Club great Tim Ginever’s strong message to Port Adelaide as key utility Dougal Howard explores his options
Port Adelaide great Tim Ginever has delivered a strong message to the Power as key utility Dougal Howard explores his options, saying he is the perfect swingman and should be ‘an untouchable’.
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Port Adelaide legend Tim Ginever has pleaded with the club not to trade tall utility Dougal Howard.
As the under-contract Howard explores opportunities at rival clubs — his name has been raised as possible trade bait for unsettled Essendon forward Orazio Fantasia — Ginever said the Power must hold on to him.
This is despite the 199cm Howard, whose best football has come as a key defender, understood to be disappointed by Port’s decision to want to cast him as a permanent forward.
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“Under no circumstances should Port trade Dougal,’’ said seven-times Port Magpies SANFL premiership player and triple flag-winning captain Ginever.
“How hard is it to get a 200cm player who can run fast, jump high, play back, forward and pinch-hit in the ruck?
“How many of them are in the comp? I’m telling you, there’s not too many.
“But I can find plenty of small forwards.
“Not in 100 years would I put Dougal on the trade table for Fantasia.’’
Ginever said he rated 75-game, 110-goal small forward Fantasia but that if Port was to do a deal, the 23-year-old Howard must not be part of it.
“Dougal is way too valuable,’’ he told The Advertiser.
“I know Port has said it wants to use him primarily as a forward but he’s got plenty of strings to his bow and he should be used as that perfect swingman.
“Players of his ilk are so hard to get. If you go back to the draft to try to get someone like him, not only are they hard to find but when you get them they take so long to develop.
“He has some great football in front of him and even captained Port for a game this year, which shows he has leadership traits as well.
“So he should be an untouchable.’’
Howard, who is contracted until the end of 2022, has played 45 games, including 35 in the past two years, since making his debut in 2016.
He is regarded as being one of the best defensive spoilers in the competition while he can also go forward and kick goals, having booted multiple goals in four games this season.
But he is understood to have been disappointed by being told by Port at his end-of-season review that it views him primarily as a forward and wants him to develop that part of his game.
Howard has reportedly met with Essendon, North Melbourne and St Kilda in the past two weeks, while Collingwood has inquired about him.