Peter Bell appeared on AFL Trade Radio on Wednesday to discuss the Continental Tyres AFL Trade Period.
Read the main points below.
On the Adam Cerra negotiations with Carlton
(Fremantle’s Head of Player Personnel) David Walls and Nick Austin (Carlton’s Head of List Management) are making ground, is my understanding, and negotiations are going really positively and respectfully. I think it’s agreed that pick six will be the cornerstone of that deal and then there’s a few other components of proposed deals from both sides that have to take into account a number of different moving parts.
I guess fans and everyone can get a little frustrated that things move slowly but it is quite complex and we’re only at day three of this trade period. As far as Adam’s move to Carlton is concerned, we think that negotiations have gone really positively so far.
Does pick six and a future second in return for Cerra and a future third get the deal done?
That’s the ballpark but without specifically saying that’s the deal or our expectations. Again, Carlton have been fantastic to deal with so far and we’re confident we’ll get there.
What will be your plans if you hold to top 10 picks at the draft?
Obviously, we don’t have the two picks in the top 10 (yet) but we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to do that through the Cerra negotiations. That would be our absolute intention, if we were able to get (pick six) we’d like to take (pick six and eight) to the draft to add a couple of younger players to the nucleus of players that we have right now.
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On the Jordan Clark negotiations with Geelong
As Jordan is contracted, Geelong have every right to negotiate really hard and that’s to be expected. We would love to bring Jordan in and Jordan’s indicated to Geelong and to us that he’d like to move to Fremantle. He does fill a need for us with his run and speed and other attributes.
I wouldn’t say that the negotiations are as close as what things are with Fremantle and Carlton are at the moment with regards to Adam, there’s a little bit more of a gap so far, but that’s fine, David and Andrew Mackie (from Geelong) in this instance will work through that and we’ll see what comes of it. We would like for Jordan to join us and Jordan would like to join us, so it’s about making sure something satisfactory is done for Geelong, who of course hold a contracted player.
What would Clark’s role be if he heads to Fremantle?
Half back or wing. We like his run and speed. We were really thrilled with what Brandon Walker did late in the season. Brandon came to our club as an NGA prospect and didn’t get a pre-season in, but what he did, we were really pleased with as a young player in his first year with his speed and overlap run.
We think Jordan could be a similar player for us within our structure. We would like that speed and that long kicking and taking the game on, as well as defending, which is obviously an important part of playing half back as well. They’re the attributes that excited us and certainly they were the attributes back in his draft year that excited us as well. We’re hopeful we’ll be able to get something done but that’s where I’d envisage Justin would see him playing.
What contract have you offered Jordan Clark?
It’s a strong offer, I don’t know the exact ins and outs. I think it will be around a four-year contract. That’s around the ballpark, providing of course we are able to get the deal done.
On Rory Lobb
There obviously was a bit of noise through the latter part of the year that Rory was, potentially, looking to explore his options. We had a really positive end of season meeting where he discussed and committed to really working on his game and particularly working on his ruck work as well, which we thought he’d been a little inconsistent in at that time.
We just reiterated to Rory that he was a very important player for us, we’re not flush with tall forwards at the moment. Forward/rucks are in high demand and difficult to find and we just said - if you are exploring and wanted to look around, it would be highly unlikely that there will be a deal that we’d agree to - for the reasons I’ve just articulated.
We really want to support Rory, we can all see the potential he could be, we just have to help him iron out a few inconsistencies in his game and help him be the best player he can be, which at his best is a pretty intimidating player.
On Gold Coast’s Will Brodie
Will’s someone we’re interested in for sure. With Adam leaving, we’d like to bring in a midfielder, whether it be through the trade mechanisms or potentially though the draft as well. There’s some high-end mids that would be available (at the draft). Also, we’d be crazy not to look at trading opportunities and I think Gold Coast have expressed their support for Will to look around, so we have been talking to Will and his manager about what that could look like. At his size and perhaps a different environment, he could reach that potential of being a top 10 pick that he was a few years ago. He’s got some great attributes and he is one that we’re talking to.
On Lachie Neale
Lachie and Jules have just had a baby daughter and I’m sure they’ve got their hands full with that. There hasn’t been any dialogue at all between us and Lachie or his management since a couple of weeks ago. That’s the situation and we’ll move along.
On Darcy Tucker’s contract situation
My understanding is we’re just going through the last minor points and bits and pieces. It’s very close to being a done deal. Hopefully, we can announce that soon. I’d be expecting in the next day or two that would get finalised and we’re really happy with that. He’s up to 90-odd games and while he didn’t have he season he wanted to have, we think with his experience and flexibility in his game, he’ll be a strong part of our best 22 for many years to come.
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