Bobby Hill went into limbo after the Sydney West Giants refused to trade him for the Bombers

“He’s a valuable player, we don’t have a lot of small forwards and Toby Greene doesn’t play the first five games of 2022, so that’s where it is.”

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On Tuesday, the Giants reached out to Breust, who said he would sleep on the deal while the Hawks and Giants worked on his appearance. But he decided to stay put after careful consideration.

Collingwood was also interested observers and was ready to offer the Giants 27 pick and a future third-round pick and sign Hill on a three-year contract.

North Melbourne also retained Tristan Xerri, who wanted a trade with St Kilda, but the Saints were unwilling to make a second-round pick as part of a deal.

Geelong waited near the deadline before trading Jordan Clark for Fremantle after a standoff with the Dockers, who were reluctant to add a future third-round pick to pick 22 to finalize the deal after refusing to part with the pick 19.

The Cats were ultimately given the 22 pick and a future third-round pick tied with Carlton for the running defenseman, who turns 21 on Saturday.

Geelong also traded Darcy Fort to Brisbane and signed Hawthorn’s Jonathon Ceglar for a two-year contract. The Hawks took down Max Lynch of Collingwood with the deals requiring the finalization of a mix of third round picks and future third and fourth round picks.

Sydney relented and sent Jordan Dawson to Adelaide for a simple trade of a future first-round pick (tied with Melbourne) and secured Peter Ladhams from Port Adelaide, having traded his 12 pick with Port 16 pick and sent his future third round pick to Port.

It ended the calmest period of trading in the past 10 years, with just five players transferred as free agents and 15 traded, against 26 players traded and seven players changing clubs through free agency to the end of last season.

It wasn’t just the number of players that was most important last year, it was the quality of the players involved.

AFLPA President Patrick Dangerfield has said on social media that the trading period is expected to run for a week Monday through Friday and end in prime time on Friday evening.

Bulldogs vice-captain Mitch Wallis has signed a new one-year contract to stay at the Whitten Oval after exploring move options, and the Blues have re-signed four rookies, Matthew Owies, Luke Parks, Oscar McDonald and Jordan Boyd for one more. season.

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