Power threatens to hijack Crows’ bid for Lions premiership hero Callum Ah Chee
The Crows remain confident they will land Callum Ah Chee at the pre-season draft, but they may face a nervous wait as Port Adelaide discusses the possibility of a pursuit of the Lions star.
Adelaide footy boss Adam Kelly says the Crows are confident they will get Callum Ah Chee in the pre-season draft, but Port Adelaide says it will “explore” swooping in.
The 28-year-old dual-premiership winner at Brisbane now has to wait until next month’s pre-season draft to become a Crow, after Adelaide and the Lions remained at loggerheads over his value during the trade period.
Ah Chee wants to join the Crows, who have offered him a five-year contract.
Brisbane is expected to try and convince him to stay in Queensland, and offer him a new deal, but his manager Ben Williams said on Wednesday night that the chances of Ah Chee remaining a Lion were zero.
Ah Chee going to the pre-season draft does create the opportunity for rival clubs with picks before the Crows to swoop in on him.
One of them is the Power and list boss Jason Cripps did say it would be something Port would explore.
“Obviously it is pretty fresh, we will no doubt have the discussion internally whether we see that as a viable option for us and we will have the discussion with Ben Williams,” he told Trade Radio.
“But we haven’t had any previous discussions with Ben or Callum, he wasn’t a priority for us.”
It is expected the Crows will just front-end Ah Chee’s contract to deter rivals from selecting him.
Kelly said the Crows were confident they would end up with him.
“The first point is that Cal will (now) need to nominate for the pre-season draft and in doing so has the ability to nominate his terms, which will become visible to any other club who has any interest in his services,” Kelly told the Crows website.
“We are as confident as we can be at this stage. Obviously other clubs have got the opportunity before us … But we also know those clubs are going to need to be considerate of the fact that this is a player who has one objective in mind and that is to play with Adelaide.”
Cripps hinted that this might impact the Power’s future plans too much.
“We have some strategies in place in terms of draft, player acquisition and targeting players, as well as retention which is going to be pretty important for us over the next couple of years also,” he said.
“So that all goes into the part of strategy and planning moving forward and we don’t want to impact that but sometimes when opportunities pop-up that you weren’t expecting.
“I think we need to do our due diligence and explore that a little bit further to see whether it is a realistic option for us without impacting the future planning and strategy we have in place.”
‘ZERO CHANCE’ AH CHEE WON’T BE A CROW EVEN AFTER LIONS STALEMATE
Adelaide will now look to walk Callum Ah Chee to the pre-season draft after it was unable to strike a deal with Brisbane in a dramatic finish to the trade period.
But the Crows did come away from the trade deadline with North Melbourne’s Finnbar Maley.
The Crows and Lions remained at loggerheads for most of this year’s trade period over the valuation of Ah Chee, who requested a move to Adelaide.
Brisbane wanted a first round or a future first round pick for its two-time premiership winning forward.
The Crows were offering a future second round pick for the 28-year-old, who is out of contract.
On Wednesday evening before the deadline the Crows upped its offer to include a future third pick and even though they could walk Ah Chee to the pre-season draft and leave the Lions with nothing Brisbane said no to that.
Ah Chee will remain a Lion for now but the Crows – who are offering a five-year deal to him – are ahead of Brisbane in the pre-season draft.
His manager Ben Williams said Ah Chee would now get to the Crows via the pre-season draft.
“He is leaving,” he said.
“The only way for Cal to get there is through the pre-season draft.”
Crows list boss Justin Reid said they put their “best foot forward” but couldn’t satisfy the Lions’ demands.
“We are disappointed for Cal and his family,” he said.
“Unfortunately we have to take the long option.”
Williams slammed the Lions for not taking the Crows offer, especially around a two-time premiership player.
“We tried to go through the front door and be transparent,” he said.
Brisbane list manager Dom Ambrogio defended the Lions’ hard-line stance.
“I think he will be disappointed I am for him but at the end of the day it was out of our control,” he said.
“We put a variety of options to the Crows, it could have been done in a lot of different ways with pick slides and over different years.”
One deal they did get over the line was swooping on forward/ruck Maley.
The Crows got the 22-year-old and pick No. 64 from North Melbourne for their No. 57 pick and a 2026 fourth-round selection.
Maley, the son of former Adelaide 36ers player and NBL legend Paul Maley, played seven games for the Kangaroos this year.
He was out of contract and will add to the Crows’ tall stocks.
Reid said they were excited about what Maley could do at the club.
“With Finnbar we were really pleased to get a deal across the line, given what we’ve seen from him,” Reid said.
“With plenty of height and a strong set of hands, he’ll be a valuable addition to our squad.
“We’re excited to see what Finnbar can achieve at our club.”
North Melbourne footy boss Todd Viney wished Maley well at the Crows.
“Finnbar has made a good impact at the club over the past couple of years, particularly with his enthusiasm and commitment to developing his game,” he said.
Port Adelaide made no deals on the night.
There was a possibility of ruckman Ivan Soldo leaving Alberton after just the one AFL game in 2025, but this was dependent on if Geelong could have struck a deal with St Kilda for Rowan Marshall.
But the Cats were unable to convince the Saints to part with the gun ruckman.
Originally published as Power threatens to hijack Crows’ bid for Lions premiership hero Callum Ah Chee
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