Bombertalk

HOLD ON PORT, DONS DEAL

ESSENDON and Port Adelaide are making slow progress on deals for Xavier Duursma and Brandon Zerk-Thatcher, with talks between the two clubs expected to ramp up in the coming days.

The Bombers had been hopeful of including the two players in the same deal, after the contracted Duurmsa nominated Brad Scott's side as his club of choice having been offered a four-year deal to move back to Victoria.

Essendon still has a three-year offer on the table for Zerk-Thatcher to stay, but he has already informed the club that he wants to return to his home state of South Australia and join Port Adelaide.

Bombers list manager Adrian Dodoro declared his belief on Wednesday that deals for Duursma and Zerk-Thatcher go "hand-in-hand", but said the two clubs were yet to reach the "nitty gritty" of trade talks.

Meanwhile,.... Zerk-Thatcher's manager Tom McConville from Mac Sports said he remained hopeful negotiations would progress by next Wednesday's deadline. "It's moving forward," McConville told Gettable.

"That's in the hands of Jason Cripps and Adrian Dodoro. Those two blokes are seasoned campaigners and I'm sure they'll come to an agreement as the week rolls on. We're trusting and hoping that it gets done." – Riley Beveridge

s'dreams wrote: ↑Thu Oct 12, 2023 10:18 am Port has apparently tied a swap of second round draft picks to the deal. They want BZT and pick 30 for Duursma and their pick 40.

A bit rich given Duursma is a fringe player who only got 7 games in 2023 yet BZT is in our best 22 and is a key back (well not really but he played there a lot).

Port sees us as their bitches.

In any case, the deal won't proceed until the Ratugolea deal gets done. Port is offering pick 22 for the trade but Geelong insists that is not good enough. Again, Geelong is asking overs seeing they dropped Ratugolea on form once this year and he got hamstring injuries twice (midyear and round 23).

The Cats want Oliver Lord and pick 22. Lord was drafted in 2020 (pick 49) and only got on the park this year (13 games for 15 goals).

It is ironic that Port is arguing that they invested a lot of time and effort into a late draft pick to get him ready for AFL football...

BenDoolan wrote: ↑Sat Oct 14, 2023 7:38 am Do I detect a NZ accent with that Pinot Noir?