Port Adelaide’s Jason Cripps has refuted claims they’re bitter after Orazio Fantasia committed to Essendon
Port Adelaide’s list manager is adamant the Power never made a pitch to Orazio Fantasia and had no issue with the South Australian forward wanting to stay at Essendon.
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Port Adelaide list manager Jason Cripps has denied Port Adelaide is disgruntled after Orazio Fantasia committed to the Essendon Football Club on Thursday.
Speculation was rife that the South Australian was weighing up his future with Essendon and wanted to head home. That only grew louder when he changed managers linking with the Adelaide-based Michael Doughty.
But Cripps said on Friday Port Adelaide didn’t sit down with Fantasia and they were far from bemused by the decision.
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“That’s certainly not the case,’’ Cripps said on AFL Trade Radio.
“As Chris Davies has stated for many weeks now, any South Australian young boy who is talented and declares that he wants to come home, and like the Crows, we’d like to get in front of them and have a conversation.
“He changed managers but no point did Orazio say he actually wanted to come home. We never met with him, we never made any pitch, it’s completely false.
“I think in fairness to Orazio, it says a lot about him, he stayed despite his family links back home, he’s obviously very loyal to Essendon,’’ he said.
“We’re not disgruntled and at no stage did Orazio say he wants to come home,’’ he said.
Cripps said they were open discussions surrounding Dougal Howard who has stated that if he’s traded, he’d like to play for St Kilda despite being contracted until the end of 2022.
“He’s a contracted player,’’ Cripps said.
“It needs to be both ways. We had an honest conversation at the end of the season.
“He’s an important player, it’s pretty hard to find guys that can play either end, he’s really valuable but at the same time you have to look at ways to improve your list and that’s where we’re at with Dougal,’’ Cripps added.