Trade period would build NRL interest

THERE’S a big flat screen off to the side of our sports department in The Chronicle office.

Unless there is a major sporting event on it’s dialled in to Fox Sports news for 90 per cent of the day.

And for the most part it’s just background noise.

We keep it running just in case anything out of the ordinary or scandalous happens the type of things we need to make sure appear on our national sports pages or something we might be able to localise.

Wednesday was a bit different though.

Every time that red “breaking news banner” flashed up on screen I craned my head to left.

I’m a St Kilda fan and with my club trying to seal up to five different deals I obviously had a vested interest in what was going on.

I’ve been genuinely interested in the whole AFL Trade Period but the last day is where it gets exciting.

Draft picks and players are shuttled to and fro between clubs as they work secure the pieces that will hopefully complete their premiership puzzle.

The perfect example of just how crazy the trade period is can be found in Melbourne or at least that’s where it started.

A fourth round future pick started with the Demons and “moved” through four clubs before landing in St Kilda.

The trade period is a great way to keep AFL in the headlines and more importantly it allows clubs to settle, which is something I think the NRL would benefit from.

Nothing annoys me more than NRL players signing deals with new clubs mid-season.

It immediately brings their loyalty into question and disrupts the team.

A trade period would be great for the NRL because it would generate positive offseason headlines and stop midseason speculation which would be a win-win.