PORT ADELAIDE General Manager – Football, Chris Davies was interviewed by David Wildy and Mark Bickley on the FIVEaa Sports Show on Thursday afternoon to wrap up the AFL trade period.
The Power came away from the trade period with ruckman Scott Lycett from West Coast and utilities Sam Mayes and Ryan Burton from Brisbane and Hawthorn respectively, as well as three picks inside the first round for next month’s AFL National Draft.
Port Adelaide also completed deals which saw Chad Wingard go to Hawthorn, Jared Polec and Jasper Pittard move to North Melbourne and Jack Hombsch to the Gold Coast.
Davies spoke about Wingard leaving, he discussed how happy he was with the trade period in general, and what kind of talent the club will chase at next month’s draft.
Chris Davies on Chad Wingard’s departure from Alberton:
“He felt like he’d got to a position where he was a bit complacent and stale and from our perspective, Ken was asking for some things from him for 2019 that he thought he might not be able to deliver so we get to a point where the decision needed to be made.
“It was a hard one for us to accept he wanted to go and there’s no doubt it was a hard one for Chad as well to make the call in the first place. The relationship between Chad and Ken has been really strong and they’ve had good quality discussions throughout the way and it ends in a situation where we’ve made a decision. As Chad said there’s no bad blood, we’ve got a really good deal for the club, and I’m sure that Chad will play some really good footy for Hawthorn.”
Chris Davies on the Power’s trade period:
“(List manager) Jason Cripps had a clear plan going in and I think he was able to execute it pretty well. We’ve got draft picks in, we probably saved some money with guys going out, which all bodes well for the future – getting talent in and having the capability down the track to spend some more potentially.
“We would have preferred Jared Polec to stay, we would have preferred Chad Wingard to stay but we think we’ve maximised the deals and with the players coming in. I’m really rapt to see Ryan Burton coming in, he’s started his AFL journey really well, and with three picks inside the top 15, there’s no doubt that we should have some high-end talent coming into our list in that draft.”
Chris Davies on how the draft will play out, given clubs can continue to trade picks.
“We’ll go with the flow, we’ve got a really good hand and we know that the teams above
“If Gold Coast or St Kilda were looking to trade out then the first conversation would be with us. It’ll be a fascinating time and it adds another dimension to the draft.”
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Chris Davies on what kind of talent the club will target at the draft:
“I think that’s fair to say that we’ve identified where we don’t have a lot of depth it’s probably with a little bit of that outside run. We do think we’ve got players who can do that job in our existing group but it’s also fair to say we want to add to that list and with picks 5, 10 and 15 we should be able to get some young run and talent.
“We’ve probably also got to consider that small forward group and whether there’s a change we want to make but those picks should be able to deliver us the players that we want.”
Chris Davies on potential further list changes:
“We probably don’t have to make too many changes. Historically we’ve gone in with a list of 38. We have delisted two guys in Jimmy Toumpas and Emmanuel Irra and we have had one, in Lindsay Thomas, who has retired so we’ll spend the next week or so considering what list changes we want to make and make them in the lead up to the draft.”
Chris Davies on the length of the trade period:
“They’ve cut it down by a couple of days. Some of the deals were still being done late but I think more of the bigger ones were done earlier this year
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