Fremantle general manager of football Chris Bond says the club is interested in Essendon forward Scott Gumbleton.

The 24-year-old former Peel Thunder player has been injury-plagued since being selected with the second pick in the 2006 AFL National Draft.

He has played only 28 matches for the Bombers, including six this year.

Speaking to AFL.com’s Trade Radio, Bond said the club was keen to add key forwards to its list, given captain Matthew Pavlich is in the latter stages of his brilliant career.

"It's been at the forefront of our minds for a couple of years now, especially with where we knew ‘Pav’ is going to play in the last couple of years of his career," Bond said.

"We’ve got Zac Clarke there and we feel he is going to be a terrific player for us.

Kepler Bradley plays a real competitive brand of footy, and towards the end of the year, Jon Griffin went forward and kicked a couple of goals for us as well.

"But there's no doubt at all that, as part of our succession planning, we do need to either draft some players in that are going to fill that role or recruit players.”

Bond said Gumbleton had undergone a medical screening in Perth and was highly rated in the league.

"You speak to a lot of people and it's all very positive about Scott,” he said.

“He's a great person, a great trainer and he works really well. But at the end of the day, we've still got to work through the other components of that and get some details.”

Bond revealed 21-year-old running defender Dylan Roberton had requested a move back home to Melbourne for family reasons.

He said finalising Roberton’s situation was the club’s first priority before any moves would be made in the trade period.

“We’ll assist with that where we can, and I think once that’s done, once we’ve got some finality with our list, we’ll know the pros and cons and where we can move from there,” Bond said.

The football manager said Adam McPhee, who is currently out of contract, would be at the club in 2013.

“We just haven’t finalised it completely yet,” he said.

“It’s more or less over the line.”

Bond also said the manager of North Melbourne forward Lachie Hansen had contacted Fremantle, but he was not a priority.