The Carlton Football Club today sealed the deal it had sought from the outset – landing Fremantle ruckman Robert Warnock and retaining its first round selection (No.6) in the AFL national draft.

The Blues secured Warnock and a fifth round selection (69) in exchange for selections 24, 56 and 72.

Carlton Senior Coach Brett Ratten was delighted with the club’s win-win outcome. “He (Warnock) has been a priority for us,” Ratten said following the 2pm trade week deadline.

“With his height and potential that’s great for the club. We sit about 16^th in hit-outs in the AFL, so a player of 206 centimetres will help us dramatically.

“The biggest thing too is that we get to keep pick six. We were never going to give it up and we think we’ll get a very good player with that pick.”

Recruited to the Dockers from Old Brighton via Sandringham Under 18s with selection 42 of the 2005 National Draft, Warnock who turns 22 in January, has strung together 21 senior matches since making his AFL debut in 2007.

At 206 centimetres in height, Warnock joins Carlton’s former ruckman Justin Madden as the tallest senior player in the club’s history.

Ratten agreed that while there was “a bit of argy-bargy toward the end” to secure the Warnock deal, he was satisfied with the process.

“They (the Dockers) wanted a little bit more and we thought the pick (24) was about right,” Ratten said.

“We then debated about whether we were going to move and then they did, so there was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing. It was at about 1.30pm that ‘Bondy’ came in and had a chat, and it was pretty much done by quarter to two.

“The (draft) process for all clubs is that you need to get the players screened and interviewed, which can take a bit of time especially when the players are interstate and overseas . . . so I think the week’s good. You get to find out a fair bit of information about your list and other lists, so I think it’s done pretty well.

While only six deals were done overall, Ratten added that “what you’ve seen this year is that the picks are worth a lot of value and maybe next year there’ll be a lot more movement”.