Power’s Howard wants to be a Saint while Crows maintain faith in securing Greenwood deal
After weeks weighing up his future at Alberton, Dougal Howard wants to become a Saint if the club and Port Adelaide can do a deal. But the Power says it will put its foot down to keep the contracted and ‘highly valued’ player.
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Dougal Howard wants to become a Saint if St Kilda and Port Adelaide can do a deal, after weeks weighing up his future at Alberton.
Howard had been assessing his options in the wake of his exit interview at Alberton, when Power list manager Jason Cripps gave his manager Dave Trotter gentle encouragement to look at what interest might be out there from other AFL clubs.
The 23-year-old swingman met with St Kilda, North Melbourne and Essendon during grand final week in Melbourne and on the first day of the trade period the Saints and Roos officially put their interest in him out in the public.
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The Advertiser understands that Howard’s preference is to go to St Kilda if a trade can be facilitated with Port.
He joins Power teammate Paddy Ryder, Fremantle wingman Brad Hill and Sydney’s Zak Jones in nominating the Saints as their new home.
The Saints will now need to get creative to secure moves for all four as they have few picks in the upcoming draft.
Port’s football manager Chris Davies said in a statement on Thursday that Howard — who still has three years to run on his contract at the Power and has played 45 AFL games — was a “highly valued, required player at Port Adelaide”.
“Given he is contracted to the end of 2022, the club will only entertain a trade with St Kilda if it is in our best interests to do so,” Davies said.
“We will discuss the situation with the Saints but if a suitable outcome for our club cannot be reached, Dougal is well aware that he will remain a Port Adelaide player in 2020.”
Howard was touted as a potential inclusion in any trade for Essendon livewire Orazio Fantasia who has been heavily linked with a move to South Australia with Port Adelaide leading the chase.
But the silence from Fantasia continued on Wednesday, despite signing with Adelaide-based agent Michael Doughty, which may have hurt the Bombers’ chances of snaring the highly rated swingman.
Adelaide remains confident an appropriate deal will be made with Gold Coast for Hugh Greenwood during the trade period despite the Suns being able to use the threat of the pre-season draft to squeeze the Crows on a trade.
Greenwood last week informed the Crows that he wanted to go to the Suns, where he is set to get the security of a three-year deal with a games-based trigger for a fourth season.
The two clubs have kicked off talks to thrash out a deal this trade period.
People close to the deal are confident a deal will be done by next week’s trade period deadline but told The Advertiser the two clubs are some distance apart in their valuation of the former 27-year-old former Category B Rookie.
The Crows will hope to secure a second-round pick for Greenwood, or use him to achieve their goal of getting as many early draft picks as they can.
But the Suns believe his value lies closer to a third-round pick and could be prepared to play hard ball over Greenwood.
This would involve the Suns not doing a deal for Greenwood this trade period, waiting for the big-bodied midfielder to delist himself when out of contract and take him in the pre-season draft in which they have the first pick.
This would mean the Crows would lose Greenwood for nothing.
The Crows are confident a deal will be done before it gets to that stage, likely next week, and it could be done by getting a third club into the mix.
Orazio Fantasia could make a call on his future later in week after weeks of speculation that he will ask for a trade to South Australia.
Fantasia on Tuesday went under the knife for minor knee surgery, adding to his hip surgery he already had this off-season.
He is set to sit down with his new agent, TLA’s Michael Doughty who is based in Adelaide, today to assess his options and it is expected the 24-year-old will formally ask for a move.
Fantasia had been without an agent since last month when he parted with his manager Anthony McConville, fuelling speculation that he will ask for a trade to SA.
He this week signed with Doughty, who manages the majority of TLA’s Adelaide-based players, which is being viewed as the precursor for the livewire forward asking for a trade to SA.
Port Adelaide is the frontrunner for Fantasia’s services, with the Crows saying they are intending to target the draft.
A deal could involve Port swingman Dougal Howard, who is open-minded about a move to Essendon after receiving strong interest from Victorian clubs in recent weeks.
Sam Jacobs is still waiting on the confirmation of his deal that will take him to the GWS Giants, which has been slightly delayed as GWS try and not dilute the compensation it secured for losing Adam Tomlinson to Melbourne.
This means the Giants could now trade for Jacobs.
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Crows list manager Justin Reid told The Advertiser on Monday that he expected the Jacobs deal to be finalised within 24 to 48 hours but the compensation GWS received had made it “interesting”.
The Crows and the Western Bulldogs will continue to play hardball over the value of key defender Alex Keath, who has gone in for surgery at the Bulldogs’ insistence on a leg injury Adelaide believe could be managed without going under the knife.
Josh Jenkins is still struggling to gather concrete interest despite having a bargain-based price tag.
Because of the desire of both Jenkins and the Crows for his time at West Lakes the towering forward could come in for as little as $200,000 plus match payments next year.
While there has been little activity on the trade front so far, Port have resigned Trent McKenzie on a one-year deal.
He said on SEN at the halfway point through the season he was not confident of getting an extension but believes a strong finish to the year got him over the line.