Veteran Kangaroo Robbie Tarrant is off to Punt Road in a swap for Tiger youngster Callum Coleman-Jones

After the flurry of activity which defined the previous two days of the 2021 AFL trade period, things slowed down considerably on Friday with just the one transaction taking place.

Veteran North Melbourne defender Robbie Tarrant finally ended up at Richmond as the Tigers sent Callum Coleman-Jones back the other way to the Kangaroos.

The deal also saw Richmond secure pick 40 and a future second-round pick while North acquired picks 42 and 47 as well as a future fourth-round pick.

Tarrant was originally expected to make his way to Punt Road as an unrestricted free agent, but by heading there as part of a trade, it allowed the Tigers to hang on to their compensation pick for losing Mabior Chol to Gold Coast.

The reliable 32-year-old clearly fills a need for the Tigers, who were keen to shore up their defence following the retirements of Bachar Houli and David Astbury.

And given they’ve also lost Chol and now Coleman-Jones, their tall stocks have taken quite a hit this off-season.

Aside from a scary medical issue this year, which required a tumour to be removed from his kidney in March and forced him to miss the first half of the season, Tarrant has proved to be very durable, missing just six games in the previous six seasons.

He’s won a best-and-fairest at North and can consider himself a tad unlucky to be overlooked for All-Australian selection in the past.

The recruitment of Tarrant at his age is also a clear statement that the Tigers believe they are still in the premiership window. And you can’t blame them for thinking so given 22 premiership players remain on their list.

“We are very excited to welcome Robbie to our football club,” Richmond football talent general manager Blair Hartley said. “Robbie is a disciplined and diligent defender with a skill set that complements our other backs well.

“Robbie has played at an outstanding level for an extended period of time, and we believe he has plenty more good football left in him. We are all looking forward to seeing Robbie in the yellow and black.”

The loss of Coleman-Jones will sting the Tigers a bit, though, especially after they stuck by him following his egregious breach of COVID protocols on the Gold Coast in 2020, which saw him suspended for 10 matches.

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The 22-year-old showed a lot of promise as a forward this year, kicking 11 goals from eight games, including an impressive bag of four in round 11 against Adelaide – just the second game of his career.

The Kangaroos will hope he can provide not only much-needed support for the emerging Nick Larkey in attack, but be able to give a chop-out in the ruck for Todd Goldstein (despite how much he loves riding solo in that position).

“He was starved of opportunities in a really successful side at the Tigers and he was heavily courted elsewhere, so we were thrilled he picked us as his preferred destination,” North Melbourne football manager Brady Rawlings said.

“He’s aggressive, is a really good runner and he’ll be a real handful for any opposition with his reach and power. We’ve landed a good one.”

The final five days of the trade period promise to be action-packed with many players linked to other clubs still in limbo.

The prospect of at least one of star Hawthorn trio Tom Mitchell, Jaeger O’Meara and Jack Gunston ending up at another club is still well and truly in play, but Chad Wingard seemed to insist he was staying put by posting an image of a famous scene from the movie “The Wolf Of Wall Street” on social media. In the scene, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Jordan Belfort declares, “I’m not leaving”.

Jordan Dawson’s pathway from Sydney to Adelaide, meanwhile, has hit another snag with the Crows reportedly rejecting two offers from the Swans to make the deal happen.

One of those bids is believed to have been centred around the future first-round pick that Adelaide received from Melbourne earlier in the week, while the other reportedly would have seen the Crows slide back to pick 12 by giving up pick four.

Rory Lobb remains hellbent on returning to his original club GWS after three years at Fremantle, and is willing to do so on less money.

Meanwhile, the likes of Jordan Clark, Peter Ladhams, Sam Powell-Pepper, Jonathon Ceglar, Mitch Wallis, Jake Melksham, Patrick Lipinski, Mason Cox, Trent Dumont, Jarrod Brander, Darcy Fort, Tristan Xerri and Max Lynch have also been thrown up in trade discussions.

Plenty to think about for all clubs involved over the weekend.

COMPLETED DEALS
1. Jake Kelly (Adelaide) joined Essendon as an unrestricted free agent. Adelaide received pick 42 (AFL) as compensation.
2. Mabior Chol (Richmond) joined Gold Coast as an unrestricted free agent. Richmond received pick 38 (AFL) as compensation.
3. George Hewett (Sydney) joined Carlton as a restricted free agent. Sydney received pick 39 (AFL) as compensation.
4. Collingwood traded a future second-round pick, a future third-round pick and a future fourth-round pick to Gold Coast in exchange for picks 22, 46, 58, 79 and a future fourth-round pick.
5. Nathan Kreuger and pick 55 (Geelong) traded to Collingwood in exchange for pick 41.
6. Jeremy Finlayson (GWS) traded to Port Adelaide in exchange for a future third-round pick.
7. Luke Dunstan (St Kilda) joined Melbourne as an unrestricted free agent.
8. St Kilda received pick 62 (Adelaide), pick 66 (Adelaide) and future fourth-round pick (Adelaide); Adelaide received pick 33 (Melbourne), future first-round pick (Melbourne) and pick 75 (Western Bulldogs); Western Bulldogs received pick 23 (Adelaide), pick 44 (Adelaide) and pick 45 (Melbourne); Melbourne received pick 17 (Western Bulldogs), pick 37 (Adelaide) and pick 49 (St Kilda).
9. Collingwood traded pick 22 to Fremantle in exchange for pick 27 and a future third-round pick.
10. Will Brodie, pick 19, pick 61 and pick 69 (Gold Coast) traded to Fremantle in exchange for a future second-round pick and a future fourth-round pick.
11. Adam Cerra (Fremantle) traded to Carlton in exchange for pick 6 and a future third-round pick.
12. Tim O’Brien (Hawthorn) joined Western Bulldogs as an unrestricted free agent.
13. Sam Petrevski-Seton (Carlton) traded to West Coast; Lewis Young (Western Bulldogs) traded to Carlton; pick 52 (West Coast) traded to Western Bulldogs.
14. Robbie Tarrant, pick 40 and a future second-round pick (North Melbourne) traded to Richmond in exchange for Callum Coleman-Jones, pick 42, pick 47 and a future fourth-round pick.