AFL trade: Pick 13, Jack Lukosius silver linings in deal that sends Dan Houston from Power to Pies

Port Adelaide wanted more for Dan Houston – they didn’t get it. But as MATT TURNER writes, the Power can still come out on top in their three-way trade with the Pies and Suns.

Concerns that Gold Coast would trade pick 13 led to Port Adelaide agreeing to the exact same three-way deal the Power refused to accept less than 24 hours earlier.

Port did not go ahead with the trade on Monday night because the football subcommittee and list management team – not the board – wanted to let it breathe, feeling it was unders.

They hoped a delay could squeeze more out of the Suns and Collingwood.

But with no sweeteners forthcoming on Tuesday and Gold Coast threatening to send pick 13 elsewhere, it was Port that blinked.

The centrepiece of the deal, Power star Dan Houston, was desperate to get to the Magpies and privately adamant he was not returning to Alberton.

Collingwood knew it so Port had little leverage.

Dan Houston is a Pie. Picture: Mark Stewart

North Melbourne was understood to be coming for pick 13, which in turn it would have used to get back in for Houston, albeit he did not want to play for the cellar-dweller.

And it was believed the deal the Kangaroos were going to offer Port would have been less than what the Power ultimately took.

So Port gets Gold Coast swingman Jack Lukosius, Collingwood goalsneak Joe Richards, ex-Crows wingman Rory Atkins and picks 13, 29, 36 and 50 for Houston, a future first-rounder and two later selections (39, 58) this year.

Break it down and it is 13, 29, two slight pick upgrades, Richards and Atkins for one of the Power’s best players, who happens to be among the top half-backs in the AFL.

A 28-year-old who was part of Port’s leadership group and coming off consecutive top-five finishes in the best-and-fairest.

The final deal fell well short of the two first-rounders Melbourne was preparing to give up until Houston got cold feet on wanting to go there amid the Demons’ off-field issues.

Houston will don the black and white next year, at Collingwood. Picture: Matt Sampson

Port Adelaide is expected to use pick 13 to pursue another move – either up or down the order of next month’s national draft.

That could happen on deadline day on Wednesday, but also might not occur until draft night in five weeks.

The Power wants to sink its teeth into this year’s draft pool, considering it far stronger than 2025.

Gold Coast was believed to have attached pick 29 to convince Port to take on Atkins’ one-year contract of about $400,000 in what was essentially a salary dump.

Atkins, 30, has played 138 games, but just 37 in four years since joining the Suns from the Crows at the end of 2020.

While the Power might not look winners on paper right now, Lukosius blossoming into the type of talent that led to him being taken at No. 2 in the 2018 super draft could change that.

The 24-year-old sweet-kicking South Australian arrives on a six-season deal and will help address some of the Power’s issues in attack as it begins the post-Charlie Dixon era.

Suggestions that Port’s board got involved to kybosh the three-way trade on Monday morning were understood to be incorrect.

The decision to hold off was made after talks between the list management team, led by Jason , and Port’s football committee.

Three board members – JAM TV chief executive Cos Cardone, premiership captain Warren Tredrea and former football operations manager Rob Snowdon – are on the football committee, along with football boss Chris Davies and ex-skipper Dom Cassisi.

The board’s involvement came earlier in the process when it approved the club dealing a future first for a third straight year, prior to the AFL allowing the Power to trade it.