General manager of football Peter Bell was ‘thrilled’ that Fremantle were able to extract significant value in their trade with St Kilda for Bradley Hill.
In exchange for Hill and a future third round selection, Fremantle received midfielder Blake Acres, picks 10, 58 and future second and fourth round selections.
Following the Acres deal, Bell addressed questions about the criticism Fremantle faced leading up to the trade, claiming that Fremantle were hard to deal with and suggesting that Bell had mistakenly turned down more lucrative offers for Hill.
Bell said that the reporting of the higher offers were false.
“I won’t go into the specifics but there were a number of deals that I read about that never existed,” Bell said.
“I don’t want to get into which ones were and which ones weren’t, I’d get my tongue twisted doing that.”
Addressing the criticism that Fremantle were being difficult in the trade, Bell said that it was important that he stood firm on behalf of Fremantle’s members and supporters.
“It’s a funny one, I’ve got thick skin, I think you need to,” Bell said.
“I don’t think you want a reputation of not being hard to deal with during Trade Period as well.
“If you have a reputation of being easy to deal with, then you might be out of a job pretty quick.
“I will never be embarrassed about really valuing our players, I think that’s what our stakeholders want us to do and, hopefully, in time that’s what this deal will reflect.”
As well as signing Acres, Bell said he was thrilled that Fremantle could strengthen their draft hand for the 2019 and 2020 drafts.
“We are absolutely thrilled to receive Blake Acres. We think Optus Stadium will really suit him, he’s a first-round draft pick who is a good size and can really run, we’re thrilled to have him,” Bell said.
“We are very pleased to have our draft hand as it currently stands, 7, 10, 22, 58 and a couple out the back.
“We obviously have a 2020 first round and three second rounds next year as well, so we will look to manoeuvre those as best as we see fit but there is plenty of time for that and we will work through that over the next month.”
