Trade Bell: The intrigue over Ben King's Hawthorn move

“Gold Coast are busy working through what this deal looks like. Like Port Adelaide's background work on the Zak Butters move, the Suns are going down a similar path with the powers that be to engineer the best possible deal for them.

“We know King's going to join the Hawks, as I say. It’s a huge deal. It's some $9 million over seven years.

“But how he gets there at the moment has all possibilities open. If the Suns match this deal - which is not out of the question as things stand - it would seriously hurt Hawthorn given the Hawks won't have enough picks to do a trade for King, as well as a trade for Zach Merrett who is coming across from Essendon.

“So how nasty do the Suns want to be? That isn't the question. It's what gives Gold Coast the best outcome? That's the question.

“Now at the moment, most of the work involves the Suns, the Hawks and the AFL working out what separate deals to King's compo exchange look like. It might not be the Todd Marshall style top up deal. Well, it can't be because the AFL is changing memos to rule that option out.

“But it could involve a side deal. So a Hawthorn player going to Gold Coast in a deal favourable to the Suns. This is where we re-enter the murky waters of free agency.

“Like Butters, the King compo is the King compo. That can't be improved because it'll be Band 1 anyway, but the bottom line is the Suns are wanting more than that top 10 compensation pick.

“We can hypothesise, some of the names who believe the Suns are interested in - that's Noah Mraz, we know Essendon tabled a big money move for; Aidan Schubert who they love so much who played in that VFL Grand Final; and there's potentially many others among them.

“So the AFL are monitoring this one closely like they are the Port Adelaide-Western Bulldogs dealings for Zak Butters. A fair bit to play out here on the specifics of Ben King who he might be the second biggest free agent on the move in this window.”

“He's been put into a really hard situation here. We saw something similar with Bailey Humphrey last year who was perhaps not getting the greatest advice and had a lot of anxiety around the trade period.

“Now the Tauru stuff all started a few weeks ago with rival clubs saying, ‘Well, Tauru’s management's reached out, that's a surprised the Saints a fair bit, he’s contracted for one more year’.

“What surprised the Saints even more was that they learned through back channels that Alex Tauru had toured another club. And when they asked the question, they were told, ‘No, that didn't happen’, only to speak to said club who said, ‘No absolutely, it did happen’.

“Then you have St Kilda turn around and say, ‘Yep, we're open to offers on Alex Tauru’. So to say there's tension between club, management and player is an understatement at the moment.

“What a strange series of events for a teenager at St Kilda, a contracted one at that. So we'll watch that one with interest.”

“Some are reporting over the last couple of days that this is cooled from a St Kilda interest point of view. Now that might well be the case, but as far as Rory Lobb is concerned, I'm told he absolutely has an appetite to get to the Saints.

“He wants to play back. He wants a key position role at that football club. He's got one more year on his Western Bulldogs deal.

“But perhaps reading the tea leaves there with Jordon Butts coming in, he's done the medical. Hasn't nominated the Dogs but will work to get there. It has Rory Lobb now considering his options.

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