Adelaide crowing over Dawson AFL trade 

Sydney have agreed to the Jordan Dawson AFL trade through gritted teeth, saying the deal with Adelaide isn’t a reflection of the player’s true value.

But the jubilant Crows have described it as ‘a really fair deal’.

Adelaide list manager Justin Reid also said they never raised the prospect of Sydney losing Dawson for nothing during their trade negotiations.

If Sydney did not reach a trade with the Crows, Dawson could have returned to his home state via the pre-season draft.

Adelaide gave up a future first-round draft pick, tied to Melbourne, to secure Dawson.

The Swans made it clear they are unhappy about losing the 24-year-old utility, who finished third in this season’s club best and fairest voting.

Dawson has played 64 games and shapes as a significant boost for the rebuilding Crows.

‘We worked extremely hard to reach a fair outcome in regard to Jordan, despite challenging circumstances,’ Sydney football manager Charlie Gardiner said in a club statement.

‘Ultimately, we have settled on a deal that we don’t think quite reflects Jordan’s true value but is one that, after extensive negotiations, we don’t believe we could improve upon.

‘After strong consideration, we believed it to be in the best interests of the club to accept the deal available and move forward.’

Dawson wanted to return to SA for family reasons and rejected a five-year offer from Sydney to play for the club he supported growing up.

The Crows initially offered pick 17 in this year’s draft, but the negotiations were stalled until a deal was struck on Tuesday.

‘We’re just really happy with what we think is a really fair deal,’ Reid said.

‘We always worked hard to bring Jordy into the football club and we feel what we put on the table … was fair and reasonable for both parties.

‘None of us like losing good players. We’ve been in their shoes … we have a good relationship with Sydney and we respect them.’

Reid was asked on Wednesday about the potential for using the pre-season draft to snare Dawson if a deal was not reached.

‘Obviously the rules are in place there with the AFL, but it’s not something we discussed with Sydney through the trade period,’ he said.

Dawson is particularly important for the Crows because there is a big gap on their list between their veterans and many young players.

‘To bring him in at the age of 24, we think he certainly has plenty of good footy ahead of him,’ Reid said.

‘It’s certainly a piece of the puzzle, that’s for sure.’

Sydney rated Dawson as highly as any player spoken about during the trade period.