Cameron to Geelong, Treloar to Bulldogs in frantic AFL deadline day finale

The 2020 AFL trade period ended as it had to—in chaos, with the final hours producing the kind of scramble that made the whole year feel appropriately unhinged. By 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 12, two of the biggest names in the league had found new homes, though the path to get them there consumed nearly every negotiating chip some clubs possessed.

Jeremy Cameron's move to Geelong was the loudest statement of the day. The Giants, holding the restricted free agency rights to a player who would otherwise walk out the door, extracted a historic price: picks 13, 15, and 20 in the first round, plus a future fourth-rounder. Geelong, in return, sent back its future second-round pick and Essendon's future second as well. It was the kind of deal that made people stop and calculate—three first-rounders for a player technically available as a free agent, but one GWS had matched a bid on and refused to let go without compensation. The Giants had made clear they weren't interested in leaving money on the table, and they didn't.

Adam Treloar's journey to the Western Bulldogs carried its own weight. Collingwood had been trying to move him for weeks, burdened by a contract that paid him $900,000 annually through 2025—money the club simply couldn't afford in their squeezed salary cap. The Bulldogs agreed to take him on, but only if Collingwood absorbed roughly $300,000 of his salary each year for the next five years. The trade itself involved picks 26, 33, and 42 going to Collingwood, with the Bulldogs sending back pick 14 and a future second-rounder. It was a deal that worked only because one club was desperate to shed payroll and another was willing to take on a player with a history of soft tissue injuries if the price was right.

But Cameron and Treloar weren't alone in moving on deadline day. Ben Brown, the North Melbourne forward, landed at Melbourne in exchange for picks 26 and 33, plus Brisbane's future fourth-rounder. Jack Higgins left Richmond for St Kilda, with the Tigers receiving pick 17 and a future second-rounder while the Saints got Higgins, pick 21, and a future fourth. Alex Witherden, the running defender from Brisbane, went to West Coast for pick 58 and a future third-rounder, though Brisbane agreed to pay part of his contract—a concession that had held up the deal for days.

Not everyone got what they wanted. Josh Dunkley remained at the Western Bulldogs after negotiations with Essendon stalled in what one reporter called "quicksand." The Bombers and Bulldogs couldn't agree on terms, and with the clock running down, the deal simply didn't happen. Jackson Hately and Jye Caldwell, both sought by Essendon from GWS, also went untraded—Hately because the Giants wanted more than pick 40, and Caldwell because Essendon's offer of future second and third-round picks fell short of what the Giants demanded. Both players would enter the pre-season draft, meaning GWS received no compensation for their departure.

Collingwood's salary cap crisis produced other moves as well. Jaidyn Stephenson, the 2018 Rising Star, went to North Melbourne along with Atu Bosenavulagi and pick 39 in exchange for picks 26, 33, and 70. Stephenson had been earning close to half a million dollars annually at Collingwood—money the club needed to free up. Tom Phillips moved to Hawthorn for just pick 65, another bargain for a club that had cap room to spare.

By the time the deadline passed, the landscape had shifted significantly. Some clubs had remade their lists; others had simply survived another year. The trade period that 2020 deserved had delivered exactly that—frantic, unpredictable, and resolved only when the clock ran out.