Gun Power midfielder Ollie Wines committed to revival at Alberton as AFL analyst recommends him as trade bait
PORT Adelaide’s captain-in-waiting Ollie Wines is committed to the revival plan at Alberton as the Power is being sensationally encouraged to unload the midfielder in this month’s AFL trade market.
PORT Adelaide’s captain-in-waiting Ollie Wines is committed to the revival plan at Alberton as the Power is being sensationally encouraged to unload the midfielder in this month’s AFL trade market.
Former Hawthorn recruiting master Gary Buckenara is questioning why Port Adelaide has not put Wines — rather than vice-captain Hamish Hartlett — on the trade block to achieve its aim of finding valued draft picks to revive its player list.
Buckenara notes: “Wines is a big-bodied midfielder and Port Adelaide would hate to lose him, but you can generally replace big-bodied midfielders easier than you can key-position players or ruckmen. Could Wines, who definitely has currency on the trade table, help them bring in a good key forward or key defender?”
While Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has put the “anything is possible” label on the Power’s trade agenda, 21-year-old Wines would be among the small group of must-keep players at Alberton.
Wines’ manager Nick Gieschen Tuesday dismissed the Victorian would want to consider a trade — eight months after signing a contract extension that keeps him at Port Adelaide until the end of the 2018 AFL season.
“Ollie is frustrated like others at the football club,” Gieschen said. “But we’re sure Port Adelaide will bounce back — and Ollie excited to be part of that (revival).”
By Port Adelaide’s rankings from its club champion count, Wines is at No. 2 — behind elite midfielder Robbie Gray. His 2016 season was hindered in the summer by having to recuperate from shoulder surgery — and challenged at six weeks before the end of the home-and-away season by a cutting review from Hinkley.
In his league-wide list analysis for The Advertiser website, Buckenara notes putting Wines into trade talks sets up a “delicate situation” at Alberton.
“You need to make sure you’re getting either early picks to get good players in the draft or bringing in proven good players from other clubs that address a positional need and will help improve your team immediately,” Buckenara said. “At the trade table, Wines would be worth a first-round pick in this draft.”
Port Adelaide would consider a first-round draft pick — even a top-five pick — as a poor return on its four-year investment in Wines, a No. 7 call in the 2012 AFL national draft. More so when Wines is seen by Power fans as the face of the team — and a potential club captain.
Port Adelaide’s strategy in this month’s AFL trade talks — that open at Etihad Stadium on Monday — is designed to inject new blood in a player group that has failed to hold to promise in the past two seasons when the Power has ranked ninth and 10th.
The Power has a trade list of 13 players, headlined by Hartlett who this week will meet with Victorian-based AFL clubs to determine where he should seek a new future. The midfielder-defender will carry to that club the five-year contract he signed at Alberton during last year’s trade period when he rejected Richmond and North Melbourne.
Port Adelaide expects a first-round draft pick for Hartlett. The Power will need to generate interest from more than one club to ensure an auction for Hartlett — otherwise, with just one suitor, the trade will drag to the market deadline at 1.30pm on Thursday, October 20.
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au