The Ten Near Misses

The Sunday Age

Sunday April 13, 2008

Emma Quayle

1. Kevin Bartlett to Essendon

AT THE end of 1979, KB resigned the Richmond captaincy and asked to be let go. He had been shunted from the Tigers' on-ball brigade to the forward pocket that season, and spoke to Melbourne and South Melbourne before signing an agreement to join Essendon. He'd been even more keen on another club - Collingwood - but coach Tom Hafey didn't want to deal with the ramifications of pinching a Tiger legend. Bartlett was left saying 'phew' after he ultimately stayed at Punt Road: the very next season he won the Norm Smith Medal playing in his fifth premiership and kicked 21 goals in the finals series, including seven in the grand final. He retired three years later as a 403-game, one-club player. The Bombers, in the meantime, turned to youth, moulding the likes of Tim Watson, Paul Van Der Haar, Glenn Hawker and Merv Neagle into their back-to-back premiership outfit of 1984-85.

2. Gary Buckenara to West Coast

BUCKENARA was so intent on joining the newly-formed Eagles for 1987 that he packed up his house in Melbourne and moved home to Perth, where his mother had been badly injured in a car accident the previous year and his father was struggling to run both the family business and home. But Hawthorn was so determined not to let Bucky - who had played in the 1983 and 1986 premiership teams - go that it took legal action, the Supreme Court deciding he was contractually bound to the club and not able to play elsewhere. Buckenara went back to the Hawks, and it was a good decision: he famously goalled after the 1987 preliminary final siren to kick the Hawks into another grand final, and added two more flags (1988 and 1989) to his collection before retiring a Hawthorn great.

3. Simon Madden and Kevin Sheedy to Sydney

THE Essendon player - a two-time premiership player, Norm Smith Medallist and the league's leading ruckman - was firmly in Geoffrey Edelston's sights at the end of 1985. The presumption was that if the Swans stole enough Bombers, their coach would surely follow. Madden was offered a $100,000 signing-on fee and $450,000 over three years, which would have made him one of the highest paid players at the time, while Sheedy has since claimed he was offered a cool million to move into the VFL's frontier town. Both stayed, and both benefited: Madden played 378 games and still holds the games record at Essendon, while Sheedy left the Bombers last year after two more flags and coaching what seemed like a cool million games.

4. Terry Wallace to Sydney

NOT QUITE a trade deal, and who knows what, if any, official deal really had been done between the Swans and Terry Wallace - who had just quit the Western Bulldogs, and won the support of Sydney chairman Richard Colless - in the last part of 2002.

Wallace seemed the Swans' coach in waiting after Rodney Eade was sacked, although Colless has denied offering him the job, but Paul Roos did such a persuasive job in his 10-week caretaker role that he won over not only the club's supporters (who launched a 'Choose Roos' fax and email campaign), but the boss. He got the job, and three years later helped the Swans break a famous premiership drought.

5. Ben Holland to Adelaide

THE Crows took three shots at Holland, and thought they had their man at the end of 2001, when he opted at the last minute to stay at Punt Road for $800,000-plus and the "business opportunities" he says were offered by then Tiger president Clinton Casey instead of the mega-bucks thrown at him by Adelaide. Who knows whether the Crows offered $1.1 million, $1.3 million or another sum altogether, and who knows where Holland's career would have gone had he made the move. As it stands, though, Adelaide would be heaving a big sigh of relief that the deal collapsed. Holland wrecked his knee in 2002, the Crows saved huge room in their salary cap, and wound up trading the player touted as part of the Holland deal - Kane Johnson - to Richmond a year later, as part of the deal that got Wayne Carey to West Lakes.

6. Brad Sewell to Melbourne

AT THE end of 2005, Melbourne wanted Brad Sewell, a promising, hard-at-it midfield prospect who had played just 18 games for the Hawks after graduating from the club's rookie list. On offer was Ryan Ferguson who, after a couple of injury-wrecked seasons, had become an important part of the Melbourne defence.

The deal fell over because Ferguson, who was on holiday in Thailand during trade week, decided the morning after arriving home that he preferred to stay where he was. Who knows what either player would have done had they traded clubs.

But the Hawks would be happy things worked out like they did: Sewell won the club's 2007 best-and-fairest award, while Ferguson was delisted at the end of last season after more injury troubles and just 11 games.

7. Chris Grant to Port Adelaide

AT THE end of 1996, Port Adelaide was getting ready to enter the AFL. The Power wanted a marquee player, and offered Chris Grant $1.5 million to leave his beloved Footscray, where he had become a shining light for the bottom-placed Bulldogs. Grant, 23 at the time, stayed for about half of what he would have earned as a Power player. Footscray was becoming the Western Bulldogs, new president David Smorgon was promising better times and a 20-cent coin, taped to a letter written by young fan Ryan Adams tugged at the heartstrings too. Grant never got the premiership he was after, but didn't lose out by not moving: he played in successive preliminary final losses in 1997 and 1998, would/should/could have won a Brownlow Medal if not suspended in '97, captained the club for four years and played 341 matches, to be the Bulldogs' current games record holder.

8. Mark Harvey to North Melbourne

HARVEY had spent almost more time out injured than on the ground for Essendon when he was offered to North Melbourne at the end of 1991. The trade - for young Kangaroo pair Eric Lissendon and Kristian Bardsley - was minutes away from happening, until Bomber coach Kevin Sheedy changed his mind. At the end of the next season, Harvey had established himself at centre half-back and won his first best-and-fairest award. He then strongly considered an offer from North, and very nearly went. He didn't, and was glad of it: the next season he became an All- Australian defender and helped lead the 'Baby Bombers' to an unexpected 1993 premiership.

9. Nick Stevens to Collingwood

STEVENS really wanted to go to Collingwood at the end of 2003, and Collingwood really wanted to get him there. But the Magpies refused to send Alan Didak back home to Port Adelaide, so the Power put their foot down and Stevens wound up a Carlton player through the pre-season draft. Would Collingwood be relieved?

The club hasn't made another grand final since then and has perhaps lacked a midfield finisher. But Didak won the 2006 best-and-fairest, and perhaps missing out on Stevens helped turn the club's mind to finding and developing its own young players. The Power's tough stance didn't hurt either - it won the 2004 flag.

10. Steve Johnson to Essendon

AT THE end of 2006, Geelong was not particularly fussed about whether Steve Johnson hung around. The frustrating forward was on offer to both Essendon and Collingwood, but neither club was encouraged by medical examinations on the ankle he injured jumping over a fence during a night out drinking, and went cold.

The Cats were still not too fussed about Johnson at the start of 2007 - he was banished from the club for several weeks after a pre-season drinking episode - but he returned to win an All-Australia guernsey, a Norm Smith Medal, and a premiership.

And leave the Cats extremely glad they didn't set him free.

YOUR SAY

On the ten mismatches

You missed a goldmine on the mismatches - what about all the couples who split up due to "irreconcilable differences"? Billie Jean Moffitt and Larry King, for example, due mainly to Billie Jean's preference for the fairer sex. Or Marion Jones and CJ Hunter or Our Lleyton and the woman previously known as Aussie Kim. The list goes on.

James Prior

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Have any suggestions about the ten near misses that should have been on the list? Write in and tell us. We'll publish a selection next Sunday. Please keep your responses to no more than 50 words and send them to the address at the top of the page.

Email: sundaysport@theage.com.au Fax: (03) 9670 0856

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