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Crows trade for need – the need for speed

Oct 15, 2015
A glut of midfielders battling for opportunity could see Kerridge (centre) seek a trade and the likes of Grigg (right) ply their trade in the SANFL.

A glut of midfielders battling for opportunity could see Kerridge (centre) seek a trade and the likes of Grigg (right) ply their trade in the SANFL.

The AFL’s protracted trade period ticks on today, four days in and with a full week to come.

While Port Adelaide remains in limbo over its top trade target in disgruntled Gold Coast tall Charlie Dixon, the Crows are in the box seat to snare a pair of quick runners as Adelaide seeks to rectify its lack of dash.

GWS defender Curtly Hampton appears set to wear the Crows’ tri-colours next season, although a deal is unlikely to be finalised until later in the trade period.

And Adelaide is making a concerted play for Collingwood midfielder-halfback Paul Seedsman.

The fringe Magpie has also been linked to Gold Coast and North Melbourne, and Sydney football manager Tom Harley says he is also on the Swans’ radar. But Seedsman today nominated Adelaide as his preferred destination, and the Crows will now hold talks with the Magpies about a trade.

While disappointing media pundits who urged the club to offload its top 10 draft pick for the troubled ex-Gold Coast Sun Harley Bennell, who was yesterday offloaded cheaply to Fremantle, the Crows don’t appear to be chasing any marquee signings in this year’s draft, but rather seeking to address areas of deficiency on its list – namely pace and disposal efficiency. Hampton and Seedsman would go some way to addressing the former, while Dean Gore, secured from Geelong in an amicable trade for Patrick Dangerfield, is considered an elite kick.

The Crows mindset is that you draft for talent but trade for need. The flipside to that is that you should trade away what you don’t need, and with Gore’s arrival the club’s glut of middling inside midfield talent is likely to leave some struggling for senior opportunities.

Whether one-time Rising Star nominee Sam Kerridge forms a part of trade deliberations remains to be seen, but it seems likely he would look favourably on greater opportunity and a reported three-year deal from Carlton, given he appears to have fallen well out of favour with the Adelaide hierarchy. He is one of a handful of Crows players who remain out of contract, after Cam Ellis-Yolmen, Sam Shaw, Mitch Grigg and Matt Crouch all inked extensions this week, but is unlikely to fetch great value at the trade table.

The question for others on the Crows list if the club is successful in its trade targets is: who gets forced out at selection if the likes of Hampton and Seedsman are considered starting-22 material?

Former captain Nathan van Berlo already had a taste at SANFL level this season; it could become a more regular occurrence as Adelaide invests in the next generation.

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