Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew set for crucial talks with Jack Martin?
Carlton’s hopes of securing Jack Martin for nothing in the pre-season draft hinge on talks between the forward and Stuart Dew in coming days. Can the Gold Coast coach convince him to stay?
Carlton
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Carlton’s ability to pull of a pre-season trade heist for Jack Martin will hinge on talks between the silky half-forward and Suns coach Stuart Dew in coming days.
Dew is expected to ask Martin whether there are circumstances in which he would play for the Suns again next year after the aborted trade between the Blues and Gold Coast.
But if he is emphatic about his determination not to play for the Suns there is every chance Gold Coast will not re-draft him in the pre-season draft.
Melbourne seems unlikely to draft a player who is adamant he will not play at the Demons, which means Carlton could swoop at pick 3.
The Suns remain adamant their hard-ball stance — not accepting a future second and third-round pick from Carlton for Martin — will pay off in the long run.
They want to make clear to clubs they will not accept their scraps or low-ball offers for players of Martin’s calibre and simply fold late in the trade period.
But rivals have wondered why they didn’t accept that deal and use those picks to trade into a higher selection or upgrade existing first-round picks using the 2020 selections.
In next year’s draft period there are so many father-son and academy players available early that clubs will be sure to want to trade in and out of early rounds to suit their purposes.
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Martin could put a hefty price on his head to scare off rivals, but it has emerged if he does that it would need to be for a deal of at least two years.
That would mean Melbourne would at least consider his price, aware if they did pick him in the pre-season draft they would have him at the Demons for two full seasons.
Meanwhile, Gold Coast will ramp up talks with star first-year tall Jack Lukosius in coming months after he returned from an overseas trip.
The Suns pulled off a massive coup by securing Ben King on a two-year contract extension during the trade period, securing him through to 2022.
They offered him a significant deal worth more than $500,000 in the third and fourth seasons, allowing the club four years to show him why the Victorian goalkicker should be a Sun for life.
Adelaide will push hard for Lukosius in next year’s trade period if he remains unsigned, but he is open to considering an extension similar to King’s deal.
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The timeline of that extension remains uncertain, but, like his housemate King, he is genuinely happy with the club after playing 21 games in his debut season.
The Suns on Tuesday re-signed Jacob Heron, Jacob Dawson, Nick Holman, Sam Fletcher and Mitch Riordan for 2020.
Today they added teenage small forward Malcolm Rosas Jr, the first player taken under the new AFL assistance package that allows Gold Coast to recruit players from the Darwin region before the draft.