THE EQUATION was simple for Bodie Ryan on Deadline Day: if Trent Rivers was traded, he would be too, despite being delisted a month earlier. Melbourne was interested, but on that proviso.
The 21-year-old was following the situation on X a world away from Marvel Stadium as the sun rose in Amsterdam, alongside former Hawthorn teammates Will Day, Jack Scrimshaw and Will McCabe.
By the time Rivers was packaged in a trade to West Coast with Demons vice-captain Jack Viney, there was less than 15 minutes remaining in the trade period. But that was more than enough time to lodge the paperwork for this window's most out-of-nowhere trade.
The Demons sent pick No.107 to Hawthorn for Ryan, almost mirroring the move Richmond made last Deadline Day when it grabbed Patrick Retschko late for pick No.99, the new Tiger finishing 10th in the Jack Dyer Medal this year after playing 18 games – weeks after Geelong cut him.
For the second year in a row, CDG Sports found a new home for one of their delisted clients – who aren't officially delisted until October 30 under list lodgement rules – in the dying minutes of the trade period. Last year it was Robbie D’Orazio's client, this year Nick Gieschen's.
Ryan had only just come to terms with being delisted after playing five games for Hawthorn across three seasons and didn't want to believe the trade had actually happened when Cal Twomey reported it on AFL.com.au after the deadline. He waited until it was official as within minutes, Demons coach Steven King was on the phone to confirm the move.
They had met via Zoom the previous week, along with Melbourne list manager Tim Lamb and recruiting boss Jason Taylor, when Ryan was travelling in London. He underwent an online medical the following day and then waited to see what happened with Rivers. The Demons might have still taken him in the coming weeks or months, but wouldn't have had the need for another half-back if the West Australian didn't move.
"So basically, they did say if Trent goes we really are going to pursue and try and get you, which there wasn't much competition in getting me, so I was quite happy that they said that. Then my manager that morning of Deadline Day said, 'If Trent Rivers goes, you're going.' Then his trade waited it out bloody for ages. So I was walking up and down the stairs, biting my nails for a few hours there," Ryan told AFL.com.au on Wednesday.
"I was sitting on the couch and it sort of came through on Twitter, but I didn't want to celebrate until I finally got the all clear. So they're all like celebrating and I'm just sitting in the corner like still really nervous. And then finally, 'Kingy' called me and said, 'Welcome to the club'.
"It was wild because you're getting calls on WhatsApp and Messenger and you just don't know who's calling, but you've just sort of got to answer. We all celebrated and then went on with our day, but a pretty cool story and something I'll remember forever."
Ryan has lived almost the full gamut of football emotions across the past six months. The thrill of a debut in round nine after almost two and a half seasons on the list. The brutality of being dropped three times around five senior games for a team that is stacked in defence and almost reached a Grand Final. The ecstasy of a VFL premiership with Box Hill. And then the heartache of being delisted days later.
"I'd put it all down to like just a wave of emotions. You have a good pre-season, then you get told you got a debut that comes early in the year, so then your emotions are real high and you're really happy; you play a few games; then you go down and your emotions are sort of down. You go back and I was in and out of the side; I played five games but was dropped four times," Ryan explains.
"Each week the anxiety from playing a game to then, 'Am I going to be playing next week?' You know what I mean? And then sort of that back end of the year, the team was sort of cemented, and once you're in finals, that's all you want to do is to win a flag and we were able to do that at Box Hill level with a great bunch of guys."
Being delisted was a punch to the guts, but Ryan understands the nature of this business. He was surprised by the decision not to offer him another contract, but appreciated the support from the club, including Sam Mitchell who was messaging him in Europe and was one of the first to contact him when the trade happened.
"Mine was in sort of two days. The out-of-contract boys had to come back the day after the exit meeting. We had exit meetings on Wednesday. Boys had to come back Thursday to find out whether they got a contract. It was weird they weren't able to tell me on the Wednesday. But in my Wednesday meeting they were quite happy with how my year went and the gains that I made," he said.
"And then to find out the next day, it was probably a fair bit of a blur. But I've got heaps of respect for Hawthorn and the way they go about all their business. There are worse things happening in the world, but at the time it was obviously a shock. A lot of my teammates were shocked as well with the decision and a lot of the fans as well from reading a few DMs or all that sort of stuff, which I don't know if that made it easier for me in a way, because there was a lot of optimism I could get back on the list.
"But in the end I think Hawthorn did me a pretty solid job because if I stay another year on the fringe again, then clubs might not want to look at me. I might not be sort of worth it after three years, if you know what I mean? They were really adamant that they wanted to try and help as much as possible to get me back on a list. Sam checked in every now and then to see how I'm going and that he still wants me to get back on a list and all that sort of stuff. So that was really good by him and the club as well."
Jai Serong departed Hawthorn last October after being stuck behind other defenders. This year, he made the most of his opportunity at Sydney, playing 24 games in his first season at the Swans, where he finished fifth in the Bob Skilton Medal and won the Most Improved Player Award after managing just 10 games in four seasons at the Hawks.
"He was in a similar boat where just selection and the depth of the list was just too hard to crack into, so if I could do half of what he's done, that'd be great. It's been great to see him have so much success this year," Ryan said.
Long before Melbourne explored Ryan late in the trade period, it spent months pursuing Calsher Dear, almost convincing him to not just leave Hawthorn but choose it. The Dees watched him play across the year in the VFL, which is where they kept being drawn to the blond half-back in the No.26 jumper for Box Hill.
"I was actually training with 'Calsh' this morning, but I haven't spoken to him about that," he said with a laugh. "It obviously helps being at a club with great list depth; there's going to be clubs watching, especially someone with Calsher's talent.
"But it was weird. We're playing at different ends as well. Maybe it was always a little cheeky eye on me, but it's something I probably need to chat to him and have a little laugh over in the next couple of weeks.”
Dear won't be joining the South Australian at the Demons, but Zane Duursma and Will McLachlan will be after they were traded in the final 48 hours of the trade period. Ryan played against those two Vic Country boys in the 2023 under-18 championships.
Melbourne doesn't start pre-season training until November 23, but Ryan feels the past six months have equipped him with the tools he needs to carve out a long career at this caper.
"I think I can get to Melbourne and be able to hit the ground running and put my best foot forward. I've played on some of the best players at Hawthorn, I've trained on Nick Watson for three years and I think the training standards at Hawthorn were unbelievable," he said.
"Then the lessons you learn with your mind and the mentality of how rough the sport is in a way. I think I'll be able to take those lessons into the next couple years and hopefully years to come and just build until we're a premiership team at Melbourne."
For now, Ryan will enter 2027 as that trade out of nowhere for a pick in the 100s. But he is out to replicate Retschko's response and prove he has much more to offer at AFL level.
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