EXPLAINER: What happens now for Cal Ah Chee and Adelaide

CALLUM Ah Chee remains in limbo after Adelaide and Brisbane were unable to secure a trade on the final day of the 2025 Continental Tyres AFL Trade Period.

Ah Chee requested a trade from the Lions to the Crows more than a fortnight ago, but talks between the two clubs hit a roadblock early in the trade period.

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The Lions had wanted a first-round pick in return, which the Crows rejected, while Brisbane knocked back an offer on Wednesday night of a future second and a future third-round pick.

So what happens now for Ah Chee, the Lions and the Crows?

What now?

Ah Chee's current contract at the Lions expires on October 31, meaning he will no longer have any ties to Brisbane as of November 1.

In order to get his wish of getting to the Crows, Ah Chee's next option is to nominate for the Telstra AFL National Draft, which will be held on November 19-20, or the Telstra AFL Pre-Season Draft (PSD) on November 21. The Ah Chee camp has indicated he will nominate for the Pre-Season Draft.

While the drafts are largely where the best 17 and 18-year-old talents in the country are offered up to all 18 clubs, there is no age limit on who can nominate. As an uncontracted player, as Ah Chee will become in a few weeks, he is eligible to nominate for either draft, but he would not be able to mandate that Adelaide is the only club which can draft him.

The PSD is a list mechanism that is rarely used by clubs in the modern trade and draft landscape, with any players who are not traded or picked up in the national draft normally slipping back to state league level or picked up as a delisted free agent over summer. It's extremely uncommon for a player of Ah Chee's calibre to nominate for the PSD.

What would stop another club picking Ah Chee at the draft?

Technically nothing.

Clubs are allocated picks in the pre-season draft based on reverse ladder position from that season. West Coast – which finished at the bottom of the ladder this year – will have pick No.1 in the pre-season draft, while Adelaide's first pick isn't until pick 14.

So why would rival clubs not draft him?

The first and main reason is the salary cap. Ah Chee is a highly talented player and while the details of Adelaide's contract offer are not public, it is a deal that would be much more lucrative than other players in the pre-season draft.

As a previously listed player, Ah Chee can set the financial terms of his contract when he nominates for the draft, meaning he could demand a salary and tenure that he knows Adelaide could satisfy, but other clubs are unlikely to.

Clubs take years to plan with their salary cap and it would take a significant change of strategy to be able to squeeze Ah Chee's contract under the cap with just a few weeks' notice.

"There are mechanisms for Adelaide to turn what was a five-year deal into short-term contract and pay him through the roof on a two-year deal," AFL.com.au's Riley Beveridge said on Deadline Day Live. "They could pay him through the roof for those two years, and no one else would be willing to do that.

"Adelaide had a deal worked out for Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, so they've got cap space available to use that mechanism.

"Even though they finished high on the ladder and there's a whole bunch of pre-season picks before theirs, that's where the confidence comes from that they'll be able to bring Ah Chee to the football club."

Another reason a club would be unlikely to draft Ah Chee against his will would be the potential fallout of doing so.

Using up a large chunk of your salary cap on a player who does not want to be at your club makes little sense. And even if Ah Chee was forced to play for a club other than Adelaide in 2025, he would likely request a trade to the Crows again at the end of next year.

There is also the fact the trade market is built on each club's relationships with its 17 rivals, as well as the agents who represent the players. Drafting Ah Chee against his will could be a black mark of sorts against a club's name and could make it more difficult for that club to negotiate future deals with Adelaide and Ah Chee's agent, Ben Williams.

Will the Lions get anything for Ah Chee?

No. Now that a trade has not been done, Brisbane will essentially let Ah Chee land at the Crows for nothing.

Does this situation happen often?

In 2019, Jack Martin nominated for the PSD after Gold Coast and Carlton could not agree on a trade to get him to the Blues.

The Blues had traded away their first-round pick in the national draft that year, meaning their first pick was pick No.17. But their first pick in the pre-season draft was No.3, which meant only two clubs had the option of drafting Martin before the Blues had their pick.

This strategy allowed the Blues to pick up three players in the national draft – Brodie Kemp at Pick 17, Sam Philp at 20 and Sam Ramsay at 47 – and then Martin in the pre-season draft.

The most famous instance of a club walking a player to the draft was when Luke Ball landed at Collingwood at the end of 2009.

Ball had requested a trade from St Kilda, but the Saints rebuffed Collingwood's offer of pick 25 in return. With a deal unable to be agreed to during the trade period, Ball then nominated for the national draft and the Magpies picked him up with their pick No.30 after an agonising wait as 29 picks were completed beforehand, all carrying the risk a club would call out Ball's name.

The Saints, having turned down pick 25 in the trade period, ended up with nothing.

Could other players be walked to the draft this year?

The main difference here is the other players who did not get their trade requests granted on Wednesday are still contracted at their current clubs.

It means Zach Merrett, Rowan Marshall and Buku Khamis will return to their current clubs next season.

What they said

"I'm disappointed in Brisbane. We've told them for months what we wanted to do, and we tried to go through the front door and be as transparent as possible. We'll pick up the player welfare pieces after this, and then concentrate on getting to Adelaide." - Ah Chee's manager Ben Williams

"We certainly explored many avenues in our endeavours to get a deal done with Brisbane. Callum has given great service to the Lions and we see him as a player who can really help improve our squad. We're committed to Callum joining the club and he is committed to joining us." - Adelaide list manager Justin Reid

"Our main aim has been trying to retain him the whole time. We put a lot of effort into that. We put a long-term deal to him. At the end of the journey, I don't think there was that much difference between the deals. We think he's a great player and we'd love to have him around. He'll be disappointed, I'm disappointed for him. But at the end of the day, it was largely out of our control." - Brisbane list manager Dom Ambrogio

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