AFL trades: West Coast Eagles defend pick split trade, bullish on top selection turning into quality player

West Coast list boss Matt Clarke says angry Eagles fans will see the deal to trade out pick No.3 as a “pretty good one” once they witness Liam Baker and their newest first-round draftee out on the track.

The Eagles were at the centre of the most divisive trade of 2024 when they moved out their first pick in this year’s draft in a three-club trade that involved Carlton and Richmond.

They slid back nine spots to pick 12 to bring in Tigers vice-captain Liam Baker and Carlton small forward Matt Owies — who were both out of contract — in a deal that was widely criticised by experts and fans.

Speaking at the end of the trade period, Clarke backed the deal, saying they always knew it was a possibility that they’d have to dish off pick three to get what they wanted before the deadline.

“We always knew we needed to make some sort of move there to make sure that Liam got in,” Clarke told The West Australian.

“Given the strength of the draft we knew that we actually had to move but we rate the draft highly like most. You can see what Melbourne gave up for pick No.9 just to get into that sort of region, so they know how significantly strong it is in that region.

“We were prepared to move our pick if need be to make that happen.

“We’re really confident that when we see our pick 12 running around in pre-season alongside Liam Baker, I think people are going to look at that deal as a pretty good one given the two talents we’ve got out on the field.”

West Coast’s trade period became chaotic when Hawthorn shocked the industry by trading out pick No.14 to Carlton with that selection set to be at the centre of a deal for defender Tom Barrass.

The Eagles were then expected to on-trade it for Baker, but were forced to think laterally once the Hawks handed it to the Blues for a future first and future second round selection.

“I don’t know if it changed our plan significantly from the whole period,” Clarke said.

“We’ve obviously got some contingencies about what might happen so we obviously knew once we had a commitment from Liam and we made a commitment to him what it would look like for Richmond. We knew where his value was we needed to make some movement at some point.

“So whether that was tied in with the Tom Barrass trade or either we were prepared to do that. We rate Liam’s football ability and his ability to lead a young group really highly. He was a priority to bring in.

“Once that trade happened we needed to pivot into a couple of other contingencies we had and that was the opportunities that was presented to us by Carlton. So we’re happy to get him (Baker) and Matt Owies as part of the deal.”