Curtly Hampton for Adelaide’s 2016 second round pick
GWS value in: 870 points (Adelaide 2016 second round pick ~31).
Adelaide value in: 1055 points (Curtly Hampton).
Verdict: Fair (Adelaide gains 185 points, and recieve 1.21 points for every point given up).
Jacob Townsend and pick 120 for pick 60
GWS value in: 370 points (pick 60).
Richmond value in: 528 points (Jacob Townsend – 528 points, pick 120 – 0 points).
Verdict: Technically unfair, but very close (Richmond gain 158 points, recieve 1.43 points for every point given up).
Before he entered the league, Curly Hampton was touted as a future superstar. He was mentioned as the second coming of Andrew McLeod, and was the captain of the AIS academy squad. His signing by GWS in 2010 was decribed by AFL press outlets as nothing less than “a coup”, and success seemed his destined future.
He was given plenty of chances early on, and glimmmers of his potential were on show; 17 disposals in his first game, 3 goals in his fourth. But there was the nagging feeling that he couldn’t quite put it all together for an extended period of time. Playing 35 games in his first two seasons, he could only manage 16 in the last two, stuck behind the emergence of his fellow youngsters and new recruits like Heath Shaw. His NEAFL form was strong, but it’s hard to displace an All-Australian.
Jacob Townsend, on the other hand, came with much lower expectations. A GWS zone pick from Leeton, Townsend was often the odd man out in an increasingly strong GWS midfield. Averaging 10 disposals a game at AFL level, it’s fair to say that he hasn’t set the world on fire yet.
Curtly Hampton and Jacob Townsend are both players who ultimately lost out in the logjam for regular games among GWS’s plethora of young talent. Hampton shapes as a wing or running defender but never settled into a role, Townsend is near the back of a very deep midfield depth chart. Both have been traded for near enough to their apparent worth for everyone to be happy.
Note that, despite his first half season splitting time between the wing and the half forward flank, Hampton has always projected to be a back half of the ground player. In each one of his four sesasons, he’s had many more rebound 50s to inside 50s, and he’s only kicked goals in 7 games of AFL football. Hampton is good with the ball in his hand, and when he has plenty of space to make decisions.
Hampton has been let go for the second round pick he’s clearly worth (we get 15 as exact value with anything down to 45 looking fair). Adelaide’s movement in 2016 is probably one of the harder ones to predict, pick 31 will be theirs if they finish 6th after finals again, but if Don Pyke’s reign begins with a slide, pick 31 could easily become something in the 20s.
The Townsend trade is effectively giving away a surplus player, someone GWS got for free as a zone pick anyway. Townsend is from Leeton, came to the Giants as an inaugural zone pick, and has never topped the 11 games he played in 2012 due primarily to GWS’ midfield depth.