start looking for a third club, having started his career at St Kilda before returning west, when Carlton came knocking with a much better offer.
“Contract talks weren’t going the way I would’ve liked at Freo so I wanted to see what was out there and if there were any other potential good fits for me,” Acres said at the time.
“The conversations I had with Carlton were really positive and I felt like I could continue to grow my career there and keep building on the season I just had.”
In his own words, Blake Acres was “not a high priority” at Fremantle.
On the first day of the AFL trade period, Fremantle allowed Acres to walk in exchange for nothing more than a future third-round pick (pick 52 this year
The ink was barely dry on his three-year, $350,000 deal when attention shifted back to the high-profile acquisition of star ruck Luke Jackson from Melbourne.
There was also the noise around the controversial departures of Rory Lobb to Western Bulldogs and Griffin Logue to North Melbourne, which drowned out any conjecture about Acres’ move.
The Dockers brought in three players in Jackson, Jaeger O’Meara (Hawthorn) and Josh Corbett (Gold Coast), and lost five; Lobb, Logue, Acres and fringe players Darcy Tucker (North Melbourne) and Lloyd Meek (Hawthorn).
As a result of Lobb’s inconsistent season and Logue’s knee injury, while Tucker and Meek - as expected - aren’t regulars for their respective teams, Acres has had the best season of those to depart Fremantle in the off-season.
From 2022 to 2023, Acres improved across four key areas, according to Champion Data.
His groundball gets increased by, on average, 40 per cent, while his intercept disposals upped by 20 per cent.
He also improved his average disposals by four percent (to 23.5 per game), intercept disposals by three per cent (to 16) and his score involvements by four percent (to 4.8).
At the time, Dockers list boss David Walls said it was “unfortunate” to lose Acres but the club was “well positioned to cover his departure on the wing”.
Former first-round pick Liam Henry seamlessly filled that role but 12 months on, he too has requested to leave Fremantle, with St Kilda his destination of choice.
Meanwhile, Acres was monumental in Carlton’s elimination final victory over Sydney.
The midfielder pushed deep into defence late in the nail-biting six-point win to get fingertips on two separate shots at goals by the Swans in the last quarter.
Not only that, Acres also kicked the sealer to send the Blues to a semifinal.
He earned top coaches votes for the clash, earning nine, putting him behind only GWS’ Josh Kelly (10) and Brisbane’s Hugh McCluggage (10) in the race for the Gary Ayres Award.
Carlton predicted Acres would “add to the group straight away” having just missed out on finals in 2022.
“His experience, he’s 26, which fits our demographic of our list from an age profile,” Blues list manager Nick Austin told Trade Radio.
“Our group is really starting to mature and play footy together so he’ll come straight in. He’s a big body, he’s had nine years in the system. He knows what it takes, he’s a professional.
“We’re really comfortable with Blake’s addition and we think he’s going to help us straight away.”
Acres and Carlton will continue their finals campaign in the semifinal clash with Melbourne on Frida
