Matthew Lloyd ranked his top 5 biggest trade shocks on AFL Trade Radio this morning.
The Essendon great put together the list based on pure shock factor in that the trade(s) in question essentially came out of nowhere.
Lloyd also told the Early Trade co-host Kane Cornes an intriguing yarn about the time he, James Hird and Kevin Sheedy attempted to lure Wayne Carey to the Bombers.
Lloyd's Top 5 biggest trade shocks
5. Tom Boyd
GWS to the Western Bulldogs in 2014
“I remember when Tom Boyd said I want to move and I want to go to the Western Bulldogs.
“He’d played nine games and kicked eight goals at this time. They offered him seven years at around $7 million.
“(GWS') Dave Matthews came out and said, ‘This is not going to happen. We are not trading our number one draft pick’.
“Then I’ll never forget when Ryan Griffen said I want to leave, I want to get out of the Western Bulldogs.
“The deal was done. It was Griffen and pick six went to the Giants and Tom Boyd went to the Western Bulldogs.”
4. Wayne Carey
North Melbourne to Adelaide in 2002
“I’ll never forget the press conference of him sitting with a white t-shirt in Ricky Nixon’s office, the shock of it all.
“Just a bit of a back story. I went to Wayne Carey’s Port Melbourne apartment, myself, James Hird and Kevin Sheedy, and we tried to get him.
“He said he was interested in coming to Essendon. We met secretly, I remember sitting on Wayne Carey’s couch and Kevin Sheedy walked in with the team that was going to play Round 1 of next year.
“The Carey magnet was at centre half-forward, I was at full-forward and James Hird was half-forward flank.
“He said, ‘What a forward line we could create’. The big sell. Wayne seemed keen, but we got a call a couple of days later saying, ‘Nah, I need to get out of Melbourne, I’m going to the Crows’.
“Pick two and pick 18 was the deal he went to the Adelaide Crows for.”
3. Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis
Hawthorn to West Coast and from Hawthorn to Melbourne in 2016
“We were doing Trade Radio together. The news came out that Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis are both on the trade table.
“I just couldn’t believe it. It was pick 52 for Mitchell, they were just happy to move him on.
“I’ll never forget the shock we were in when that happened, how brutal it was. They were top two in the best and fairest just a year beforehand.”
2. Lachie Neale
Fremantle to Brisbane in 2018
“When the news came out that Lachie Neale wanted out at Fremantle, he had won a couple of best and fairests, he was playing great football.
“I don’t know if the full story has ever come out really, why he left. It’s a real strange one.
“The story goes that Lincoln McCarthy was meeting with the Brisbane Lions and he said, ‘Would you have any interest in Lachie Neale? I reckon you could get him’.
“They were good mates and that’s how it came about.”
1. Lance Franklin
Hawthorn to Sydney in 2013
“We all knew Franklin was going to leave but the job Liam Pickering and Franklin did that it didn’t get out.
“Everyone thought GWS. Mike Fitzpatrick blew up at the time, that he was going to go to the AFL’s club. When he announced that it was nine years on however much money, I’m going to go to the Sydney Swans.
“I remember the shock I was in. I could not believe what I’d read that he selected the Sydney Swans.”