Fremantle has kept a close eye on Jaeger O’Meara after rating him as the “most impressive 16-year-old” the club had ever seen before he was drafted.
The Dockers landed O’Meara just before Wednesday night’s trade deadline in exchange for Lloyd Meek and a future second rounder, bringing the Western Australian back home.
Fremantle will be O’Meara’s third club after being taken by Gold Coast with pick one in the 2011 mini draft.
The immensely talented midfielder has endured an injury-interrupted yet successful career since, but Fremantle list manager David Walls said the club jumped at the opportunity to recruit O’Meara, who still had a year to run at Hawthorn.
“I remember seeing Jaeger play out at Blacktown as a 16-year-old in 2010 and it was like the most impressive 16-year-old we'd ever seen play,” he told SEN WA Breakfast.
But as Walls revealed, it wasn’t until late in the piece that Fremantle emerged as a genuine chance. O’Meara’s name was only raised in trade talks on Monday.
“From that point on we’ve tracked him closely… loved his career. We enquired about him last week through his manager but it was direct to him and Jaeger felt like he was very loyal to Hawthorn and felt like they needed him and he didn’t want to leave,” Walls continued.
“It probably wasn’t until when he was at (GWS co-captain) Stephen Coniglio’s wedding on the weekend and around the GWS guys… conversations progressed there and I think a first round pick was offered for him, which Hawthorn was then interested in and that opened the door… that Jaeger was then prepared to move.
“He was looking at GWS but was really keen to get to Fremantle.”
2022 marked O’Meara’s lowest average disposals per game ever in his career. The 28-year-old gathered 20.3 disposals, 5.1 clearances and 4.4 inside 50s in 21 appearances this year.
But Walls believes that may have been due to a slight positional shift, earmarking a key role for the former Hawk.
“I think that’s the beauty of him, I think he can take a lot of Dave Mundy’s minutes in the midfield,” the Freo list boss added.
“But he also spent about 25 per cent of his time at Hawthorn this year as a high half forward and played that role really well, so we see him doing that.
“He gives flexibility. He’s a two-way runner, he can play a little bit more on the outside as well but his real go is just being an inside bull.
“He has real depth to us and leadership and I think he’s going to be huge for (Neil) Erasmus and (Matthew) Johnson in their development and learning from him.”
The Hawks also traded out Tom Mitchell and Jack Gunston alongside the retirements of Ben McEvoy and Liam Shiels in a list management decision that has been slammed by Kane Cornes.