AFL great Gerard Healy has warned that clubs can risk “breaking the bond” of the locker room by shopping players around in order to lure big name stars to the club.

Carlton forward Charlie Curnow reportedly wants out of the Blues this year and Sydney and Geelong are seen as his likely landing destinations.

But speaking on Fox Footy’s Trading Day, Healy warned that sometimes trying to land a star like Curnow can actually have a negative net effect on the organisation.

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“I just find it so difficult for clubs to prosecute these massive contracts, because the only way some of these things are going to be done is if good players actually end up going the other way,” Healy said.

“So, how do you approach that if you’re Michael Voss or you’re Dean Cox? You go up to Player X and say ‘listen, how would you feel if you ended up at Carlton next year?’ Well, all of a sudden, you’ve broken the bond.

“And spirit is such a massive part of winning flags. You start to prosecute these things at your peril, because it’s not going to be one player, it’s probably going to be two.

“If you’re basically tapping two guys on the shoulder, even if it’s done in the nicest possible way, they are going to ask themselves ‘well, they don’t love me anymore, and my love for the club has all of a sudden been tarnished’.

“That’s at the top end. At the bottom end, you’ve got, say, a kid like Jack Buller, taken out of Western Australia, given an opportunity through the midseason draft. The Swans pay him when he’s got a bad back, give him 10 games, and all of a sudden he wants to change clubs for more opportunities. And I think to myself ‘this kid shows something’. I’d be telling Jack ‘you’re going to the draft, Jack, we want you, you’re staying’.

“So, it’s a really difficult time for the game, for the players, for the clubs, for the coaches … to prosecute all these contracts.”

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The Herald Sun’s Jon Ralph then shed some light on how difficult it can be to broker trades like the one that will involve Curnow.

“The problem is the manager can’t go to any of those Geelong players and say ‘hey, would you be prepared to be in this deal as well as Pick (X)’,” Ralph said.

“So, right now, Geelong is brimming with confidence — they’re saying ‘we can still get Charlie Curnow’. So, I say ‘OK, which players are you prepared to throw in?’ (They say) ‘Oh, no, we wouldn’t throw any players in, and we certainly wouldn’t go to them’.

“So, I think they think the Blues will eventually come to them and say ‘OK, we want Pick (X) and we want Shannon Neale’. But the Blues are saying ‘we don’t want to lose this player, we’re not driving this trade …’”

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Western Bulldogs champion Brad Johnson said he believes the long-lasting impact discussions like these can have on clubs is sometimes forgotten.

“I agree with the spirit part of it, too. The locker room is something that’s never discussed in these scenarios,” Johnson said.

“Because, what it does, if a club comes to Gerard Healy and he’s a leader and says ‘look, would you mind moving here for me?’ and we’re best mates, and I find out, and what it does to the dymanic… the dynamic of the locker room hasn’t (changed).

“And that’s why Cal Wilkie was in some ways asking ‘well, I’ve done the work here, I should be rewarded for that — not someone who comes in from the outside’. Which we all get.

“But from the perspective you’re talking about, I think it has a huge impact — we’ve personally seen it in regards to what it can do (to team dynamic).”

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With all that in mind, where will Curnow be playing his footy from 2026 onwards?

Sydney forward Will Hayward is one name who has been heavily linked in trade discussions.

“With the Curnow situation, Will Hayward has already say, ‘okay, if they would like me to move south, maybe’,” Ralph continued.

“We know he signed the deal but was very close to moving to Carlton last year.”

Healy interjected: “What’s he going to say though?”

Ralph replied: “I think privately there’s an acknowledgement that he would still be happy to move south.”

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Could the Swans perhaps bundle up two first round picks, plus Hayward, to satisfy the Blues? Healy wasn’t sure that was going to get it done.

“There’s no deal that’s anywhere, even close to him moving on,” Ralph added.

When host and Fox Footy commentator Anthony Hudson asked Ralph where Curnow will be next year, Ralph had one club at the forefront of his mind.

“Carlton one for me, Sydney two and Geelong three. Even though I still think privately Carlton are saying if someone gives us an amazing deal, we’d be prepared to do that deal.”