Shiel deal sealed in picks
ESSENDON last night caved and coughed up two firstround picks to seal an 11th hour deal for Greater Western Sydney jet Dylan Shiel.
A last-ditch play for Shiel by Carlton also spooked the Dons, forcing them to pay a premium for the midfield star.
The fight for Shiel, 25, went down to the wire with the Giants refusing to buckle on their demands.
Essendon had offered a first and second-round pick for Shiel but was stared down by the Sydney expansion club.
The Dons eventually agreed to send pick No.9 and next year’s first-rounder to the Giants, with a future secondround selection coming back.
Shiel, 25, joins the Bombers on a long-term deal and will help bolster a team that won 10 of its last 14 games this year.
The dynamic midfielder will help ease the burden on skipper Dyson Heppell and star vice-captain Zach Merrett.
The Shiel trade took a twist early yesterday after it emerged Carlton had met with Giants officials to explore ways to usurp the Dons.
The Blues had been closely monitoring the Essendon-Giants stalemate but were not prepared to offer this year’s prized No.1 draft pick.
Another option for the Giants if the Bombers had failed to budge was for Shiel to return to Sydney to see out his contract.
Bombers list boss Adrian Dodoro last night said he was aware of Carlton’s attempted ambush.
“It really didn’t bother us … but no doubt SOS [Blues list boss Stephen Silvagni] was trying to get him in the back door,” Dodoro said.
“I’ve got no doubt knowing SOS he was trying to do that, but that’s what happens. I would have done the same thing as well. We got our man and they didn’t.”
The Giants also traded out big man Rory Lobb to Fremantle following the departures of former No.1 pick Tom Scully to the Hawks and young gun Will Setterfield to the Blues.
Lobb has signed a four-year deal at the Dockers but GWS chief executive Dave Matthews rejected claims the expansion club had mismanaged its salary cap, blaming the AFL’s decision to abolish the contentious cost-of-living allowance for the fire sale.
“COLA was removed, essentially, off the back of Kurt Tippett and Buddy Franklin going to the Swans in consecutive years,” Matthews told SEN. ”We had nothing to do with either of those two decisions, but the knock-on effect when you remove COLA from the Swans, was to remove it from us.
“Victorian media, or Victorian clubs, take some delight in seeing players come home from Gold Coast or the Giants, but ultimately it defeats the purpose of the AFL’s investment to try and set up a competition that’s well represented in New South Wales and Queensland.”
Giants superstars Josh Kelly, Lachie Whitfield and Stephen Coniglio all fall out of contract next season.