Look Out Folks…It’s Trade Week! (Six Months Of Silliness)

The Crows broke out their best sandwich board for B&F night…

Well, season 2008 is done! All the goofy Mad Monday costumes have been packed away for another year and the last Sherrin has been booted in anger…at least until pre-season training kicks off. And that is only a matter of weeks away for the bottom eight clubs!

More importantly, all the best-and-fairest winners have been named. Just in case you have been wondering who claimed the big prize at your club, here is the honour roll:

• Nathan Bock wins in Adelaide, earning himself a nifty yellow jacket in the process! Wonder if the runner-up prize was two yellow jackets…
• Once again, Jono Brown is the main man in Brisbane…and he is talking finals already! Just another 47 weeks to go before we know if he’s right.
• It wouldn’t be footy season without Chris Judd winning something…or the Fev just missing out!
• The delightful Alan Didak led the Collingwood B&F count until his suspension kicked in…allowing Dane Swan to claim the award. So something good did come out of the Shaw/Didak drama!
• No All Australian spot for David Hille but he will have to settle for Essendon’s best player award.
• Is it any surprise that Matthew Pavlich has won a shitload of Freo B&F’s already? He might win fifteen of them by the time he retires!
• Oh no! Gary Ablett finishes second again!!! Can you believe it? What a hard luck story! Blah blah blah…Joel Corey won, by the way.
• Sure, Lance Franklin winning the best and fairest in a premiership year is a big deal. But to make front page news at the Herald Sun, you need to achieve something far greater…like going outside with your girlfriend!
• The best player on the worst team in the comp…come on down, Cameron Bruce!
• Brent Harvey takes the honours at North Melbourne and will now delay surgery in order to play for Australia in the silly hybrid series against the Irish. Is he completely insane?
• Kane Cornes wins at Port Adelaide but it’s a wonder Mark Williams didn’t cancel the awards night altogether and make the players carry bricks above their heads at Alberton Oval instead!

Brett Deledio (right) wins at Richmond while Nathan Brown (left)…um, is absent from the leaderboard. So why is his picture even there?

• Thanks to Brett Deledio, Matthew Richardson is stiffed again! The story of his life…
• Sam Fisher stepped up this year to deny Nick Riewoldt at St Kilda’s B&F count…now if half a dozen or so mates step up next year, the Saints might finish top-four by good management rather than good fortune!
• Jarrad McVeigh pips Brett Kirk at the finish line to win the award in Sydney. What…no Barry Hall?
• Taking full advantage of Chris Judd’s departure, Dean Cox stands tall in a crappy season at the West Coast Eagles.
• The winner of the best and fairest award at the Western Bulldogs is…not Scott West? Wow, this will take some getting used to…

…

So, without any footy games to watch (and yes, the International Rules series DOES NOT count!), what do we do for the next six months? Talk footy non-stop, of course! And what better place to start than the maximum-talk, minimum-action of AFL trade week. Will this year be any different? Probably not.

Most interest would have involved the seemingly restless Daniel Kerr but he is now an Eagle for life…like he was going to leave anyways! But the whereabouts of players such as Ryan O’Keefe, Andrew Lovett, Daniel Harris, Mark Seaby and many, many others will be determined this week. Some will be finalised by lunchtime today, others will have to wait until 1:59pm on Friday. Let a full-on week of rumour, heresay and player manager waffling commence…and here’s hoping your team can land a big fish!