Collingwood’s Flynn Riley bid is on the table
Written by Marcus Guarnera
Both Flynn Riley and Hudson O’Keeffe have informed Carlton that they want to depart the Blues in the next trade period. Carlton will now have to look for ways to offload the two ruckman in the next two weeks over the trade period. Hudson O’Keeffe has nominated the Western Bulldogs as his preferred destination. However the Bulldogs have to work out a possible trade to bring Zak Butters before they could worry about any deal for O’Keeffe.
In comparison Collingwood have opened up their trade period by brining in both Jesse Hogan and Lachie Neale. Riley has nominated the Pies as his preferred destination for a trade next season. This comes as Collingwood have interest in selecting Riley in the mid-season draft during last season, but Carlton managed to select him before the Pies where on the board.
Carlton did offer Riley a two-year contract extension if he did want to stay at Ikon Park, but Riley has his heart set on joining the Pies. Riley Beveridge gave an update on trade talks today on AFL.com as Collingwood have set the price that they are willing to pay for Riley. The Pies want to base the deal off the trades for the deals for Max Heath or Liam Reidy last season.
This means the Pie will likely give up one of their later draft picks to Carlton to complete a deal. Currently, Collingwood’s end of draft picks are pick 65,66, and 68 however these will be moved back due to free agency compensation. While this doesn’t seem like a lot one or more picks in this seasons draft could be taken by Carlton to help ensure the Blues have enough picks to match a bid for Cody Walker.
The AFL changed the draft bidding rules during the middle of last season to make it harder for teams to match bids. The most important rule change is now that teams can only use two picks to match the points needed for a bid. This could force Carlton to move up their first two picks to have enough points to match a bid for Cody Walker.
The Blues could decide to use one of their early second round picks (currently 23/24) and one of these later picks to try and move up into the first round, or pair it with Sydney’s current first round pick 16 and use that to move up. The later picks could also be combined with an earlier future picks or one of the Blues current future picks to complete a trade to bring Lachie Whitfield to Carlton, as he is expected to nominate the Blues as his preferred destination in the coming days.
