Brisbane's mistake: Brendan Fevola. Credit:Getty Images Received: Brendan Fevola and pick No. 27. In hindsight: As then Brisbane coach Michael Voss conceded shortly after Fevola was finally sacked: "I can't sit here and say it wasn't a mistake". Although he was only one vote in the decision, the stain that "mistake" would leave on Voss' coaching legacy at the club would be just one element of the debris "Cyclone Fevola" would leave in its wake. It's easy to forget how big the story was at the time. The Lions cited "serious or wilful misconduct", or more plainly, a string of incidents that created a storm of bad publicity for terminating his contract that would require salary cap relief from the AFL to cover the $1.5 million payout. As much as you could see the appeal of recruiting that year's Coleman medallist, the signs of his potentially damaging off-field behaviour were equally evident, so the Lions knew they were taking a risk. But it wasn't just the drama. Henderson, a top 10 draft pick, would be one of the Lions' most important players if he were there now, and it's generally accepted that Fevola's arrival set off the chain of events leading to Daniel Bradshaw (Sydney) and Michael Rischitelli (Gold Coast) becoming disgruntled and leaving the club, having originally been offered up (unsuccessfully) as trade bait to secure Fevola. And all that for 17 games and 48 goals in one season at the Lions. Incidentally, the Blues took Kane Lucas with the No.12 pick, while Brisbane took Callum Bartlett with pick 27. 2) Fremantle, 1994-95 The deal: Gave up pick No. 4 and a pre-draft compensation selection to Essendon.

Received: Tony Delaney, Todd Ridley, Dale Kickett and Russell Williams. In hindsight: In sorting through the biggest trade howlers and heists of recent times, we felt it necessary to not hold the club trading draft picks unfairly accountable for how the player recruited with those picks then did or did not develop at another club. But even allowing for that, the simple fact is the Dockers knew full well that giving away not one but two prized draft picks had the potential to backfire spectacularly. It turned out to be a catastrophic blunder that now, looking in the rear vision mirror, essentially hurt the club for the next 15 years. With the compensation selection, Essendon secured a young Matthew Lloyd, who went on to play 270 games and kick 926 goals, and a young Scott Lucas, who played beside him in that period for 270 games and 471 goals. What might have Fremantle achieved through the 2000s with those two in their forward line. That Essendon pounced on Lloyd as a 16-year-old suggests his talent was plainly obvious to those with the right scouting reports. Barely out of his teens, the full forward booted 63 goals in just his third season. And any time you give away a top five selection (even accounting for the draft being as scientific, then, as it is now) you run a massive risk of missing a generation player. Together, the Lucas-Lloyd package was a generational forward duo. The Bombers' development system cannot be overlooked, but it is not a stretch to say that gifts such as those possessed by Lloyd and Lucas would have flourished at Fremantle. Ridley, a full forward, had played 25 games for 21 goals in four seasons at Essendon when the newly-formed Dockers, desperate for experienced players, gave up pick No. 4 to lure him home. He would play just 21 games in the next two years before moving to Hawthorn. Kickett was a comparative success (playing 135 games), while Delaney and Williams played 28 games for the Dockers between them. 3) St Kilda, 2009 The deal: Gave up pick No. 16 to Essendon. Received: Andrew Lovett.

In hindsight: "We're certainly not sitting here saying it's been a positive outcome, it's been a negative outcome", was the typically understated confession of then St Kilda coach Ross Lyon the day the Saints decided to tear up Lovett's three-year million-dollar contract. Hunting for extra pace to add to the Saints machine chasing premierships at that time, Lovett captured St Kilda's attention, and that of Brisbane and Port Adelaide, it must be said, in 2009 when he finished 2nd at the Bombers for inside 50s and 5th for goals - statistics Champion Data would rank as "elite" for his position. In 2005, he grabbed the attention of the wider football industry when he won the Anzac Medal in just his third game. He could seriously play, no question, but sadly for the Saints, his football would never again be the focus of the headlines he would create. In February 2010, Lovett would be charged with rape - a charge he would be acquitted of in July, 2011 - and never once pull on the No. 9 guernsey for St Kilda. Days before joining the club, Lovett was arrested for public drunkenness. At the time, Bombers football manager Paul Hamilton was quoted saying: "we are very happy with this deal". On reflection you can see why, although Lovett did have disciplinary issues at Essendon, so the Saints knew they were rolling the dice. For the record, the Bombers would eventually on-trade the pick No. 16 to secure Hawthorn goal-kicker Mark Williams. But that is of little consequence, for it was the bad publicity of the rape charge alone that cost the Saints massively in the public image department, and they already had some problems in that area. He was sacked the day after he was charged with rape and it took until June for the club to settle the messy affair with a confidential payment. Lovett never played another AFL game. THE HEISTS 1) Adelaide Crows, 1994 The deal: Gave up Chris Groom to Fremantle. Received: The drafting rights to Andrew McLeod.

In hindsight: The different categories by which a player's value to a particular club is measured, especially when brought in via trade, are many and varied. But principally, AFL clubs are about winning premierships. So any player who not only emerges as a star for a team that ultimately goes on to win a flag, but also is recognised as the best player on the day it matters most - twice - it can be said leaves a legacy like few others. Certainly, when they are a player acquired through trade, it is true to say they could hardly have delivered more on the club's investment. And so it is true of McLeod, who won two Norm Smith Medals, in 1997 and 1998 and, after 340 games (the most by any Crow), stands as perhaps the greatest Adelaide player ever. And all the Crows had to give up to get him was a youngster named Chris Groom who, while being "groomed" as the club's next centre half-forward, had also battled injury and illness to play 12 games (for eight goals) in two years. Upstart Fremantle generally cops the blame for not identifying McLeod's extraordinary upside as a teenager and for not making him feel welcome at the club when it had the chance. However, it is less well known that, had it not been for Adelaide's decision to sack then coach Graham Cornes at the end of 1994, it's unlikely Adelaide would have signed off on what has turned out to be perhaps the most lopsided trade in modern football. Speaking years later, Cornes admitted that, had it have been his call, "on the balance of probability, I would have stuck with Chris Groom", adding "I never liked trading players who I thought could come back and hurt you, and Groom had that potential". Cornes credits Adelaide's then recruiting manager Tim Johnson with whom Crows supporters should be "internally grateful" for selecting McLeod. Soon after joining the Dockers, Groom was afflicted by knee injuries and never realised his full potential. His career of just 24 games (which finished at North Melbourne), rated against that of McLeod's, would be forever resigned to the answer of the trivia question, "who did Adelaide trade for Andrew McLeod". 2) Hawthorn, 2001 The deal: Gave up Trent Croad and Luke McPharlin to Fremantle. Received: Draft picks 1, 20 and 36. In hindsight: So much has been made throughout Luke Hodge's career about his worth as a No. 1 draft pick - given he was taken two spots before Chris Judd - that it is forgotten the gamble Hawthorn took just get that first pick in the 2001 "super draft". A member's revolt produced a petition, and the "Keep Croad" group gathered outside Glenferrie Oval late one night to protest the club's decision to offer up Trent Croad, it's popular key position star at the time. But for all the risk involved, Hodge has delivered on the same unique platform as McLeod - and maybe a little bit more given his almost "spiritual" leadership of the current team - by winning three premierships and two Norm Smith Medals in a career not yet finished. While not as lop-sided as the McLeod-Groom deal, the Hawks could not have asked for anything more from a trade that has produced two premierships captains - the other being Sam Mitchell whom the club shrewdly snaffled at pick 36 of the 2001 draft. The pair will be remembered as Hawthorn immortals, having been leaders of one of the club's greatest eras - 2008 to present - and having combined for 511 games (so far), six best and fairests and a multitude of other awards. There was a cost, of course, with McPharlin emerging as an All-Australian calibre defender throughout his long, if injury-plagued, career at the Dockers. However, McPharlin has yet to experience the ultimate with Fremantle, losing to the Hodge-led Hawks in the 2013 grand final while, ironically, Croad made his way back to the Hawks after two seasons at the Dockers in time to play in Hawthorn's 2008 premiership. In totality, the Hawks received far more from Croad than the Dockers ever did. And the answer to the trivia question? Daniel Elstone was the player Hawthorn chose at pick No. 20 in that year's draft, a midfielder (and good friend of Hodge) who was delisted after two years having never played a game.