IT'S THE trade that, quite literally, may never end.
Back on NAB AFL Draft night in 2018, Carlton list boss Stephen Silvagni and his Adelaide counterpart Justin Reid completed a blockbuster live deal that set the pulses of footy fans racing.
The Blues would swap future first-round picks with the Crows to secure pick No.19, a selection they had specifically targeted to recruit Sandringham Dragons midfielder Liam Stocker.
The deal, which is now commonly referred to in footy circles quite simply as The Stocker Trade, will come a full circle on Sunday when the 21-year-old lines up against Adelaide for the first time in his career.
However, in a sign of the times and the fast-paced nature of the wheeling and dealing in the game, AFL.com.au can reveal the 32 players and the countless more still to come that have since been involved in The Stocker Trade.
>> CHECK OUT THE FULL 'STOCKER FAMILY TREE' IN THE GRAPHIC BELOW
Jeremy Cameron, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, Orazio Fantasia, Stefan Martin and Jaidyn Stephenson are all among the names with a direct link to Stocker's recruitment, arriving at their current clubs as a result of that one defining deal back on draft night in 2018.
Last year, AFL.com.au put together the first instalment of the Stocker Family Tree and detailed the six trades made possible by that one deal and the first 11 names linked to Carlton's blockbuster move for the youngster.
This year, a further 12 trades and 21 more players can be added to the list, including Geelong's move for Cameron, Port Adelaide's play for Fantasia, Essendon's swoop for Jye Caldwell and the Western Bulldogs' recruitment of the No.1 selection Ugle-Hagan.
Such has been the vast and wide-ranging manner in which The Stocker Trade has sparked deals around the competition, only four clubs – Hawthorn, Melbourne, Richmond and West Coast – have not yet been involved in a deal related to that one trade.
Furthermore, eight more branches stemming from that initial Stocker Trade are still open heading into the 2021 NAB AFL Draft later this year – ready to add yet more strands to a complex but fascinating situation.
Here's how this never-ending trade has grown legs and spread its web far and wide.
HOW DID IT START?
It started in 2018 when Carlton swapped first-round selections for the following season so it could return to the draft, where it hoped to partner the No.1 selection Sam Walsh with Stocker.
From there, that deal – and the picks involved in that deal – have taken a life of their own and have spread across the competition. A total 18 trades in two years been completed as a result, helping 32 players arrive at their current clubs.
Carlton obviously recruited Stocker and split its future pick from Adelaide to get both Brodie Kemp and Sam Philp in 2020, while the Crows themselves split the selection from the Blues to get Fischer McAsey and another future pick from the Giants.
Carlton and Adelaide had traded with Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney respectively to ensure the picks could be moved during the 2019 draft, with the Suns getting Sam Flanders and the Giants taking Lachie Ash as a result.
Bids on Academy and father-son players – like Liam Henry from Fremantle, Tom Green from the Giants and Jackson Mead from Port Adelaide – were also matched with points stemming from pick-swaps that occurred as a result of the initial 'Stocker Trade'.
As detailed by AFL.com.au last year, four links to the Stocker Family Tree were still left open heading into the 2020 trade and draft period. Those four links have helped bring 21 more players from 12 more trades into the equation.
HOW HAS IT EVOLVED OVER THE LAST YEAR?
Fortunately, Adelaide and Brisbane – who held two of the four remaining cards from the Stocker Family Tree heading into the 2020 trade and draft period – stuck fat with their picks.
The Crows recruited Luke Pedlar at pick No.11, the first-round selection they received from the Giants as a result of the Ash-McAsey deal made a year earlier, while the Lions technically* didn't use the pick the No.70 they'd also earned the previous year. * For more on why it's technical, see the 'And Another Thing…' section below.
>> SEE ALL THE PLAYERS TIED TO THE DEAL BELOW
Port Adelaide was in possession of the other two open branches leftover from the year before, second-round picks tied to Collingwood and Fremantle that had initially stemmed from Carlton's side of The Stocker Trade.
The pick from the Pies, selection No.35, was used for points to match an Academy bid on Jones. Easy enough, right? Well, what happened to the pick No.29 they got from the Dockers is much more complicated.
Pick No.29 was traded from Port Adelaide to Essendon for Fantasia, from Essendon to Greater Western Sydney for Caldwell, and from Greater Western Sydney to the Western Bulldogs in a pick-swap to get more points to match a bid on No.1 selection Ugle-Hagan.
In amongst that, more picks swapped hands. The Bombers also took a later selection when they got Caldwell, which was ultimately used to nab Nick Hind from the Saints, while the Giants also received a future second-round pick as a result of that same deal.
What happened to that pick, you ask? It went to Geelong as part of the blockbuster Cameron trade – a trade that earned the Giants four picks, two of which were used on first-round selections Conor Stone and Ryan Angwin.
Not complex enough, yet? Collingwood took the other two picks from the Giants in exchange for its future first-round selection, using one to recruit Liam McMahon and trading another to Port Adelaide so it could return to the draft for Beau McCreery.
Collingwood also threw more picks from that deal – and a few of its own – into the mix, helping earn points from Adelaide and Fremantle so they could match a bid on Academy prospect Reef McInnes.
>> CHECK OUT THE FULL 'STOCKER FAMILY TREE' IN THE GRAPHIC BELOW
The Crows, for their part, used the pick they received from the Pies on Brayden Cook. The Dockers, who got two selections from the Pies, claimed Nathan O'Driscoll with one and used the other to help match a bid on Brandon Walker.
See … not that hard, was it?
Remember, when looking at the graphic, that the fluid nature of the trade and draft period also means that picks that were swapped before draft night aren't necessarily the same as when they were made.
For example, Collingwood gave Adelaide pick No.24 – but due to Academy and father-son bids, it had become pick No.25 by the time the Crows used that selection on talented forward Cook.
AND ANOTHER THING …
Remember when we said Brisbane 'technically' didn't use pick No.70?
Well, that was only after it passed through a number of clubs on its eventual way back to Brisbane. And by 'a number of clubs', we mean Greater Western Sydney, Port Adelaide, Adelaide, North Melbourne, Collingwood, then back to Brisbane.
The pick – which initially belonged to the Giants – went to the Crows, then the Power, then the Lions throughout the 2019 exchange period as a result of the initial 'Stocker Trade' the year before.
Brisbane then used it as part of a three-way trade with North Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs for deals involving Martin and Lachie Young, with the pick ultimately arriving at the Kangaroos.
They then used it in another trade with Collingwood that helped them secure Stephenson and Atu Bosenavulagi. The Pies, finally, then traded it back to the Lions as part of a pick-swap in the days before the draft.
For the sake of this exercise – and for the sanity of our readers, given eight more picks were caught up in those ensuing deals before the selection finally returned to Brisbane – let's just say pick No.70 married into the 'Stocker Family Tree'.
WHO ARE THE PLAYERS TIED TO THE DEAL?
Liam Stocker (Carlton)
Lachie Ash (GWS Giants)
Fischer McAsey (Adelaide)
Liam Henry (Fremantle)
Tom Green (GWS Giants)
Sam Flanders (Gold Coast)
Brodie Kemp (Carlton)
Sam Philp (Carlton)
Deven Robertson (Brisbane)
Dylan Williams (Port Adelaide)
Jackson Mead (Port Adelaide)
Luke Pedlar (Adelaide)
Orazio Fantasia (Port Adelaide)
Lachie Jones (Port Adelaide)
Jye Caldwell (Essendon)
Josh Eyre (Essendon)
Nick Hind (Essendon)
Cody Brand (Essendon)
Jamarra Ugle-Hagan (Western Bulldogs)
Jeremy Cameron (Geelong)
Conor Stone (GWS Giants)
Ryan Angwin (GWS Giants)
Liam McMahon (Collingwood)
Brayden Cook (Adelaide)
Beau McCreery (Collingwood)
Reef McInnes (Collingwood)
Nathan O'Driscoll (Fremantle)
Brandon Walker (Fremantle)
Stefan Martin (Western Bulldogs)
Lachie Young (North Melbourne)
Jaidyn Stephenson (North Melbourne)
Atu Bosenavulagi (North Melbourne)
WHAT'S STILL LEFT TO COME?
GWS Giants 2021 first-round pick (tied to Collingwood)
Geelong 2021 second-round pick (tied to Essendon)
Geelong 2021 second-round pick (tied to GWS Giants)
Collingwood 2021 third-round pick (tied to Adelaide)
Collingwood 2021 third-round pick (tied to Fremantle)
Essendon 2021 third-round pick (tied to Port Adelaide)
North Melbourne 2021 fourth-round pick (tied to Brisbane)
Port Adelaide 2021 fourth-round pick (tied to Geelong)
