Port Adelaide takes pole position in AFL Draft battle with Adelaide for star Croweaters
PORT Adelaide has made the first big move in the battle with archrival Adelaide for South Australia’s star teenagers — and it might not be finished moving and shaking.
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PORT Adelaide has made the first big play in the battle with archrival Adelaide for South Australia’s star teenagers — and it hasn’t finished moving and shaking.
The Power on Thursday pulled off a stunning trade with Fremantle, gaining selection 6 for a host of later picks.
It now has selections 6 and 10 at next month’s national draft and is in line to get picks 15 and 35 for star playmaker Chad Wingard, who wants to join Hawthorn.
Wingard — under contract to Port for another year — on Thursday night chose the Hawks as his preferred trade option ahead of the Western Bulldogs, who could have offered the Power selection 7.
The Power’s bumper, aggressive trade saw it leapfrog the Crows, who all year have made no secret of their desire to land SA young guns Jack Lukosius and Izak Rankine, in the draft standings.
Adelaide — after trading Mitch McGovern to Carlton — has picks 8, 13, 16 and 21.
It has declared it “won’t sell the farm’’ to move up the order to try to prise an earlier pick out of a rival.
But it is understood it has spoken to Gold Coast, which owns picks 2 and 3, St Kilda (4) and Brisbane (5) about what it would take to acquire a pick in the top five to give it a better chance of getting one of the three standout SA kids, which also includes North Adelaide premiership utility Connor Rozee.
Port, which had already secured West Coast premiership ruckman Scott Lycett as a free agent, is now in a position to draft either Rankine or Rozee.
With Lukosius likely to go to the Suns at 2 and the Suns favoured to take Rankine or Rozee at 3, one of the latter pair could slide to the Power at 6.
South Australian talent manager Brenton Phillips on Friday morning said he had no doubt Rankine was the most talented young prospect in this year’s draft — and ahead of wantaway Port star Chad Wingard at the same age.
“He’s an excitement machine who can win games by himself,” Phillips said.
“In my eyes, he’s the number one pick. He’s got that much talent it’s unbelievable.”
Phillips, who spent a decade as SA under-18 coach before starting his new role last year, has previously rated Wingard as the best player he has coached in his 10 years in charge of the SA under-18 side.
“I’d have Izak (Rankine) ahead of Chad (Wingard) at the same age,” Phillips told AFL Trade Radio on Friday.
“That’s how highly I rate Izak.”
Port, which had long been considered to be behind Adelaide in the race for the star young Croweaters, swapped picks 11, 23, 30 and 49 to the Dockers for pick 6 and a third-round pick next year.
The Power wants more later draft ammunition next year to use on father/son prospects Trent Burgoyne (son of Peter) and Jackson and Mitchell Mead (sons of Darren).
It could package the picks it is expected to get from Hawthorn to move even further up this year’s draft order.
“Our objective was to improve our position in this draft, in particular the top end as we believe it to be the strongest group seen for many years,” Port list manager Jason Cripps said.
“The picks that we used to assist in improving our position will be diluted with the number of Father/Son, NGA and Northern Academy players that are expected to be selected by the clubs that they are aligned to.
“A lot of planning, discussion and strategy goes into how we approach each trade period to ultimately achieve our objectives and secure talented players that improve our list.
“This trade gives us another top 10 pick, the highest since we selected Ollie Wines (7) in the 2012 draft, allowing us to bring in two high quality players.
“We also have an eye to the future and receiving a future third-round pick gives us further flexibility for potential deals both this year and into the future.”
andrew.capel@news.com.au