The collective scratching of heads to be heard on Friday afternoon was Hawthorn fans trying to determine why their club recruited David Hale from North Melbourne and where he fits into the side.

Will he be parked primarily in the forward line? If so, have the Hawks become so concerned with Jarryd Roughead's conversion that they're moving him to the backline where he can also be the big hulking defender that the side appears to lack?

Or is the plan to push Buddy Franklin up the ground, allowing him to run on to the ball and create the type of scoring opportunities such as the back-to-back goals of the year he kicked against the Bombers in round 13?

It's not a vote of confidence for Simon Taylor because with Hale on board the Hawks now carry seven ruckmen - Brent Renouf, Max Bailey, Wayde Skipper, Luke Lowden and Sam Grimley are the others. The Hawks have been patient with the perenially-injured Bailey, while the wraps on Lowden and Grimley are huge. Skipper was a handy around the ground as a back-up for Renouf this year, but battled at stoppages.

Hale's recruitment - and Hawthorn's willingness to immediately give up the compensatory pick it got after losing Campbell Brown to the Suns - suggests that the Hawks believe their premiership window remains firmly open. The bookies have them as a top four side, but we'd like to see a bit more pace through the midfield and perhaps another tall defender before getting too excited about next season.

But Hawthorn fans who have their doubts about Hale will be hoping that former Kangaroos at the club - assistant coach Adam Simpson and defender Josh Gibson - believe there is enough upside to bring him to the club.

The Kangaroos weren't short a forward for long. Ben McKinley crossed from West Coast and Brad Scott will surely rid him of his laconic ways. But Aaron Edwards has struggled for a regular game and he is a similar sort of player as McKinley.

This marathon trading period continues over the weekend and will finally reach its merciful end at at 2pm on Monday. The Western Bulldogs didn't wait till the death, trading for Nathan Djerkurra from Geelong. With such a hard midfield to break into at Geelong, Dkerkurra was wise to make a move, although I'm not sure that given he played just one game this year, he might not have been delisted and the Dogs will have been able to get him for nought.

There are plenty of big names on the table - Sam Jacobs, Shaun Grigg, Andrew Walker, Bachar Houli, Josh Hill - and they'll learn their fates in the mad rush of the final few hours at Etihad Stadium.

The other bit of news out of the day of interest was Gavin Brown leaving Collingwood after 26 years as a player and coach to join Carlton as an assistant coach. His cards were marked at Collingwood once Nathan Buckley was annointed as the coach in waiting.

So now he crosses to the arch-enemy, which has now assembled a handy bunch of assistants including another former Pie, Alan Richardson and now Brown. On the one hand it is reassuring for Blues coach Brett Ratten to have such a talented collection behind him. On the other hand, Ratten knows the Blues may not have to search far and wide if they wish to make a change at the end of the season.

And unless the Blues win a couple of finals, change they will.