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"CALLAN Ward signs with GWS ... Richmond advises the AFL to provide the Dogs with Jordan McMahon as compensation."
That was the theme of several messages this week as battered, bedraggled and bitter Richmond fans quickly sprang into action on social media.
Finally, with the pain of another ninth-placed finish looming, there was morbid relief among some quarters of the Tiger Army that the McMahon-Ward link was about to be broken.
Ward will play his last game for the Western Bulldogs today. No doubt about it.
Whether he is jeered or cheered by the Dogs faithful on his way out of Etihad Stadium is uncertain, but Richmond fans might have a chuckle from afar.
Those Tigers supporters have copped it for three to four years with the tease: "You took Jordie McMahon and it cost you Callan Ward."
Richmond swapped pick No.19 in the 2007 trade period for McMahon, a hard running, but inconsistent back-flanker who had run out of credits at the Dogs.
Six weeks later the Dogs used the choice to pick up Ward.
McMahon is long gone. Ward has 10 years left at the top level and will be paid more than $4 million over the next five.
Now, in a sense, Ward is gone too. There are no winners now, just losers ... and the teasing can stop.
But as Ward prepares for a strange last day at the office, it is worth revisiting the trade/draft twists and turns in 2007.
Heading into the trade week with head of football Greg Miller leading the negotiations, Richmond had picks 18, 19 and 35 to play with.
Pick 35 was Mitch Morton from West Coast, which gave the club little wriggle room on McMahon. A deal was done with pick 19 for McMahon.
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he might not fit in or be good enough.
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