AFL trade news: West Coast CEO Don Pyke defends Eagles’ trading out of pick 3

It may have been coincidence - or it may have been the need for a diversion as the club was swamped by angry fans in the wake of the decision to trade its draft pick three to Carlton to get picks 12 and 14.

Pick 14 was the pick most needed at short notice. It was the one that was required to get the Liam Baker trade done.

It was the pick Hawthorn had on the table as the main pick in the Tom Barrass trade and there lies the problem for the Eagles this trade period: They lost control of the Tom Barrass trade.

It will take five years to work out whether the Eagles have been damaged by this - and if so how badly damaged: We will be comparing the output of their pick 12 with the output of pick three.

If Barrass gets to Hawthorn we will compare what he does there compared to what Liam Baker and Matt Owies do for the Eagles - Owies being the steak knives that came with the Carlton pick switch.

But if you want to pinpoint the two big stumbling blocks that made this trade period a very difficult one for first year CEO Don Pyke and first year list manager Matt Clark they were these: A: The Baker trade-in was strongly linked to the Barrass trade-out and, B: The Eagles didn’t close the Barrass deal early in the trade period.

There was also, in fairness to West Coast, some behaviour from Hawthorn that was interesting to say the least. Having wooed Barrass and offered him a monster deal to get him to request a trade mid contract, the Hawks threw negotiations in a dumpster on Friday by trading away the pick 14 that both clubs agreed would be the main piece in the trade.

It was also the pick the Eagles had indicated - prematurely as it turned out - that they would use to get the Baker trade done.

For West Coast - this was not as simple as walking away - which is why they have been scrambling to make up lost ground and why pick three has ended up being split.

Baker, upon learning that Andrew McQualter was coaching, had specified West Coast as his chosen destination. Jack Graham had joined the club as a free agent- believing Baker was coming too.

An understanding that pick 14 would be the pick involved in the trade - had also been reached between West Coast, Richmond and Baker, who had urged the Eagles to compensate his old club Richmond.

Speaking on SEN on Tuesday morning, Pyke said that honouring a commitment made to Baker was a big part of the decision to split the pick.

“If you look at the deal in isolation, the slide from three to 12 and using pick 14 to get Liam Baker looks a bit odd but for us it was a part of a bigger play around Liam and the commitment we made to bring him into the club. We are fulfilling and honouring that commitment as well as sliding back in a draft which we believe has got some depth,” he said.

Pyke - perhaps sensitive to the fact that there is still a trade to be done with Hawthorn - would not say what Hawthorn’s best offer for Barrass was before the Hawks blindsided them by disengaging from trade talks on Friday. He was hopeful that a trade deal for Barrass could still get done although he conceded it would almost certainly involve future picks.

“Needless to say it (the original offer) wasn’t going to be enough to get that done and unfortunately from there Hawthorn elected to trade that pick away which meant we had to come up with an alternate solution to fulfil our commitment to Liam.”

Angry supporters were demanding to know why the Eagles didn’t play hardball on trades for both Owies and Baker and threaten to walk them through the pre-season draft. Pyke said: “That’s just not how we are going to do business. It is easy to sit there and say that we will do that. That doesn’t leave anyone in a good position and it has other ramifications long term in trying to do deals with anyone. We weren’t going to go down that path.”

EAGLES DEFENDS BAKER TRADE AFTER FANS’ FURY

West Coast has defended its decision to trade out pick 3 to help land Liam Baker amid growing fury from its fan base.

The Eagles were part of a three-way trade on Tuesday, adding Baker, pick 12, Carlton forward Matt Owies and pick 73.

The Eagles sent pick 3 to Carlton and pick 14, which they received from the Blues, to Richmond in exchange for Baker.

Eagles fans flamed the club on Tuesday morning, saying list boss Matt Clarke was “completely fleeced”, but West Coast CEO Don Pyke told Mark Duffield on SEN WA the trade was part of a “bigger play”.

“I understand (fans’ rage) if you look at the deal in isolation, the slide from 3 to 12 and to use 14 to get Liam Baker, it looks a bit odd but is part of a bigger play around Liam and a commitment to bring him to the club as well as sliding back in a draft which has some depth,” he said.

“Pick 12 won’t replace pick 3 but we still believe at 12 there’ll be a lot of highly-talented players that fit our needs and help our list build.”

Hawthorn earlier moved pick 14 out to Carlton for a future selection which went some way to forcing the Eagles’ hand to bring their interest in Baker to fruition.

“We had discussions with Richmond (over Baker), three was too high, 26 wasn’t going to get it done,” he said.

“You saw Freo’s offers … the value for Liam was about that (mid-first round pick), we understood where the value was at.

“It wasn’t going to be popular with everyone but we think we’ll get a good player we believe at 12, not as good as at three, and we’ll now do work to close the Barrass deal and get back into this draft in the top 10, or the 10-20 range to get those three picks we want to bring in.”

Key defender Barrass is still in limbo, with the Hawks offering future picks after trading out of the early rounds of this year’s draft.

“The Hawks have approached Tom and put a contract in front of him and we need to make sure we get fair compensation for that and we’re working towards what that looks like,” he said.

“They almost have to be (future picks) now, they’ve only got 38 and later picks.”

Pyke rejected calls the club should have walked Baker to the pre-season draft.

“That’s not how we do business,” he said.

“It’s easy to sit there and say that but the reality for us is we had conversation with Liam and wanted to get Graham as a free agent but it’s beholden on us to make that deal work and leave everyone in a good position.

“It has other ramifications long-term about doing deals with other people. We weren’t going to go down that path.”

Pyke said the Eagles had identified they needed to draft more young talent, but also had a glaring hole in the 23-27 age bracket which Baker (27 years old), free agent Jack Graham (26) and Matt Owies (27) would help fill.

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“We had multiple strategies … not just to bring in younger players but also the middle part of the list to support our more senior guys,” he said.

“We wanted to use three picks but wanted to bring in other talent.”

He confirmed the Lions were also still looking at Deven Robertson from the Lions.