AFL players have it pretty good. Plenty of money, celebrity, more than a few perks, all while playing a game they love.

The costs are plenty, too. Scrutiny above and beyond anything faced by most employees at an everyday workplace, and an increasing level of intrusion into your life away from it as well.

Then there's weeks like this when — unless you're one of the least expendable handful of players on a list of 40-plus — you have not only your career, but your life played with like a pawn in a complicated chess game. And in Josh Kennedy's case, you can be a pawn sacrificed to obtain a football king.

The personal toll of trade week is played out in a variety of tales each October.

Kennedy's case, however, takes the trade week merry-go-round to a new level on both a personal and philosophical level.

Few young players can have felt as much pressure to acquiesce to a move they didn't want to make as has the former West Australian key forward.

Before he'd even announced officially yesterday that he'd agreed to go to the Eagles, Kennedy was being loudly told he had no choice but to move.

Kennedy could have held his ground and exercised his right of refusal, but he risked being remembered forever as the man responsible for blocking one of football's biggest player moves.

After only two seasons and 22 senior games, Kennedy was already popular with Carlton supporters. That favour may have been severely tested had the Chris Judd deal been thwarted because of his opposition to a move.

Having turned 20 a little over a month ago, Kennedy's move to West Coast will be the third big upheaval in his lifestyle in a little over three years. There was the initial move from his native Geraldton to Perth to play for WAFL club East Fremantle. Then his drafting at No. 4 by the Blues in 2005, forcing a much bigger shift across the country. Now, after just on two years, he'll be packing up and moving house again.

Of course, there's plenty of compensation for doing so. A bigger pay cheque and a spot on a list which, even without Judd, is close to the best in the AFL. But Kennedy's grace in accepting his fate was still commendable given his reticence to leave his latest "home".

Reticence which was significant in itself. Victorian clubs have always had to deal with the "go home" risk when recruiting players from outside their own state, but here was one West Australian more than happy to stay. He'd fitted in well, made plenty of friends, shown some very encouraging late-season form, and agreed to terms on a new two-year deal with the Blues as recently as June.

As younger generations of AFL players emerge from WA and South Australia, the "go anywhere for a game" mentality becomes more firmly entrenched. Now the stories are as frequently about Victorians getting homesick, and the interstaters at Melbourne clubs are less likely to be given the kid-glove treatment to keep them happy. That makes them more susceptible to be used as bargaining chips.

Kennedy is one of the most important yet, a critical trading commodity. But hopefully for him, he'll do enough with his new club to be remembered also as a player, and unlike poor Lochlan Veale, not just a name on a bit of paper.