WHEN the AFL first announced there would be compensatory selections for clubs that lose players under the new free agency system, most of the reports picked up that there would be five bands of compensation.
These would be middle of first round, end of first round, middle of second round, end of second round and third round.
What was overlooked was that there was a sixth band of compensation, which if you read the fine print closely, was actually no compensation at all.
[ Related: Compo picks bolster Port's draft position ]
So for Adelaide and Hawthorn, that means they receive nothing for their respective losses of Chris Knights to Adelaide and Tom Murphy to Gold Coast.
This is more a reflection of the fact that the pair were not on great money at their old club and won't receive much, if any, of a salary increase at their new clubs, rather than a reflection of their playing ability.
Of the compensation picks handed down on Friday, only one raised eyebrows. Port received a middle second round selection in exchange for Fremantle-bound wingman Danyle Pearce, while Hawthorn only received a third-round selection for Clinton Young, now of Collingwood, who most neutral observers would believe had a better year in 2012.
This must mean that Pearce is on a bit more money than Young in addition to receiving a four-year deal as opposed to Young's three-year contract with the Pies.
Only one free agent - Brendon Goddard - was considered worthy of a first-round pick, and there would be few arguments with that.
So free agency is largely done for now, although there are small windows later in the year for free agents to change clubs once clubs start lodging their playing lists for next season. The first of these will be November 1, the day after the first list lodgement.
So now the focus is back on the Gillette AFL Trade Period, which finishes at 2pm on Friday.
Here is a snapshot of where each club is at:
ADELAIDE: Kurt Tippett's deal to move to the Swans is still yet to be finalised. "We're working our backsides off to get the best deal for our club. No deal has been done," tweeted list manager David Noble on Friday. This came only a couple of hours after the Crows traded for Richmond ruckman Angus Graham. That leaves Graham and Jenkins as the back-ups for Sam Jacobs and begs the question as to whether Jesse White is still a chance to be part of the Tippett deal given he is a big man the Crows no longer need.
BRISBANE LIONS: Former Demon Brent Moloney might yet have some familiar company at the Gabba next season with the Lions considering a move to bring Melbourne big man Stefan Martin to the club. He can play in the ruck and forward and would appear to be surplus to Melbourne's needs with Chris Dawes now at the club.
CARLTON: Mick Malthouse said the Blues would be quiet during the trade and free agency period and he has been good to his word so far. Bret Thornton and Jordan Russell have attracted little interest to date, so now they chance their arm at next month's NAB AFL Draft. The Giants should nab Thornton with a late pick. The release of the draw is the next big item for the Blues and with opening games against Richmond and Collingwood, it will be a huge start.
COLLINGWOOD: About all the Pies have done wrong over the past few weeks is their little 'porky pie' on Wednesday afternoon suggesting they were pretty much done with their wheeling and dealing. 24 hours later, Clinton Young moved across from Hawthorn. The sum total of Collingwood's work over the past three weeks was to lose Sharrod Wellingham and Chris Dawes in exchange for Young and Quinten Lynch. But they now also have three picks inside the first 25 at the national draft. The Pies will regenerate and remain in premiership contention. Good work by them.
ESSENDON: Scott Gumbleton remains with the Bombers for another season, rejecting a reported two-year deal on the table from the Western Bulldogs. Good news for Essendon, which now has plenty of depth through the forward line. But how many Essendon people would have him in the side's best 22 come the season opener next year? Essendon also remains in the running for Port defender Ben Jacobs. The highlight of the week for the Bombers, however, might have been the meeting between coach James Hird and Real Madrid maestro Jose Mourinho. Can anyone really see 'The Special One' accepting the invite any time soon to check out the new Essendon facility at Tullamarine? No, didn't think so.
FREMANTLE: Not much to report on the trade and free agency front for Fremantle, apart from a failed bid for Essendon's Scott Gumbleton, so the big news of the week is the derby clash with West Coast going national and featuring as a standalone Saturday night clash on the opening weekend of the season. The best time to play both Freo and the Eagles has been the week after a derby clash - they are brutal affairs - so it has to be seen as a win for both clubs to have a two-week break before they have to front up again.
GEELONG: We've dipped our lids to Geelong already in this column and we do so again. Josh Caddy and now, Jared Rivers and Hamish McIntosh fill specific needs for the Cats and should all be thereabouts for the season opener next year against Hawthorn. The Cats would appear to have an excess of ruckman, so we fear it's one year and done for Orren Stephenson. Trent West, Nathan Vardy and Dawson Simpson would have better cases to be retained. What is interesting about the Cats is that they have gone from having no players from other AFL clubs on their list to three. A bit like Collingwood, the Cats are building for the long-term while remaining super-competitive in the interim.
GOLD COAST: We mentioned last week that the training wheels are off for the Suns in terms of player wheeling and dealing. They were compensated nicely for Josh Caddy and are now holding out for the right deal for ruckman Tom Hickey who wants to return to Victoria. The Saints have been the frontrunners, but the discussions between the clubs will only heat up over the weekend, now that the Saints know precisely which draft picks they have at their disposal.
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY: For the Giants, it is all about the draft now. The first three selections will be heading to Skoda Stadium to ply their trade and while list manager Stephen Silvagni did say that picks two and three were now on the table in exchange for suitable trades, he was being a bit disingenuous, given that no club will be offering up the sort of players who would justify that sort of trade. And the club's two-year window to sign uncontracted players from others clubs came to a close at 2pm on Friday.
HAWTHORN: The main disappointment for the Hawks is losing Clinton Young as an unrestricted free agent is that he crosses to Collingwood, a fellow premiership contender rather than a side lower down the ladder. How does the side structure up in his absence? Perhaps one of Grant Birchall or Matt Suckling moves to a wing. A big summer by Bradley Hill would also put him in the frame.
MELBOURNE: Lots of turnover and weighing up the additions and subtractions, there is a case to say Melbourne will be better next year. But what the Demons have done is sell hope and the club should have little trouble flogging memberships and keeping the turnstiles clicking over to watch the kids develop and Mitch Clark, Jeremy Howe and now Chris Dawes clunk a few marks close to goal. Of course, getting the ball to them remains an issue and the Demons need to keep addressing their midfield at the forthcoming drafts.
NORTH MELBOURNE: A second round pick, No.36 or thereabouts for Hamish McIntosh seems about right for North to receive from the Cats. The Roos tried to make the Todd Goldstein-McIntosh combination work, but Goldstein has now established himself as the No.1 big man. And it is exciting that after three years of development in the VFL, that we will surely see Majak Daw running around in the AFL. Look for Cam Pedersen to become a Demon next week, while North is the favourite to land defender Ben Jacobs from Port Adelaide.
PORT ADELAIDE: At this stage, Port will own the second round of the national draft, with picks 29-31 in its swag as a result of the compensatory picks for losing Troy Chaplin to Richmond and Danyle Pearce to Fremantle as unrestricted free agents. With four picks altogether inside the first 31, there will be no surprise if the Power engineer some late trades next week using one or more of these picks as leverage. A trade of defender Ben Jacobs to North or perhaps Essendon or St Kilda (who hold better picks) should yield even more young talent.
RICHMOND: The Tiger list management team has all but been on holidays the past fortnight. Once they grabbed Chris Knights and Troy Chaplin very early into free agency, their work appeared to be done. But the Tigers then got back into action offloading ruckman Angus Graham to Adelaide in exchange for draft picks. Graham played just one game for the Tigers in 2012 and the decision would seem to reflect that the club sees Tom Derickx as a better back-up ruckman to Ivan Maric.
ST KILDA: Deep down, the Saints suspected all along that Brendon Goddard would not be part of the club going forward, so they'll be pleased to have received the 13th selection at next month's national draft and hold on to that. It is the later selections they hold that might come into play in their bid to extract Mitch Brown from West Coast and Tom Hickey from Gold Coast. The Hickey deal should get done shortly, but securing a deal for Brown might take something creative from Saints head of football Chris Pelchen and his list manager, Ameet Bains. If they can't swing that deal, perhaps Port's Ben Jacobs or Hawthorn's Stephen Gilham become options as a key defender. The Saints desperately need one.
SYDNEY SWANS: Still no deal on Kurt Tippett and as noted, the Crows have just signed Angus Graham from Richmond and would appear to have a surfeit of big men. Confidence remains high in both camps that the deal will get done, but as the trade period ticks over into its final week, this is where the intrigue lies.
WEST COAST: Plenty of work for the Eagles ahead in the final week of the trade period. Jamie Cripps wants to cross over from St Kilda, while Mitch Brown would like to leave for St Kilda. The Cripps deal should get done, but the Eagles continue to insist that Brown is a required player with a year left in his contract. But they risk losing him for less next year when he is uncontracted, so there will be some temptation to do the deal now. Midfielder Koby Stevens has nominated the Bulldogs as his team of choice, and the challenge for the Eagles is whether they can prise one of the six draft picks the Dogs have inside the first 50 in exchange.
WESTERN BULLDOGS: Good to see the Bulldogs not entirely sitting on their hands. Adding midfielder Koby Stevens from West Coast fits well into the youthful rebuild the McCartneys (coach Brendan and list manager Jason) are overseeing at Whitten Oval. The shame for the Dogs is that Scott Gumbleton knocked back a two-year deal late Friday to remain with Essendon on just a one-year deal. They desperately need more key forwards and Gumbleton would have been a near certainty to play in round one next year.
You can follow AFL Media senior writer Ashley Browne on Twitter @afl_hashbrowne