Port Adelaide footy boss Chris Davies has downplayed the club’s link to Demons forward Kysaiah Pickett.
Reports have stated the Power were making a push to land Pickett in next week’s trade period despite the 21-year old having a year to run on his deal with Melbourne.
However asked on AFL Trade Radio if Pickett has given any indication he’s open to a move to Port Adelaide, Davies said: “No.”
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He added: “We maintain an interest in players who are interested in coming back to South Australia or who are from South Australia originally or who have ties to this state.
“‘Kozzie’ is contracted to Melbourne. That worked up a bit of a head of steam over the last couple of weeks, but he’s contracted to Melbourne and it’s reasonable to suggest that he’s going to be staying there next year.”
After missing out on out-of-contract Bulldog Josh Dunkley, who’s requested a trade to the Brisbane Lions, the Power have been touted as a suitor for Richmond midfielder Jack Graham.
The South Australian Graham is reportedly seen as gettable by rival clubs amid the Tigers’ looming additions of Giants pair Jacob Hopper and Tim Taranto to their on-ball unit.
Davies reaffirmed the Power have interest in SA players keen to return to their home state, without specifically confirming they were targeting Graham.
“Jack is obviously a good player, I’m not sure where his situation is at with Richmond. But any player who is from South Australia who potentially wants to come back, we’ve got to take an interest in,” he said.
“There’s too many players that leave South Australia to go back to their home states. And for that matter, for every club, teams who lose players because they want to go to different states, we need to make sure that we’ve got an interest in players who are wanting to come home at any point in time.”
Davies spoke out on several other trade period items for the club ahead of the trade period below …
What drew the club to Junior Rioli …
“If you’re looking at areas of our list that we left ourselves short this year, clearly that high half-forward position is an area that I think is becoming more important from a team standpoint.
“With Connor Rozee and Zak Butters spending more time in the midfield this year and Orazio Fantasia unable to get on the park, we left ourselves short in that position and short of real quality.
“From our perspective, it’s his goal sense, his ability to link that midfield-forward area, which is an area of our team that we need to get better at if we want to be more competitive than we were this year.”
What compensation is the club expecting to get for Hawthorn-bound Karl Amon …
“We need to wait and see on that. It’s probably the most lucrative free agent deal from what we know through this free agency period. It will be interesting to see where the AFL end up with it.
“We’re not 100 per cent sure at the moment, we’ll let things play out. But I think it’s got to be close to a first rounder, if not an end of first-round selection.
“No one really knows where these things are going to end. Ned Guy is in there now, he’s the one who has the AFL’s secret herbs and spices now .. we don’t really know but I imagine it will be a first or second-round selection.
“We won’t get that information (specifics of Amon’s contract) until it’s lodged with the AFL, we’ve got a reasonable handle of where it’s at.”
What is the status of Mitch Georgiades?
“I think that was another one that gathered a head of steam itself.
“I imagine when Junior (Rioli) highlighted that he wanted to come to Port Adelaide, it was more coming from Perth about who potentially West Coast might be interested in at Port Adelaide. It’s not something that we’ve contemplated at all.
“‘Georgy’ is contracted to our club and we see him as a pretty important part of our forward line into the future. There’s not too many 20 to 21-year-old players that have had the number of shots on goal that he has had over the last couple of years.
“We took a punt on him. He hadn’t played the year before we drafted him. He’s done some really good work for us and he’s going to be a 10-plus year AFL forward who you don’t contemplate giving up very lightly.
“Mitch will be at our club, for we hope a good period of time.”
How serious was the club’s interest in Brodie Grundy …
“We had an initial discussion with Brodie’s management about where he wanted end up. It’s reasonable to suggest that he saw his future still in Victoria.
“That conversation came and went pretty quickly. Again, we have to maintain interest in players who might be contemplating coming back to South Australia, but I don’t think Brodie was ever in that mindset.”
