reports purport disenchantment amid the Moorabbin club\u2019s bevy of imports<\/a>. <\/p>\nThe 29-year-old club captain this year averaged just 20.9 disposals per game \u2014 his lowest mean since 2016 at the Giants \u2014 and was curiously named sub in St Kilda\u2019s Round 21 win over North Melbourne. <\/p>\n
Wood: \u201cHe\u2019s clearly not at his best in that midfield; we\u2019ve got a significant influx of players (arriving) at Moorabbin \u2014 that\u2019s an understatement to say the least.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gullan: \u201cPlayer harmony, they love him, he\u2019s crucial to the locker room. And then you\u2019ve got Ross and the list guys. Remember, even early days, he wasn\u2019t sure about Jack in Ross way \u2014 and I think he now loves him, loves the way he plays \u2014 but making him the sub, and (these) little messages were almost preparing him and Saints fans for \u2018if we pull the bullet on him, we\u2019re prepared to do it\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf a club comes to us \u2014 I think that\u2019s what they\u2019re waiting for. If an opposition club bowls up a first-round pick or a juicy deal, they can go \u2018yep, no worries\u2019. But they\u2019ve got to understand, bringing Tom De Koning in, if Rowan Marshall goes, there are a bit of harmony things that they have to be across here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barnes: \u201cThat (West Coast) is the kind of club we\u2019re looking for. He\u2019s not the kind of player that puts you over the top. Like, we know Hawthorn is scouting around for an A-grade midfielder \u2014 that\u2019s not Jack Steele that\u2019s going to be that kind of guy. It\u2019s probably a rebuilding team that wants the leadership in there. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re paying all these people (recruits) millions and millions of dollars, and then you\u2019re probably moving him (Steele) out because you don\u2019t want really to pay him \u2014 what about the millions you\u2019ve spent on everyone else? That has to rip the fabric of the locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to De Koning, the Saints are set to welcome swingman Jack Silvagni, forward Liam Ryan, defender Leek Aleer, and have been linked to Gold Coast\u2019s Sam Flanders. <\/p>\n
Draper tells Dons he will depart | 00:24<\/p>\n
ZAK BUTTERS (PORT ADELAIDE)<\/p>\n
Of these four names, pre-agent Butters is the least likely to have a big call made on his future this off-season \u2014 but there\u2019s still a high likelihood he\u2019s the centre of attention come the final days of the trade period. <\/p>\n
The 25-year-oldis being tipped to return home to Victoria once his contract expires next year, with the likes of Geelong, the Western Bulldogs, Hawthorn and Essendon thought to be the likeliest potential suitors. <\/p>\n
Gullan: \u201cThis is a trade week special, isn\u2019t it? This is a second-last day of trade week (situation). Trade radio has been banging on for two weeks, and suddenly, a club might go to Port … Zak is a man of his word, I\u2019m told, and he has said \u2018I am going to see this contract out\u2019, and then he\u2019s going. He hasn\u2019t made any secret of that, Port knows that. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut if Port went to him and go \u2018one of these clubs (like the Bulldogs or Essendon, or one of the ones he wants to go to) have come to us with this amazing offer, would you consider going now? <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it would be up to Port (to say) … we want you to stay with Josh Carr for his first year, you\u2019re our vice-captain, you\u2019re a superstar \u2014 but right now, we could get three first-round picks, we\u2019re going to do this. That\u2019s the scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barnes: \u201cIt has to be something like that, but nobody really has that capital to do it. Essendon has two picks in the top 10, but Zak\u2019s probably going \u2018I\u2019m not going to Tullamarine\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf Carlton can flip Charlie Curnow and get a haul for him, do you go to Port Adelaide (thinking) \u2018if we get this, can we get that?\u2019 That\u2019s probably the kind of thing you\u2019re looking at. <\/p>\n
\u201cThose kinds of deals are pretty rare, (but) that\u2019s the only way I think it could happen. And then, Zak, who we know wants to be on the western side of town, does he want to play at Ikon Park? That\u2019s another question.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood faces a negotiation conundrum with one of its most beloved stars amid rival interest, while St Kilda…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[36664,638,64,63,689,55,639,91262,32120,1129,91264,16686,91124,51248,91266,19099,13213,2485,91260,91255,3231,36878,681,91125,27709,15631,20780,11182,91257,18093,72872,91259,677,63149,25294,91254,74723,31723,51376,6082,701,91265,11244,49776,29653,1124,85,1122,1117,19065,91267,91263,91258,11236,1133,91256,660,698,91261,23510],"class_list":["post-131665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-adam-treloar","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-brody-mihocek","tag-calf-injuries","tag-charlie-curnow","tag-club-person","tag-contract-calls","tag-contract-decisions","tag-contract-players","tag-crunch-call","tag-finals-campaign","tag-finals-series","tag-gold-coast","tag-hardball-thing","tag-harmony-things","tag-jack-jovanovski","tag-jamie-elliott","tag-jon-ralph","tag-josh-barnes","tag-josh-carr","tag-lauren-wood","tag-list-guys","tag-locker-room","tag-maiden-team-selection","tag-midfield-depth","tag-movement-speculation","tag-negotiation-conundrum","tag-oceania","tag-one-year-contract","tag-one-year-deal","tag-opposition-club-bowls","tag-out-of-contract-midfielder","tag-paul-guerra","tag-player-harmony","tag-port-adelaide","tag-queensland","tag-rebuilding-team","tag-sam-draper","tag-sam-flanders","tag-scott-gullan","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-st-kilda","tag-tom-de-koning","tag-tom-liberatore","tag-toughest-contract","tag-toughest-trade","tag-trade-decisions","tag-trade-news","tag-trade-period","tag-trade-radio","tag-victoria","tag-western-bulldogs","tag-western-side","tag-zak-butters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}