A new rule can unlock AFL’s most complex trade yet. Here’s how rivals can land a deal

How could the Power or Crows get a deal done for Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera?

It’s complicated for both clubs and means they might need to get creative if the out-of-contract Saints superstar ultimately requests a trade.

This is a pure hypothetical for now. But while Wanganeen-Milera weighs up his future and the potential of heading back to South Australia, part of the conversation has moved to how the SA clubs could even strike a deal.

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There’s a couple of reasons for this.

One is because it’s hard to recall an out-of-contract player increasing their value in as short a period as Wanganeen-Milera across, and specifically in the back-half of, the 2025 season. Perhaps Dustin Martin in 2017 is the only one who compares.

The moment a star turns into a bona fide superstar.

Even before Wanganeen-Milera’s ascension, he was already a genuine A-grader. But he’s rapidly soared into genuine top 10 player in the competition heights and even in the conversation for best player in the league overall.

And not to put too much pressure on the kid, but he has all the makings to be a champion for whichever club he plays out his career at.

This has not only seen his monetary value soar to well north of $1 million, but also his trade value.

The other factor is that both SA clubs’ draft hands are in some shape or form compromised.

The Power don’t have their first first-round pick this year after sending it out in the Dan Houston trade that saw the club land Jack Lukosius, Joe Richards and a 2024 first rounder, which they moved up a spot with to get Joe Berry.

A club in the market for a player of Wanganeen-Milera’s ilk wouldn’t want anything less than its full assortment of first-round picks, even if this year is the first time clubs will have the power to trade first rounders two years in advance.

Compare that to say Essendon, who currently has Pick 4 and Melbourne’s Pick 7 (based on current ladder position) and potentially another compensation first rounder if Sam Draper leaves, if it needed to put together a package for Harley Reid.

Meanwhile the previously out-of-contract Miles Bergman’s potential departure from Port was seen as its best way to gain capital for a Wanganeen-Milera trade, but Bergman signed a two-year extension. The alternate, more extreme, trade chip is Zak Butters, but all the talk is that he’ll remain at the Power in 2026, when he’s eligible for free agency.

But although there’s been plenty of question marks on the Power’s ability to pull off a Wanganeen-Milera trade, Adelaide’s situation isn’t much better, if at all.

It might be the only inconvenient part of the Crows’ epic 2025 rise to currently sit on top of the ladder.

For while Adelaide owns all of its picks, the club’s first 2025 selection is currently slated to be No. 18 and set to move back several spots after academy and free agency compensation picks.

Not to mention that, if the undermanned Power continue to slide down the ladder in the final few rounds, their second-round pick will move closer to Adelaide’s first rounder.

Plus the Crows look set to be in top four and premiership contention for the immediate years to come, which naturally means their tradeable future first-rounders would be less valuable. Whereas there’s less certainty on what the Power’s 2026 and 2027 picks could be.

In essence, it’s a club without its first-round pick but potentially set to have two top 10 picks over the next two years versus a club with three less valuable first rounders.

Granted, it’s all going to hinge on where Wangaeen-Milera wants to go, and that might ultimately be staying put at St Kilda.

But if it’s to be one of the SA clubs, this is where the creativity of their list management teams takes effect to ensure they can put together an enticing deal.

There’s a few ways they can do this beyond simply offering their best possible suite of first rounders, which St Kilda might straight up reject for its silky star.

MAXIMISE ALL ASSETS

For starters, this is the first time clubs have had the ability to trade capital in three drafts — this November’s pool and the 2026 and 2027 crops — after the AFL changed the rules to allow future pick trading two years in advance.

That gives teams more leverage to not only improve their overall packages by bundling more picks together, but get creative in moving around their draft hands.

As for the upcoming draft, there’s numerous clubs with multiple first-round picks.

Richmond currently has picks 2 and 3.

West Coast owns picks 1 and 12 and is expected to add the No. 2 selection as compensation for Oscar Allen’s looming free agency move to Brisbane. Not to mention the possibility of Harley Reid wanting to head back to Victoria, which would give the Eagles a seriously juicy hand.

As mentioned above, the Bombers holds picks 4 and 7 plus another potential first rounder as compensation if Draper departs.

And Gold Coast possesses picks 8, 13 and 17.

Some of those teams might want to trade out of the draft — a draft seen as being compromised by academy picks — for future picks.

Or sides that need points for academy players might also need to get creative in splitting their selections. But rule changes this year mean clubs will need to pay more for father-son and academy picks, making it more difficult to stockpile later selections for points.

EXTEND IT TO A MULTI-CLUB DEAL, INVOLVE PLAYERS

Beyond that, there’s the possibility to open up a potential Wanganeen-Milera trade to being a multi-team deal to help bring more optionality to the table.

We saw that as recently as last year with two three-team trades — one that that centred around sending Houston to Collingwood and another that facilitated Liam Baker’s move to West Coast — as well as a four-club trade that saw Geelong land Bailey Smith.

There’s a view that St Kilda would want a player back in any deal, with Zak Butters’ name being bandied about given he’s about to enter restricted free agency in 2026.

Both the Crows and Power would have their ‘untouchables’ — which includes Butters — and it’s rare to see a true star-for-star swap.

It’s more likely those clubs would include players a tier down along with draft capital. Perhaps one of Port’s key forwards — Todd Marshall, Jack Whitlock or Ollie Lord — or Joe Berry would appeal. As for Adelaide, Sid Draper, Luke Pedlar, Jordon Butts or Nick Murray could be realistic targets.

But even if the Saints couldn’t land players they wanted from Port Adelaide or Adelaide, those clubs could make player deals with other teams to bring in extra capital.

This is effectively how Collingwood obtained Houston last year. The Pies had no first-round pick, but leveraged trade requests from John Noble and Joe Richards to get their man.

Heck, three years ago, Jason Horne-Francis moved to the Power in a four-club, 14-pick mega trade that was initially set to involve six teams before it fell apart.

The point is, it’s common for deals involving stars to get expanded to multiple teams. For it’s rare that the team receiving the star player has — or is willing to give up — the capital required without help.

THE LAST RESORT

If all else fails, it could come to this. Let’s call it the absolute last resort — the pre-season draft.

As Wanganeen-Milera is out of contract, if push came to shove and a trade couldn’t be reached, it could lead to him being walked to the pre-season draft.

It’s a highly unlikely, incredibly rare end game when things get ugly. And one we haven’t seen since the likes of Jack Martin’s move to Carlton in 2019 and Jackson Hately’s switch to Adelaide in 2020.

It’s not a great look for all parties and would affect rapport between key figures who’ll at some point need to come together again to broker future deals.

We know how important relationships are and it’s why a lot of clubs have a history of trading together or with certain management groups.

But if that happened, West Coast would technically have first dibs with Pick 1, while St Kilda holds Pick 5.

So why is it relevant? The injury-hit Power could bomb out in these final few games and finish below the Saints and subsequently end up with a higher pick.

If Port was to be his preferred club of choice, there would then still need to be an enormous amount of good will from the other clubs with higher picks to not stand in the way of Wanganeen-Milera getting there.

Alternately, what if one of the clubs managed to acquire Pick 1 in the National Draft and made that an avenue?

You do have to wonder how much the difficulty of a potential trade could be delaying a decision. For usually a player would only request a trade if they were certain they could get to their preferred destination.

Not that Wanganeen-Milera would request a trade in season, but there’s usually a line of sight of where a situation is headed. Whereas this one is still clouded in uncertainty.

And it has the potential to be one of the most complex moves we’ve ever seen.