Kelly left stranded as Pies and Dons land stars

Tim Kelly will have to play out next season at Geelong after the midfielder was left stranded, unable to return with his family to Perth after the Cats and West Coast failed to agree on a trade.

Despite compelling compassionate grounds for the move, Kelly has been forced to stay in Geelong for another season. The Cats were assured by Kelly on Wednesday that he would honour his contract and return to Geelong next season.

Tim Kelly will play at the Cats next season.

Tim Kelly will play at the Cats next season.Credit:AAP

Geelong wanted the Eagles’ first-round pick next year as well as picks 20 and 22 this year. West Coast’s final and best offer was picks 20 and 22 and next year’s second-round pick.

Geelong coach Chris Scott spoke to Kelly twice in the previous 24 hours to seek reassurance that Kelly would honour his contract.

Recruiting manager Stephen Wells said that if the club was not convinced Kelly could still play good football in 2019, in the face of his personal circumstances, they would have been more inclined to get the deal done. He said the Cats had been open to the deal provided it was on reasonable terms.

‘‘We all knew it was a long shot that it would happen and that is the way it turned out. We were still talking at 20 past eight tonight,’’ Wells said.

Kelly was the only major player to be left stranded. In a dramatic final half an hour of trades, Essendon finally secured Dylan Shiel and Collingwood regained their premiership midfielder Dayne Beams.

Brinkmanship delivered dividends for the Giants and the Lions with both clubs securing two first-round draft picks among the pick exchanges with Essendon and Collingwood.

Beams moves to Collingwood for their first-round draft picks this year and next. Collingwood give up 18 and 56 this year and next year’s first-round pick and gets Beams and picks 41 and 44 this year. The Magpies believe the points from those choices should be sufficient for them acquire their academy players and father-son recruit in this year’s draft.

Beams is expected to sign a longer-term contract with Collingwood, extending his two-year deal with the Lions, in a move that will smooth out the player payments.

Collingwood list manager Ned Guy said players of Beams’ calibre were rare and so the club had to seize the opportunity.

Essendon had resisted giving up two first-round draft picks for Shiel from GWS for 10 days. But after the Giants cleared out more than $1.8 million from their salary cap with the trades of Rory Lobb to Fremantle, Tom Scully to Hawthorn and Will Setterfield to Carlton, the necessity to trade Shiel this year for salary cap relief had dissipated. Essendon gave up pick nine and a future first-round draft pick for Shiel and GWS’ second-round pick next year.

With Shiel’s money also going out of the salary cap the Giants have effectively cleared more than $2.5million from their salary cap and it positions them to create room to re-sign Josh Kelly.

In a flurry of late activity Collingwood also secured Jordan Roughead for virtually nothing with pick 75 going to the Dogs for the out-of-contact former premiership key defender and ruckman.

Fellow Bulldog defender Marcus Adams moved to the Lions for pick 32 and a future third-round draft pick which is tied to where Hawthorn finishes.
Travis Colyer moved from Essendon to Fremantle for a future fourth-round draft pick.

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