Simmering “bad blood” between the GWS Giants and Essendon over past trade negotiations could jeopardise Bobby Hill’s move to the Bombers.
As it stands, Hill, who has nominated the Bombers as his desired new club, is yet to get his wish with both clubs yet to work out a deal.
According to The Age, despite lengthy conversations over the weekend between the Bombers and Giants, Essendon is yet to put in an offer for the wantaway small forward, who is contracted to GWS for one more season.
With the Giants low on small forward stocks already, it’s understood they won’t agree to any trade unless a sizeable offer is put forward.
The two clubs have until Wednesday night’s deadline to facilitate a move.
Meanwhile, according to a Channel Seven report, lingering tensions from the two teams’ deal that sent Jye Caldwell to Essendon during last year’s trade period has seen the Giants opening up the Hill trade to other Victorian clubs, despite the youngster requesting a trade to the Bombers.
“The word I’m getting this morning is that the Giants, and (football chief) Jason McCartney in particular, have been calling other Victorian clubs,” AFL reporter Tom Browne said.
“[They’re] not keen on dealing with Essendon on an exclusive basis at this stage.”
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The tension between the two parties stems from comments made by GWS list boss McCartney and Essendon president Paul Brasher in the wake of the Caldwell deal last year.
After protracted negotiations over a deal for the young midfielder, the two sides reached an agreement just minutes before the trade deadline expired, but McCartney took a swipe at the Bombers’ brass after the dust had settled.
“You need to be fair and reasonable to try and facilitate a transaction and that was somewhat frustrating, I’ll be honest with that,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“That’s Essendon: target a player, high quality, get him in the door, and then (they’re) not prepared to stump up the price to actually facilitate the deal.”
Brasher at the time of those comments did not take too kindly to McCartney’s crack, launching a defence of the club’s long-time list boss, Adrian Dodoro.
“I think Adrian and his team have done a great job,” Brasher told The Age last year.
“We’ve got (draft picks) six, seven and eight going into the draft and we’ll use those. I was really annoyed to hear him criticised externally.
“I thought it was sour grapes and I thought it was unprofessional and it was a bit like, you know, the kid going home and crying to mum that the other kid didn’t play fair.
“In fact, the deal he complained about is exactly the deal he ended up doing… I don’t know how you explain that. I can’t.”
The Perth-born Hill was selected with the 24th pick in the 2018 draft and has scored 25 goals in 30 games for the Giants since his debut in 2019.
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