The Crows continue to trade on the second last day before the deadline, moving Tasmanian basketball convert (drink) Hugh Greenwood the to Gold Coast where he will contribute immediately.
The 27 year old will form another part of the solid mature brigade the Suns started building last year to develop their younger draftees around. He is young enough, and contracted long enough, that he should still be there in three or four years when the Suns post-2017 list build plans would be coming to fruition.
Note: This article is part of a series using a valuation method called Player Approximate Value (PAV) to evaluate trades for fairness and balance. Elsewhere, you can read much more about the method and theory behind PAV. You can also read about PAPLEY, the projection method used to derive expected future PAVs, which has been revised for 2019.
Greenwood is a fairly tough inside midfield type, sitting third at the Crows for contested possessions and 6th for clearances. He also lays a lot of tackles, but also bobs up for about 0.7 goals a game which is very handy for a Suns side that has struggled to score at times.
Greenwood has done particularly well when covering for dropped or injured top line Crows midfielders, and struggles more in secondary roles. This will suit the Suns, where he will be given room to shine.
The trade
Rather than pursue one of the Crouch brothers at a large premium, the Suns have gotten Greenwood for later draft picks picks. Such picks are a currency they have plenty of, after their absurdly generous concessions package was announced recently,. That package not only gives them pick 2 this year and pick 11 next year, but also removes the need to use picks to acquire Academy players, freeing their picks up further.
The use of the surplus picks to make moves like this for mature but not fossilised players is exactly what most observers would have expected to see happen as a result of these concessions. More than any other club, they can afford to shed such picks.
The Crows, for their part, probably aren’t excited about the player exodus they’re seeing, but have certainly gotten good enough returns in Gold Coast’s third and fourth rounder, which should come near the start of the round next year. The roughly pick 37 third rounder in particular is a pretty decent pick.
While Greenwood will be a key contributor for a few years, he’s missed some games and the combined value of the two picks looks higher than Greenwood’s projected remaining career value. Incidentally, PAPLEY thinks Greenwood, who is 28 in March, will play precisely until the end of his newly minted four year deal.
The Crows likely have two tied players (Luke Edwards as father-son and James Borlase as NGA) to bid on next year so the points will be useful on that front as well.
Verdict: Somewhat Adelaide-weighted trade due to getting multiple usable picks back, but Gold Coast naturally win in the near term, and won’t really care about the picks used.