report in the The Age<\/a> after there was no significant discussions between the Bombers and Hawks on a Merrett deal during the first week of the trade period.<\/p>\nBut while Essendon\u2019s footy department could eventually agree to a trade involving its star skipper, the decision would need to be ticked off at board level.<\/p>\n
That board is headed by new president Andrew Welsh, who\u2019s been adamant since stepping into the role that Merrett won\u2019t be traded.<\/p>\n
Talks are expected to ramp up next week, though the Bombers are reportedly \u201cholding firm with their line\u201d that the midfielder won\u2019t be traded.<\/p>\n
The Hawks have indicated they\u2019d be willing to trade their first-round pick, No. 9, but there has been no indication of potential players that could be included in the deal.<\/p>\n
Nine\u2019s Tom Morris reports there\u2019s been \u201ca lot of work going on behind the scenes\u201d and \u201cthere\u2019s every chance a third club gets involved to assist the Hawks\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one is going to deep and the Hawks would need to come up with at least two first rounders to satisfy Essendon,\u201d Morris said.<\/p>\n
Cats to offer huge package for Curnow | 00:57<\/p>\n
CATS STILL EYEING MARSHALL, CURNOW… BUT UNLIKELY TO DEAL PLAYERS<\/p>\n
Geelong is still determined to acquire both Charlie Curnow and Rowan Marshall, despite having their initial offers for both players turned down. <\/p>\n
But the Cats say it\u2019s unlikely they\u2019re prepared to send out players in a trade.<\/p>\n
Geelong and the Saints were unable to strike a deal for Marshall in the first week of the trade period. The Cats offered their first-round pick, No. 19, but St Kilda preferred a future first-rounder.<\/p>\n
It prompted Geelong to instead focus on Curnow later in the week. They offered Carlton three-first round picks over the next three drafts for the superstar forward in a package that also got rejected.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a view that the Curnow deal, in particular, might require the Cats to include a player to get it over the line, with Gryan Miers\u2019 name emerging in trade circles.<\/p>\n
But Cats football boss Andrew Mackie suggested Miers nor any other Cats player would be dealt away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think so, we haven\u2019t had a player come to us and ask to be traded. Someone like Gryan, and others, we just love part of our team,\u201d Mackie told AFL Trade Radio.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome stuff we did well throughout the year, fell short. But there\u2019s a lot to like and a player like Gryan is bloody important to that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI often heard in our conversations clubs wanting our players, I get the speculation out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can Marshall & TDK co-exist at Saints | 04:21<\/p>\n
EAGLES TO LAND ROBERTSON FOR FREE<\/p>\n
The West Coast Eagles could get Deven Robertson for nothing, with Brisbane set to delist the West Australian midfielder, according to multiple reports.<\/p>\n
That would open the door for the Eagles to sign the 24-year old as a delisted free agent or even list him as a rookie, with a trade before next Wednesday\u2019s deadline considered unlikely.<\/p>\n
West Coast had four extra rookie spots as part of the assistant package given to the club after the wooden spooners finished in the bottom three for a fourth-straight season.<\/p>\n
Lions list boss Dom Ambrogio all but confirmed Robertson would make his way to West Coast in any case.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been a great contributor for our footy club, he\u2019s been a tough competitor. He\u2019s just been stuck in a situation where he\u2019s been behind a few other players,\u201d Ambrogio told AFL Trade Radio.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll hold him through the trade period and see what comes off this, but he\u2019s been pretty clear that he\u2019d like to get over to West Coast and there\u2019s been some ongoing interest there over the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure when we get to the end of the trade period, he\u2019ll find his way one way or the other there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Zach Merrett trade would need to be ticked off by the Essendon higher-ups. Plus Geelong\u2019s trade period…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,110607,107267,64,63,689,55,639,126891,1129,126890,126300,44388,10031,667,54883,1127,7492,126892,677,12922,85,1122,1117,126889,11236,1133,12920,660,7067],"class_list":["post-204028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-andrew-mackie","tag-andrew-welsh","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-bombers-board","tag-charlie-curnow","tag-conversations-clubs","tag-day-panel","tag-deven-robertson","tag-first-round-pick","tag-footy-club","tag-footy-department","tag-fox-footy","tag-hawthorn-hawks","tag-lions-list-boss","tag-oceania","tag-player-movement-news","tag-sports","tag-st-kilda","tag-tom-de-koning","tag-trade-circles","tag-trade-news","tag-trade-period","tag-trade-whispers","tag-victoria","tag-west-coast-eagles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204028","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=204028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}