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DOGS ZERO IN ON BUTTERS PLAN B<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs have their eyes firmly fixed on star Gold Coast midfielder Matt Rowell if they miss out on Zak Butters. <\/p>\n
The Dogs are pushing hard to land wantaway superstar Butters, but the Cats are considered to be the outright frontrunner in the race. <\/p>\n
And if it is that the in-demand Darley product ultimately desires a move down the highway, the Dogs have a \u201ccontingency plan\u201d. <\/p>\n
The Herald Sun\u2019s Scott Gullan reports the Dogs are all-in on Rowell, whom they also chased last year before the Brownlow medallist re-signed at Carrara. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs we know, Geelong has edged clear \u2014 that\u2019s the mail,\u201d Gullan began on Fox Footy\u2019s Midweek Tackle. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we\u2019re going to find out soon from Zak who he wants to go to, but I can tell you tonight that the Bulldogs have already got contingency plans. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all chips in for Matt Rowell. They met with him, as did other clubs like Collingwood and Essendon last year, and they were very impressed with him. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he was very impressed with Luke Beveridge. So, what\u2019s going to happen is (the Dogs) are going to have another go in this trade period.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rowell, 25, is contracted for another year before hitting restricted free agency. <\/p>\n
Fellow Midweek Tackle panellist Glenn McFarlane said he\u2019d be \u201creally surprised\u201d if Rowell was available for trade this October. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would say next year, very gettable,\u201d McFarlane said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at it now, Rowell will come back to Melbourne at some stage, he\u2019s very close to his family, he\u2019s an incredibly loyal person as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can understand why (the Dogs) are all chips in, I just think they might have to cool their jets, if they miss out on Zak Butters, for 12 more months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gullan revealed that the Dogs made a \u2018private pledge\u2019 to Marcus Bontempelli before he re-signed last year that they would target a midfield upgrade. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they signed the captain last year, he took a while, as he usually does, but a lot of it was because he wanted to see the direction,\u201d Gullan said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted to know that the next four years that he signed for, \u2018I\u2019m going to get some help\u2019 \u2026 he knew \u2018we\u2019ve got things happening here, but I\u2019m going to need help\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey (the Dogs) sold him Butters. So, if Butters is a miss, they have to placate the skipper \u2026 they owe it, in a way, to Bontempelli, to make someone like Rowell happen. <\/p>\n
\u201cWas (Bontempelli) ever going to leave? Maybe not, but he made sure that they knew \u2018we need to get this club up and going\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lions secure Bailey on long-term deal | 01:48<\/p>\n
NAS BACK IN RIVALS\u2019 SIGHTS<\/p>\n
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera is set to again become the subject of trade speculation. <\/p>\n
Ahead of another contract year, the 23-year-old South Australian will attract plenty of rival interest, and the Adelaide Crows are set to be one of those suitors after missing out on Brisbane\u2019s Zac Bailey. <\/p>\n
Despite Adelaide\u2019s best attempts at pursuing Bailey this year \u2014 reportedly offering a seven-year deal worth $10 million \u2014 the Lions\u2019 dynamo recommitted at Springfield on Tuesday for a further eight years. <\/p>\n
It forces the Crows, who are still hunting a needle-moving midfield upgrade, to pivot in the market. <\/p>\n
And the Herald Sun\u2019s Glenn McFarlane believes they\u2019ll turn their attention back to St Kilda superstar Wanganeen-Milera, whom they chased last year. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they\u2019ll do now is they\u2019ll pivot \u2014 they\u2019ll go back to Nas,\u201d McFarlane told Midweek Tackle. <\/p>\n
\u201cNas, last year, made the commitment for two years to St Kilda. He rejected more money at Port Adelaide and Adelaide. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, that\u2019ll be coming for sure. Saints have got to get that signature done well, because the Crows will be coming for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Glenelg product signed a two-year contract extension worth $4 million with the Saints last August. <\/p>\n
Wanganeen-Milera played 17 games this year after being hampered by injury, averaging 29.1 disposals and 1.1 goals per game. <\/p>\n
The 103-gamer won his second All-Australian blazer last month as one of the most electrifying players in the competition. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bulldogs are \u201cchips in\u201d on a rival superstar, while the rival hunt for Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera is set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-884466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884466","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=884466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}