He retired from the AFL to take up a career fighting fires, but now it seems Kane Cornes is more keen on lighting them – figuratively, of course.

On Wednesday Cornes suggested on radio show Sportsday SA that this year’s trade period might see some moves that would feature heavily in the history books, with Carlton’s Patrick Cripps and Fremantle’s Nat Fyfe to potentially trade places.

“The bidding war around Nat Fyfe – he’s a free agent, Fremantle superstar – is now down to three clubs. They are three Melbourne clubs. St Kilda, Hawthorn and Carlton,” Cornes said.

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“He potentially could stay… they’re trying to keep him, but they’re also coming up with a plan B. They don’t have the contract of Matthew Pavlich, Aaron Sandilands gets paid a lot of money, it’s probably his last year, if they lose Nat Fyfe they have a bucketload of cash to spend.

“Mitch McGovern will feature in that contract debate, they’ll try and get him, but one other player, and he plays for Carlton, is a very good chance of heading home, that is Patrick Cripps of the Carlton footy club, their next captain-in-waiting at Carlton, potentially wants to move home.”

Fair warning, the photoshop below may be distressing to Fremantle and Carlton fans (well, one half of it each, at least, the other half probably very appealing).

Will Patrick Cripps be at Fremantle and Nat Fyfe at Carlton in 2018? @kanecornes thinks it could happen. #WordOnTheStreet pic.twitter.com/mMWxdzRdnC — Sportsday SA (@SportsdaySA) February 1, 2017

The idea that Fyfe could look to move clubs at the end of the 2017 season isn’t a new one, and if he does put his services on the open market there’s no doubt that Carlton would be one of the interested parties.



The more intriguing part of the rumour is the suggestion that Cripps is keen on a move to his home state of Western Australia, something that has always been a hope of Eagles and Dockers fans but never seriously suggested by a credible source.

I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether or not Kane Cornes is a credible source just yet, but it is worth nothing that in his very short trade rumours track record, he was correct in reporting Port Adelaide’s interest in finding Hamish Hartlett a new home – not that the proposed deal panned out.

When it comes to Cripps, it’s not totally unbelievable that a talented young player at a club that has been hanging near the bottom of the ladder in recent times might want to seek a bit more comfort, cash and success in his home state.

However, what doesn’t make sense is the fact that Cripps signed a contract with Carlton until the end of 2019 just twelve months ago. 2016 was a positive season for the Blues, given where they’re at, so it seems strange to suppose he would have suddenly changed his mind about where his future lies.

The other factor to consider given Cripps’ contract is that, given how tight-fisted the Blues were on Bryce Gibbs in the 2016 trade period, it is extremely unlikely that they would willingly move him on, even for the deal of the century.

For those reasons, it’s hard to see this move materialising. Maybe Nat Fyfe does want to go to Victoria, but there’ll be plenty of clubs chasing him. And maybe Patrick Cripps does want to come home, but the Eagles will put in just as competitive a pitch as the Dockers – and Stephen Silvagni will knock them both back at the trade table time and time again until the very minute Cripps’ contract expires in 2019.

There’s plenty of water to go under the bridge between now and October – you know, literally an entire AFL season’s worth – and it’ll be interesting to see if talk of this crops up again. For now though, my gut says you can rest easy, Carlton fans, your golden boy is (probably) staying put.