A number of former Peel Thunder players have been heavily involved in the AFL’s trade and free agency periods, including Fremantle pocket-rocket Hayden Ballantyne.
The former Peel Football League junior and Peel Thunder goal-scoring machine made headlines when it was reported he had requested a trade out of Fremantle in the dying months of the Dockers’ annus horribilis season.
Rubbing salt in the wounds of Freo fans, it was reported that Ballantyne had chosen cross-town rival West Coast as his preferred destination.
Days after the news broke, Ballantyne denied that he had asked to be traded, and since then it has become murky as to whether he will be a Docker in 2017 and beyond.
But with the trade period set to end on Thursday, October 20, time is running out and it has become more and more likely that the 141-game player will stay with the Freo.
Speaking to Radio 6PR last week, Fremantle list manager Brad Lloyd said the club had received no interest in the small forward.
“To this point we haven’t had any club come to us wanting to trade for Hayden and Hayden’s someone we’d like to retain,” he said.
“He’s been a really good player for us for many years and we’d like to see him playing at the club next year.”
With the trade deadline looming, any trade involving Ballantyne would come as a shock, but it remains a possibility.
Another Peel Thunder product who has featured in the post-season headlines is Daniel Wells.
Formerly of North Melbourne, the classy midfielder chose to leave the club and accept a lucrative contract offer from Collingwood.
Wells is believed to be earning up to $1.8 million over a three-year time period at Collingwood, and said the decision to part ways with North weighed heavy on his heart.
“I enjoyed a wonderful time as a North Melbourne player and now I get the opportunity to play for Collingwood, a club I have always admired,” Wells said in a statement released by the Pies.
“I have to thank my two football families; North for the opportunity to play and the care they showed to me over the years, and Collingwood for the chance to take my career into a new and exciting phase.
“It will be a little strange, at first, calling myself a Magpie but I’m feeling very comfortable with it already and I couldn’t be more excited about a future in black and white.”
Wells played 243 games for North, was a dual-All Australian nominee and the equal-best and fairest in 2011.