THE WHEELING and dealing has stopped after one of the biggest Continental Tyres AFL Trade Periods ever, where 36 players found new homes.

And throughout the exchange window, some things became clear as clubs plotted their big list moves.  

TRADE PERIOD WRAP Who's in, who's out at every club

THE GO-HOME FACTOR IS AS STRONG AS EVER

After four years at Gold Coast, Izak Rankine went back to South Australia and became a Crow. After three years at Melbourne, Luke Jackson returned to Perth to join the Dockers. After two years with Greater Western Sydney, Tanner Bruhn went to Geelong. After two seasons with Collingwood, Ollie Henry did the same. And after one year at North Melbourne, Jason Horne-Francis was homesick and joined Port Adelaide.

None were free agents but all nominated a preferred club and all got there. Players have known that is how it happens. Now, though, there is a trend of doing it earlier than before.

It is why Greater Western Sydney was so desperate to move up the draft board to the No.1 pick, with key forward Aaron Cadman in the club's sights.

Cadman is a talent in the Vic Country program who is the best tall forward in the draft and who is happy to pick up and move states, with the Giants sensing some other top prospects were not as eager.

In coughing up picks No.3 and 12 to get up the order and see the No.1 pick traded for the first time since 2001, the Giants have identified the left-footer as a player and character they want, and the go-home trend of the Trade Period was clearly a factor in their thinking.

What's the solution? Should there be a free agency 'lite' option for players at the four-year mark of their careers to be able to request a trade to a state rather than a certain club so the owning club can maximise the deal?

It could see players wait until the four-year mark before contemplating a trade request and in turn give clubs more time to settle them into their environments.

CASH IS KING

SALARY cap space is the newest and shiniest trading tool of them all.

AFL.com.au forecast the impact of salary cap space being a trading mechanism in September and it came to fruition as a major part of the trade period.

Gold Coast attached pick No.7 to Jack Bowes and created a market for the player and his back-ended deal, worth more than $1.6 million over the next two years. It meant only clubs with salary cap space could be in the race for him, given the Suns needed to get his money off their books and took this chance to clear the decks.

That it was Geelong that could afford him was extraordinary given the club's premiership list, but nonetheless showed the value of the Cats' unique cap model.

There were numerous other examples across the period. Collingwood offloaded Brodie Grundy (and some of his salary) to Melbourne, while Greater Western Sydney also took the chance to straighten their finances by losing four players at once.

The deal sending Jacob Hopper to Richmond had a financial incentive as well for the Giants from the Tigers' end, perhaps explaining why the Giants ended up throwing in some selections late.

Hawthorn's cap space meant it had options. The Giants were willing to give up pick 19 for Jaeger O'Meara if the Hawks paid his salary next year. Tom Mitchell's move to the Magpies also had a salary factor.

Essendon has said it would be aggressive in the market and use its ample salary cap space, and offered to take contracted pair Brayden Fiorini and Alex Sexton off the Suns for pick No.5. But the Suns, having executed the Bowes and pick No.7 deal knowing No.5 was coming through the door, weren't doing that.  

THE 'KEN EFFECT' IS REAL

Port Adelaide shaped the trade period by luring Jason Horne-Francis to Alberton Oval and coach Ken Hinkley's impact on players he meets has a profound say on the trade dealings.

The Ken effect is three-fold. His bond with Junior Rioli saw the West Coast goalkicker depart the Eagles for the Power, while Horne-Francis was excited by playing under Hinkley.

Coaches are super important in the final pitch to a player and in one meeting Hinkley turned Geelong Esava Ratugolea from weighing up where his future lay to wanting a trade to the Power. It didn't eventuate, but it came close and Ratugolea was keen.

Another part of his impact at trade time is how Port has got players to want to join the club, but also none of his players wanted to leave. If a Power player was feeling uneasy about their spot on the list or searching for an opportunity or wanting to get home, the chance was there for them to put up their hand during the Horne-Francis negotiations. None did.

Port list boss Jason Cripps and football manager Chris Davies plotted a plan to bring in their targets using just their draft capital and nailed it.

The Cats didn't want to lose Ratugolea from the outset but the prospect of him putting his exciting pieces together under Hinkley, like Aliir Aliir and Jeremy Finlayson have done in the past two years, would likely also have been a consideration.

THE REBUILD GAP IS GROWING

WEEKS after winning the premiership with the oldest team in history, Geelong came out a huge winner of the Trade Period.

The Cats secured 24-year-old Jack Bowes to be a part of their midfield generation and also grabbed Tanner Bruhn and Ollie Henry two years after they were first-round picks. Bowes is a quality pick-up whose injury-hit season has seen some of his talents forgotten.

With Bowes, they also got pick No.7, where they could eye Falcons star Jhye Clark – another young midfield star who is rock-solid and ready to play at AFL level.

The Cats' sustained success has made them a destination club and they offer a lifestyle and set up different to other clubs. Their approach, too, of continually bringing in seasoned and experienced players to extend their window has had an effect on the competition, too.

Richmond essentially tapped out of this year's draft and also in 2023 to bring in GWS midfield pair Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper as they also rewrite the rebuild rules. The Tigers offered both players seven-year deals and have identified the duo to spearhead their midfield recharge after their triple-flag run.

The Tigers, clearly, don't have plans to dip down the ladder under Damien Hardwick and remain intent on keeping their flag window wide open. And who came second in the chase for Hopper? The Cats.

Hawthorn, meanwhile, has taken the opposite long route and focused in on the draft by trading out Jaeger O'Meara and Tom Mitchell and losing Jack Gunston as well.

FUTURE TRADING NEEDS A CHANGE

IT WAS a surprise that nobody had asked the question before.

When Port Adelaide put through to the AFL its proposal to trade out both its future first and second-round picks in the Horne-Francis mega deal, the League blocked it, as it contravened AFL rules.

If clubs trade out their first-round pick in the future, they have to hold the rest of the selections. If they trade out any of the second, third or fourth-round picks, they can't trade out their future first.

It's a protection mechanism the AFL has installed in the rules to protect clubs from themselves, but eight years into future trading, we haven't seen a club trade away its future and bungle things.

INDICATIVE DRAFT ORDER Check out your club's picks after the Trade Period

The Port request was the inadvertent canary in the coalmine for the AFL, with most clubs supporting the premise of the request that they should in the future be able to trade both the future first and second-round selections in the draft.

The League has not been keen to allow clubs to trade picks two years in advance like most clubs wish they could, but a happy medium would be allowing the extra pick to be traded. Or, at the very least, adding a provision to the current watertight rule that gives the League discretion to allow more future picks to be traded under the right circumstances.

INSIDE MIDFIELDER JOBS ARE AT A PREMIUM

THERE was a clear juxtaposition in the trade between the leading inside midfielders available – Taranto, Hopper and Josh Dunkley – and the rest who were on the market.

Taranto's move to Richmond saw the Tigers give up picks No.12 and 19, and the Giants also picked up selections No.31 and a future first-round pick for Hopper's shift to Richmond. The Dogs also pushed for two first-round picks for their best and fairest winner Dunkley and eventually settled on a deal in the final half-hour.

But aside from that trio, there was a distinct shift in the valuing of ball-getting midfielders. Hawthorn was happy for Mitchell to head to Collingwood and O'Meara to land at Fremantle and grabbed youngster Cooper Stephens to fill a void, while Carlton swapped Will Setterfield to Essendon essentially for a pick slide in the fourth round.

No other inside ball-getter found new homes, showing clubs view the role as limited in the modern engine room.

For the second straight year, Matt Crouch looked everywhere for a new home but couldn't find one, while Carlton's Paddy Dow didn't find a new club. The same went for Brisbane's Rhys Mathieson, who was open to a trade if a suitor came.