Jaeger O’ Meara has:
1. a fun name to say
2. the potential to be a franchise midfielder
3. an intact, functioning patella tendon

Well. Two out of three.

Fortunately for Jaeger, his next club has to have only two out of the next three:
1. an ability to absorb risk
2. trade assets
3. a list manager with mental illness.

I present to you the most likely candidates.

Hawthorn 

The Hawks have kept excellent depth in the twos, and play enough systems-based football that allows 20 gamers (Sicily, O’Rourke) to cover an aging tier of players without sacrificing too many wins. Eventually, the glut of retirements on the horizon will create a talent vacuum they’re still not equipped to deal with.

In the meantime, they can take a few L’s. They’ve been backing in what’s left of Ryan Burton’s tibial plateau and Alex Woodward’s multi-ACL cadaver to make it through AFL football. It barely registers when risks fail — Dayle Garlett. The fact that at the end of his proposed two-year draft contract Dayle Garlett stole a pair of jeans to wear to his court date for meth should impress on you that a) meth is dangerous and b) Hawthorn are comfortable taking some big risks.

The trade probably looks like:
Rd 1 pick 2016 + Pick from Fremantle for Hill

GWS

Remember ‘Twins’? That movie with Arnie and Danny DeVito? GWS is like Arnie, the golden child the AFL bred in a lab to succeed. But it’s more like there are ten Arnies, all playing key forward. Ten key forwards- all better than Carlton’s. The Suns, also raised by the AFL, are like Danny DeVito- but then Danny DeVito gets his patella tendons torn off.

The Giants now have a list that is bulletproof and realistically have no need for a Jaeger O’Meara. The kicker is- AFL establishment rules effective at the end of the season mean that the Giants need to reduce the list from 42 to 40. Add in three incoming draft picks and there needs to be a five man cull. Grand sale! Grand sale!! Grand sale!!!

The trade probably looks like:
Caleb Marchbank + Paul Ahern (A bit of injury parity with ACL victim Ahern and hey!- two top ten picks!)

Carlton 2014

Carlton 2016 doesn’t fall for this one. Two years in, SOS has distilled his list strategy into only trading for the picks that a great list manager (himself; SOS aka. HOJ) made in 2011. Time is a flat circle etc etc.

Carlton 2014 though, traded in Liam Jones and drafted Blaine Boekhorst. So Carlton 2014 are certainly a certifiable danger onto themselves, and ripe for some Jaeger-hunting. (To be fair, then-list manager Shane Rogers was also the bloke who chose Patrick Cripps at the 2013 draft in his pupaic 190cm form, somehow forseeing a 195cm fire-breathing Mecha-Cripps, his current life stage. Shane Rogers was off his game in 2014 is what I’m saying)

The trade probably looks like:
Gibbs + Yarran + Pick 7