The beginning of the end for Nick Blakey and Sydney started the moment his phone rang as he sat on the team bus waiting to leave the Pullman Hotel.

It was the Monday morning after the Round 23 win over Essendon at the MCG and the star defender was looking forward to getting to the airport and flying home.

On the phone was the Swans team manager who told him to get off the bus and come back inside the hotel. Blakey had no idea why.

He’d had a big night like most of his teammates. And he’d stumbled across a party happening in a room on the eighth floor when he returned, going inside for a while before finally calling it a night. But he had no knowledge of any incident which had blown up from the gathering.

What he was guilty of was being stupid and staying out too late drinking. He’d arrived back at the hotel an hour later than the others in the room, around 3.30am.

He hadn’t had anything to do with organising the exotic dancers and had left before an alleged dispute occurred which would later turn into a police investigation.

So when he was questioned by Swans officials about what was alleged to have happened, he vehemently denied everything.

But as news leaked out about the incident and the football world went into a frenzy, Blakey soon found himself named as a member of the Pullman Five alongside Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, James Jordon and Riley Bice.

In the coming days he became more and more confused. He’d told his girlfriend, family, manager and friends the exact same story.

The consensus among the Blakey group was that a two-match suspension – given the second week was a final they figured it should be more heavily weighted than a regular home and away game – was probably what was coming given his level of culpability, compared to others in what was being alleged, was minimal at most.

So when on the Wednesday, the decision by the Sydney board to suspend all of the players for the rest of the year was relayed to Blakey, he was shocked. He never recovered.

Not long after his father John, a former North Melbourne premiership player who’d also worked as an assistant coach at Sydney, travelled up from Melbourne to see his son. The pair fled the Harbour City and spent some time alone in a cabin in the Blue Mountains.

In the absence of the Pullman Five, the Swans had been incredibly brave. They stunned Brisbane in the qualifying final and then led for most of the preliminary final against Fremantle before the emotional toll of the previous month seemed to hit them and they ran out of steam late.

It made things even worse because time wasn’t healing Blakey’s wound.

“THERE HAD BEEN A BUILD UP”

A week after the Pullman Five had fronted an all-club meeting, which included staff and players from the men’s and women’s programs, and apologised for their actions, Nick Blakey started the process of leaving the Swans.

It was the day before Sydney’s best and fairest – an event he’d been told not to attend – when he met his manager Robbie D’Orazio from CDG Sports.

Blakey still had five years to run on contract at Sydney. While he was obviously hurting, he still felt he could play for the Swans again although there would need to be some major relationship mending.

But there had been a build-up of things over the previous 12 months which had been weighing on his mind.

The previous trade period he was overseas with his housemate and best friend James Rowbottom when he got the call from the Swans saying they were likely going to have to trade him out to get Carlton star Charlie Curnow in.

In the end, Rowbottom stayed and Curnow still manage to arrive but the way it was handled didn’t sit well with Blakey.

He had also briefly flirted with a move to the Gold Coast when his girlfriend, Australian sprinter Ella Connolly, moved north.

And what happened to Zach Merrett and Hawthorn the previous year was also a factor. If he decided to explore leaving, he didn’t want to get left at the altar like the Essendon captain. The Swans were of a similar mindset.

They saw a world where Blakey could stay but they were more than happy to facilitate a move elsewhere. Culturally it would be a good look for them, the optics of moving one of the Pullman Five would be seen by many as a step forward.

While he wasn’t on his own, Blakey had lost some credits along the way for enjoying life off the field.

But more importantly, Sydney understood that given the circumstances – the Victoria Police investigation was still going and there was also a potential AFL suspension still floating around – they couldn’t demand what they might normally for a 173-game all-Australian defender in a trade.

Slowly word filtered out that Blakey was gettable. D’Orazio’s phone soon got hot and meetings were set up with a number of Victorian clubs but nothing really moved the needle until North Melbourne list boss Brady Rawlings rang and declared pick 6 was on the table.

While Geelong’s pitch had impressed Blakey, the reality was they were unlikely to have enough draft capital to make it work. North did.

At Arden St, the wheels had started moving quickly. They hadn’t been able to land a big fish for years, notably missing on Dustin Martin, Josh Kelly, Jordan De Goey and Andrew Gaff, and they were determined not to miss this time.

But there were a lot of hoops which had to be jumped over.

First the Kangaroos board had to approve one of the biggest contract offers in the club’s history. Blakey was going to be offered an extra three years on top of his current contract plus a significant pay increase meaning it was essentially an eight-year deal worth around $12 million. But the cultural piece was even bigger.

Having females holding the club’s two main leadership positions was significant. President Sonja Hood and Jen Watt, the only female AFL club CEO, were perfectly placed to assess and understand what it meant to bring a player under investigation by police over an alleged sexual assault into the fold.

First thing they did was get Blakey’s version of events. It was the same story he’d told two months early. His version of events had never wavered.

Part of the interrogation centred around why Riley Bice was now being classed by police as a witness yet Blakey and the three others were still allegedly under investigation.

Hood and Watt then did some cross-checking, ringing relevant people with knowledge of the Pullman scandal. This included the AFL who always in these situations say they know nothing because there is an ongoing police investigation, the reality is they are always across everything.

Interestingly, they didn’t advise the Roos against looking at the trade.

By last Friday Watt and Hood were satisfied they knew enough. The CEO, head of football Todd Viney and head of strategy Erin Lorenzini then addressed North’s AFLW team to explain why they were moving ahead with getting Blakey and to answer any questions.

Even though she didn’t know it, Hood had already played a significant role in getting North to the top of the queue in the eyes of the Blakey’s.

THE FINAL FAREWELL

While the family connection of Nick coming back to play with his father’s old club was romantic, there had been some bad blood between John and the Roos.

He was filthy when he missed out on being the caretaker coach when David Noble was sacked midway through 2022. He had been the senior assistant coach but instead the North hierarchy put VFL coach Leigh Adams in as interim.

Then 12 months later Blakey Snr was given the flick in a shake-up of the football department after Alastair Clarkson’s first year in the job. The way it was done left a bad taste in his mouth.

So when Hood shocked the football world by sacking Clarkson on September 2, she effectively eliminated a potential hurdle as trying to lure Nick Blakey to be coached by the man who’d sacked his father would have had its challenges.

Instead, D’Orazio, Sydney and North started to work on making a trade with all parties keen to avoid any deadline day dramas. They did that easily, announcing on Tuesday the deal which also involved a raft of future draft picks in 2027 and 2028.

Many read a lot into Sydney’s press release announcing the departure of Blakey which certainly didn’t have a tribute feel about it. A year earlier Will Hayward and Ollie Florent had received glowing endorsement from football boss Leon Cameron.

But Blakey, 26, the player fans adored as “The Lizard”, got two paragraphs in a release from list manager Chris Keane.

“This trade with North has significantly improved our draft hand,” Keane said.

Having a pick inside the top 10 is extremely valuable and not something we have had for a number of years, so we will get to work on landing the best player available.

“We thank Nick for his contribution to our football club since being drafted in 2018, and he leaves our club as a life member, having played over 150 games.

“On behalf of the club I wish Nick all the very best as he continues his career at the Kangaroos.”

In his own statement about the move to North, Blakey first made an apology: “I want to say that I’m sorry for the events that led up to my exit from Sydney.

“I know I have to win back the trust of the broader community, football and otherwise.

“Now I have the opportunity to move forward, and I want to thank North Melbourne for helping me find a fresh start.

“I’m grateful I have landed at a place that has such deep connections to me and my family.

“There is so much potential in this group, and I’m looking forward to getting to work to help take North Melbourne forward.”

And in what some would say was a fitting start in the blue and white, Blakey’s first two photos were of him in the kit with his father and on a night out drinking beers with some of his new teammates.

Not at the Pullman Hotel.

A message from Grant Copley, Founder of Select Cards

To our friends and collectors,

With the AFL putting new licensing arrangements in place for 2027, Select’s AFL trading card licence will come to an end on 31 October 2026. We’re extremely disappointed with the decision by the AFL and its new master licensee, particularly considering record royalties and world-class trading cards that we’ve produced.

Our AFL journey began on 1 August 1989, when we signed our first contract with the AFL. Since then, Select has produced some 167 series of cards and stickers, along with a range of other AFL collectables.

None of this would have been possible without you. Our collectors have been with us every step of the way as we worked to bring new and world-class trading cards to the market, and I want to thank each and every one of you for your support.

We are extremely proud of what we have achieved over the past 37 years. We have built wonderful relationships with players and their managers, who have been great to work with in our signature programs for the benefit of the fans and collectors who have been able to collect important cards in Australian sporting history.

Select remains the longest serving card producer in Australia and the second oldest, originally owned, card producer in the World.

To everyone who has been part of this story, thank you.

What happens next?

All outstanding redemptions will be honoured in full unless we are directed otherwise. We’ll be focused on opening and/or fulfilling redemptions, in particular our Seamless product.

Eminence will be our final AFL product (release announcement coming shortly).

Thereafter, we will share more information on other AFL product drops from our archives and storage that we will be making available until 31 December 2026, giving collectors a final chance to add to their collections.

This is not goodbye to Select. We have been entrusted with other licences across the sports market both locally and internationally, and we will continue to operate in the collector card space to bring you the best of the best in collectible trading cards.

We wish you well with your card collecting if our journey together ends here - but who knows, we may be back one day.

It has been a privilege.

Grant Copley

Founder, Select Cards

With NRLX on, NRL fans get to lap up a whole other element of their game. Obviously we’re enjoying the AFLW but it feels like post-season could be the spot for AFLX to fit into the calendar??

With the Rugby League World Cup on, NRL fans get to lap up a whole other element of their game. Obviously we’re enjoying the AFLW but it feels like post-season could be the spot for International Rules to fit into the calendar??

From memory it was absolutely horrendous. So much so that Chris has apparently done all he can to banish it from the internet.

Surely someone here has old footy show episodes? Would love to see this posted.

The mod team maintain a presence in match threads while watching the game - please keep the match threads enjoyable by reporting antisocial comments or messaging if there's a problem.

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The mod team maintain a presence in match threads while watching the game - please keep the match threads enjoyable by reporting antisocial comments or messaging if there's a problem.

^{Antisocial behaviour, injury cheering, and umpire abuse may result in a ban or removal from the match without warning.}

Traditionally after a home & away season, the team that finishes top of the ladder is awarded the minor premiership.

When you go back into the records of AFLW. Between the years of 2019 & 2020, the AFL had a conference system in place in the AFLW where teams were split into two conferences. After the home & away season was completed, there was no minor premier or even a conference winner recognized.

2019: In Conference A, the leader was Adelaide with a record of 6 wins, 1 loss, 212.9%. With the best overall record of the season and would go on to win the premiership

In Conference B, the leader was Carlton with a record of 4 wins, 3 losses, 99.6% who would go to the Grand Final that season.

2020: In a covid affected season where the season was cut short with no premiership awarded. In Conference A, the leader was North Melbourne with a record of 5 wins, 1 loss, 227.2%.

In Conference B, the leader was Fremantle with a record of 6 wins, undefeated record, 154.7%. The best overall record in the season.

Here's a question, would it be fair to give minor premiership recognition to Adelaide & Fremantle, or at least give the clubs that topped their conferences recognition as Conference Winners, officially on the record.

Trying to collect all the guernseys Jesse Motlops worn. I was wondering if anyone had an indigenous all stars guernsey they’re willing to sell.