Roos boss unpacks complex trade for Tiger, flags plans for list holeDavid Zita
Fox Sports
October 21st, 2021 North Melbourne football boss Brady Rawlings says Callum Coleman-Jones wouldn’t have come to the club if it elected to force him through the pre-season draft.
Despite Richmond’s intent to keep him, Coleman-Jones nominated North Melbourne as his club of choice ahead of the trade period and got there via a trade, which saw the Roos trade out Robbie Tarrant, pick No.40 and a future second-round selection.
Speaking as part of a members forum, Rawlings said a trade was necessary given the potential repercussions of walking Coleman-Jones to the pre-season draft.
“It sounds quite simple as you can walk someone to a pre-season draft - it doesn’t quite work that way,” he said.
“We were looking to attract Callum Coleman-Jones as a player to our club and his club was really keen to retain him with a contract on the table and he was being courted heavily by the Gold Coast Suns and had a terrific offering in front of him there and he elected to come to us, that was the first piece of the puzzle.
“Once you get a player to that point, you work closely with the manager to get a trade done. If we were to get him out of line and say we’re going to walk him to the pre-season draft, a player doesn’t want that to occur to his original club and the manager probably doesn't want that to occur either.
“If we took that stance, then I don’t think Callum probably would have chosen this footy club.”
Tarrant was an unrestricted free agent, allowing him to move to Richmond without any input from North Melbourne, but the 32-year-old was eventually included in the deal for Coleman-Jones.
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-news-2021-north-melbourne-callum-coleman-jones-trade-preseason-draft-tom-lynch-rookie-list-plans/news-story/5198eba3188b56a3c28488df6e6b171d