THIS year's Gillette AFL Draft Period has turned up is share of thrills and spills, with top-line players such as Brian Lake and Sharrod Wellingham finding new homes.

Several lesser lights have also found new homes. In years to come, however, it might be these lesser lights that truly catch our attention.

Just look at the list of current AFL coaches. Nine of them - half the total number - were players who once found new homes through end-of-season moves.

Only a few of those players were lesser lights, but the histories of all nine confirm that footballers' lives can be determined in various ways during trade week.

Eight of the coaches were players who were traded in national drafts while the ninth, Fremantle coach Ross Lyon, was picked up at No.6 in a pre-season draft after his contract had expired at Fitzroy.

Two of the coaches, Scott Watters of St Kilda and Brenton Sanderson of Adelaide, were traded twice during ultimately successful careers.                                        
Watters was a midfielder who'd missed out on playing in West Coast's 1992 premiership team when the Sydney Swans came knocking before that season's national draft.

Rob Snowdon, the Swans' football manager at the time, said the Swans were keen for some senior players after a season in which they'd finished last.

Snowdon said the Swans wanted a handful of older players to protect the teenagers the club was drafting in.

The Swans targeted Watters and West Coast teammate Tony Begovich because the pair were unable to cement their spots in the strong Eagles line-up.

"They took a lot of persuading to come to Sydney — but they embraced it," Snowdon said.

The Swans gave up their No.1 pick for the West Coast pair. The Eagles used that selection to take midfielder Drew Banfield, who went on to be a dual premiership player in his 265 games over 14 seasons.



Watters, who was 23 when he went to Sydney, played 37 games over two seasons while Begovich played five games in one season.

Snowdon admitted the trade looks lop-sided, but the Swans were happy at the time to have introduced two players who helped to establish the club's successful culture.

"They added value to the club. I'm pretty happy with all that," Snowdon said.

In any case, the Swans did well on the flipside when Fremantle came looking for Watters before its inaugural season in 1995.

Gerard McNeill, Fremantle's football manager at the time, said the club was keen to lure West Australians back home.

Watters was especially attractive because he had strong roots in Fremantle. He'd grown up in the area and he'd come through the junior ranks at WAFL club South Fremantle.

McNeill said Fremantle tried hard to sign a big-name player from a Melbourne club, as shown by the club's talks with St Kilda pair Robert Harvey and Stewart Loewe.

They also met Alastair Clarkson, who was then a North Melbourne midfielder, in the Carlton Crest Hotel in Albert Park for talks about a possible move.

But Watters was among the seven who agreed to be traded to Fremantle Oval. He left the Swans in exchange for pick 21.

The Swans used that selection to sign Matthew Nicks, a midfielder not unlike Banfield, who played 175 games over 10 seasons. All things considered, the Swans did well out of their Watters deals.

McNeill said Watters was a popular clubman and thinker at Fremantle, but he was struck down by injury.

"We just couldn't get him on the park as much as we would have liked," McNeill said.

Sanderson was like Watters in that he was a popular clubman who thought about the game. He was traded by Adelaide for pick 44 and then Collingwood for pick 47 before settling into a prosperous career at Geelong, where he played 199 games over 11 seasons.

Ken Hinkley, who's just been appointed Port Adelaide coach, posed a case that was very much of its time. Hinkley is from Camperdown, about 220 kilometres south-west of Melbourne in Victoria's Western District.

After being recruited to Fitzroy under the zoning system, he was reluctant to live in Melbourne. He played two seasons with the Roys before he got his wish and was traded to Geelong, the country club, which was just up the road from Camperdown.

The Cats gave up pick 48 for him in the 1988 national draft.

These days you never hear about country recruits who are reluctant to go to Melbourne. The mobility of players at TAC Cup level and the potential riches of an AFL career help players get over their homesickness.

The irony for Hinkley is that, since his playing days, he's become a well-travelled coach. He's been on staff at St Kilda, Geelong, Gold Coast and now Port Adelaide.

One name, Collingwood's Nathan Buckley, lights up the list of the eight traded coaches. Buckley's original club, the Brisbane Bears, did everything possible to keep him but the then 21-year-old had his heart set on going to a successful Victorian club.

Scott Clayton, the Bears' football manager at the time, said: "We certainly tried to keep him but the situation was against him.

"It would have been interesting to see him and Vossy [current Brisbane Lions coach Michael Voss] in the same team."

Buckley was traded to Collingwood in exchange for pick 12 in the 1993 national draft. The Bears used that selection to snare Chris Scott, who went on to become a dual premiership player during his 215 games over 14 seasons.

Scott's brother Brad, the North Melbourne coach, was the subject of a multi-pronged deal when he left Hawthorn to go to the Brisbane Lions.

It's not as if the Hawks didn't want him. Scott played all 22 games in his one season in the Hawks' senior team, in 1997.

The Lions had to part with two players (John Barker and Nathan Chapman) and pick 42 in return for Scott and pick 51.

The Lions picked up a dual premiership defender who played 146 games over nine seasons — who went on to become yet another traded footballer whose career led to coaching.