Nick Blakey was given a frosty farewell by Sydney and hailed by North Melbourne as a game changer, as he apologised for his role in the Pullman Hotel scandal that rocked the Swans’ finals campaign.
The Kangaroos on Tuesday effectively gave up two first-round picks and a future second-round selection in a complex trade to secure Blakey, an All-Australian defender two seasons ago.
It is an acrimonious departure from the Swans for Blakey. Pointedly, there were no tributes from the Swans’ top brass (chairman Andrew Pridham, CEO Matthew Pavlich, coach Dean Cox or footy boss Leon Cameron) in a statement announcing the departure of a life member and academy graduate who played 173 games for the club and was an All-Australian in 2024 and best and fairest runner-up in 2023. Blakey, it should be noted, didn’t mention the Swans, either, in his comments released by North Melbourne.
When Will Hayward and Ollie Florent were forced out last year as part of the trade to land Charlie Curnow from Carlton, both were thanked by Cameron in the club’s public statement. For Blakey, the only thanks expressed were from list manager Chris Keane in the final two paragraphs of a media release highlighting the suite of picks the Swans received from North.
“This trade with North has significantly improved our draft hand,” Keane said.
“Having a pick inside the top 10 is extremely valuable and not something we have had for a number of years, so we will get to work on landing the best player available.
“We thank Nick for his contribution to our football club since being drafted in 2018, and he leaves our club as a life member, having played over 150 games.
“On behalf of the club I wish Nick all the very best as he continues his career at the Kangaroos.”
Blakey, 26, heads to the club where his father, John Blakey, won two premierships in the 1990s.
He was one of five Sydney players handed season-ending suspensions by the club for their part in a wild night of partying in August after the Swans’ victory over Essendon in round 23, just two weeks out from the start of the finals.
A separate Victoria Police investigation is ongoing after three women, working as exotic dancers, variously alleged they were sexually assaulted and touched inappropriately without consent.
No charges have been laid, and all five Swans who served the bans denied criminal wrongdoing. One of those players, Riley Bice, is no longer a subject of the investigation and is being treated as a witness.
Blakey’s apology came in a statement from North Melbourne marking his move to Arden Street. They are the first comments he has made on the saga since a joint statement released by the Swans days after it broke.
“I want to say that I’m sorry for the events that led up to my exit from Sydney,” Blakey said. “I know I have to win back the trust of the broader community, football and otherwise.
“Now I have the opportunity to move forward, and I want to thank North Melbourne for helping me find a fresh start.
“I’m grateful I have landed at a place that has such deep connections to me and my family.
“There is so much potential in this group, and I’m looking forward to getting to work to help take North Melbourne forward.”
North gave up picks six and 47 in this year’s draft, a second-round pick next year, and first- and second-round picks in 2028 in return for Blakey, pick 52 this year and Sydney’s second-round pick in 2028.
The Roos have finally landed an A-grader, having previously missed out on the likes of Dustin Martin, Isaac Heeney, Josh Kelly and Andrew Gaff in the past 10 years. Blakey strengthens an area of the ground in which the Kangaroos have been vulnerable.
“The amount of rebound Nick brings is such an important part of the game now,” Kangaroos list boss Brady Rawlings said at their Arden Street base on Tuesday.
“I think our players will walk so much taller running alongside him. We just haven’t been able to attract a player of All-Australian calibre in the prime of their career for a very long period of time. I think our supporters are going to be very excited seeing him play under the roof.”
Rawlings explained how the deal came to be.
“Nick requested a trade, and there were a few clubs clearly wanting his services, [but] we knew that this is our opportunity to go really hard,” he said.
“Obviously, [Nick’s] dad [John] is a team of century member, and we’ve been looking to improve our defence for a number of years now, and we want to do it through key defenders. We also want to do it through some rebound and through the hybrid defender space, which Nick’s a perfect player for us when you’re looking at that type of role.”
Rawlings said North were aware of Blakey’s “disgruntlement” at the Swans but had done their due diligence before stepping forward with a deal.
“We heard that there might have been some disgruntlement from his end,” he said.
“That was all a bit of hearsay for us, though ... It’s probably midweek last week that we got informed that he’d like a meeting with us, among other clubs, and we thought this was the opportunity – we need to go really hard and put our best foot forward, and yeah, it was successful.
“As a club, we’ve clearly done our due diligence and gone through processes that we’re really comfortable with, and we’ve known Nick and the family for a long time. So, yeah, [we’re] very comfortable with all the processes we went through to get to the point where we put an offer forward to Nick.”
Rawlings was asked if North’s AFLW players had any input into the decision to bring Blakey in.
“Our communication levels at this club are outstanding,” he added.
“So, from the CEO, from the president, from Todd [Viney], the general manager of football – we speak to all our people here about what’s going on, who might be coming into the club, all those types of things, and in this situation, the communication can’t be any better.
“It’s like any recruit we get in through the door, whether they’re under-18s, whether they’re through a trade or free agency – [it’s about] speaking to as many people that you know, [to] give you information on players. So this was no different. Even though things are occurring on the outside, we still want to know that Nick’s a hard trainer. He’s professional, and everyone we spoke to couldn’t have been more glowing of him as an individual on the training track and as a leader on field as well.”
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