OPINION: Marley & Me — how pick #105 might land Dusty at the Roos

By Liam Flanagan

When North Melbourne struck a deal with Collingwood to bring Marley Williams to Arden Street in exchange for lowly draft pick #105 it seemed like a fairly mundane piece of trade business.

Despite finishing seventh in Collingwood’s 2015 Best & Fairest, Williams seemingly fell out of favour with Pies coach Nathan Buckley in 2016 and became a fringe player rather than a staple in the black and white’s best 22.

The Kangaroos meanwhile had taken an axe to their playing list dumping veterans Drew Petrie, Boomer Harvey, Nick Dal Santo and Michael Firrito and were looking to add youth and speed. Williams delivered on both fronts. One trade, two clubs satisfied.

And to date, Williams has been solid without being spectacular in a back pocket for his new club.

But here is where the real genius of the trade may lie for the shin boners.

North’s pursuit of a gun midfielders has been well documented. After unceremoniously moving on Petrie, Harvey, Dal Santo and Firrito, the Roos suddenly have very deep pockets and are ready to spend.

Last year they were unable to convince Swans rising star Isaac Heeney to move to Melbourne and already this year they’ve supposedly tabled a nine year $9 million dollar offer to GWS’ Josh Kelly.

While Kelly appears to still be weighing up his options, the Roo spotlight now turns to Richmond superstar Dustin Martin.

Reports are saying the offer to Martin is more than $1 million a year for six years. And while there is no doubt Dusty is going to get paid wherever he ends up, maybe the lure of running around with close mate Williams is what gets Dusty in the blue and white next year.

And a simple internet search suggests Williams and Martin are pretty tight.

Ahead of his 150th game, Martin was quoted on the Tigers website saying he was really looking forward to his milestone match against the Magpies and “Hopefully I line up on (Collingwood defender) Marley Williams up forward at some stage. I’m pretty close with him . . . It’ll be a good game.”

Brownlow medallist Dane Swan revealed in his book that Collingwood ‘strongly suggested’ Williams not go on holiday to Las Vegas with he and Martin at the end of 2014. And the shared New Zealand heritage between the two is yet another tie that binds.

Whether North Melbourne had Dustin Martin in mind when they made the trade for Marley Williams is for them to know but if they did…

Let’s revisit that “mundane piece of trade business”.

North Melbourne send pick #105 to Collingwood in exchange for Marley Williams and in the process might end up completing the greatest trade in the history of the AFL… Pick #105 for Dustin Martin.