The “head-scratching” Miers non-trade situation

The Gryan Miers trade situation was a head-scratcher.

That is according to Sam Edmund who couldn’t quite work out why Geelong would want to move Miers on.

There was initial interest from West Coast, where he underwent a medical, before Essendon came knocking late in the piece.

But the Bombers did not want to part with Pick 17 so any potential deal fell over.

“Gryan Miers was a head-scratching situation. I couldn’t get my head around the Cats’ appetite to even consider a trade,” Edmund said on AFL Trade Radio.

“I think it would have got done if Essendon offered up 17. They didn’t.

“West Coast were linked for a time and then pulled out. He did a medical there.

“In the end we do a 360 and we’re back where we started and he stays at Geelong.”

Even if the Dons were willing to part with that aforementioned draft pick, Miers was not in the country to undergo a medical at The Hangar.

Former Carlton coach Michael Voss feels that if a player is in the mix for a trade - especially one with documented knee issues like Miers - then they should be around to go through the process.

“It seems to be, certainly from Geelong’s position, is that they’re not necessarily needing to be the drivers of that,” Voss said.

“In fact you actually probably want to take one step back without feeling like you’re the one pushing it. As a club, if you’re seeing then to be the one that’s pushing it and all of a sudden every club starts to begin with, ‘we’ve got a value bargain here’.

“So Geelong could certainly take their time, let Miers drive it, see where it goes, what opportunities existed for him to be able to do his medical and the go overseas.

“I don’t get that. I don’t get why players disappear through the trade period. If you’re going to be traded, be here, so clubs can talk to you and you can do medicals. I don’t know why they do that.

“They worked through that particular situation and then you felt like that it was nearly there. But it never actually went anywhere the whole way through.”

Edmund wondered if clubs can share medical information which might have helped the Bombers.

“He goes to Perth and does a medical there just in case. Then goes overseas,” he said further.

“We said that Essendon couldn’t get a medical done, and they couldn’t because he wasn’t here.

“Do clubs share medical information on players?”

Voss suggested that it can happen, but overall you’d like the player in question to be there in front of you.

“It would only be if it’s got permission from the player agent to be able to share that information,” he replied.

“But one club’s medical team could view something slightly differently to another club’s medical team. One group might put more risk into it, and another group might not based on scans and how they interpret it.

“So you want the player in front of your medical team to determine what are actually taking on here.

“I would argue that Essendon were taking on a risk without actually seeing that medical. Being able to actually have the player in person and seeing the scans and talking through it all.

“We can only assume it’s his knee that they’re discussing because that’s the only one we know of.

“Every medical team will look at that differently, every club will take on risk differently.

“So if you’ve got a willingness to move and you know that you’re going to move and it’s likely it could happen at two or three clubs, you’ve got to be here.”

It became apparent to Voss that Miers was in fact in Italy for teammate Brad Close’s wedding.

“For 10 days? So go to the wedding, and then get back,” he said.