Carlton legend and Blues list manager Stephen Silvagni has defended the club’s high-risk live trade that could ultimately cost them the No.1 overall pick in the 2019 AFL Draft.
The Blues surrendered their first-round pick in next year’s draft to the Adelaide Crows in exchange for pick 19 this year, as well as Adelaide’s first-round selection in 2019.
Carlton used their extra first-round selection to add versatile Sandringham Dragons player Liam Stocker to their list after earlier securing Geelong Falcons midfielder Sam Walsh with the No.1 overall pick.
The Blues, who finished last with just two wins in 2018, are betting on both themselves to start climbing the AFL ladder next season and for the Crows to have another disappointing season after finishing 12th this year.
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If Carlton run last again next season and the Crows finish eighth or better, the Blues won’t have a top-10 selection at the 2019 AFL Draft, while Adelaide would have the top pick.
Asked if he has considered the disastrous scenario in which Adelaide could end up with the No.1 pick, Silvagni replied: “But that’s all speculation isn’t it? I mean what happens if we finish on top of the Crows?
“It is what it is, the season will take care of itself and what we do know is that we’re really happy to bring a good player through the door and we’ve got an extra player on our list that we bring in earlier and we’ve rated him very highly.”
He added when asked how the trade eventuated: “We obviously made some calls through the week and we sort of had a little bit of interest from other clubs but I was in constant contact with Adelaide probably the last three or four days and we were able to do the deal.
“We just see as though (Stocker is) a player that we rated inside our top-10 and we get another player in one-year earlier.
“We really value him, we think he’s going to be a really good player, he’s a tough player who’s explosive and he can play midfield, forward or back.”
Asked how realistic he believes it is that Carlton can finish ahead of the Crows on the 2019 AFL ladder, Silvagni replied: “The season hasn’t started, we obviously rate Liam Stocker very highly, we had him inside our top-10, probably a bit higher than that.
“So we think we’ve got a really, really good player.”
