On Wednesday, Krakouer’s manager Carlos De Costa was quoted in Melbourne’s The Age newspaper saying that the West Australian had decided to leave the Power at the end of the year.
The report also said De Costa had told Port Adelaide of Krakouer’s intentions on Monday night.
Rohde denied any such conversation had taken place and late on Wednesday afternoon said he still didn’t know whether Krakouer had quit the club or not.
“It appears as though Nathan’s not a Port Adelaide player anymore,” Rohde said.
“We heard the news this morning that his manager was quoted in a Melbourne paper saying that Nathan was leaving, which was news to us.
“I rang Nathan this morning and spoke to him about it. He was saying he hadn’t made his decision at that stage, but obviously his manager has come out and said that he’s leaving.
“We’ve made contact with Nathan’s manager. In fact, I got a text message from him before saying that Nathan would be leaving and then a phone message after that. We’ve actually written to his management to find out in writing what Nathan’s intentions will be.”
Krakouer has been strongly linked to the Gold Coast Suns, but there has also been speculation he could seek a trade back home to WA.
The attacking half-back came close to walking out on the club to return to Perth at the end of 2008, but was talked into staying by former coach Mark Williams.
Rohde said Krakouer’s management were yet to confirm where he was headed.
“You’d have to talk to Nathan about all those things … getting to the bottom of it is very difficult,” Rohde said.
“He’s got a young boy who is here and a partner from Alice Springs and that’s certainly caused some issues throughout the season. Until we get it clear we probably assume he’s going to the Gold Coast, but he hasn’t told us that at this stage.
“We’ll have to wait and see and probably read about it in the newspaper like everyone else.”
The events at Alberton come less than 24 hours after Adelaide defender Nathan Bock became the first player to officially pledge his allegiance to the Suns.
Although disappointed with his decision, the Crows praised Bock for being honest and open about his intentions to leave at the end of the season.
Rohde admitted it was hard to know what was the right way to handle the situation of a player leaving his club in-season - a concept foreign to AFL until now - but said he was extremely disappointed with the way things had panned out overnight.
“To see in the newspaper this morning that he’s leaving is not the way to find out the destiny of your players, and for Nathan to still be unsure of what the situation is means there’s maybe not great communication between Nathan and his manager,” Rohde said.
“To be brutally honest, we’d heard the rumours and we’ve had discussions all the way through, so we’ve known that this was a possibility but we probably didn’t expect it to manifest in this way.
“You rely on honesty from everyone involved. We still hope that Nathan Krakouer will be a Port Adelaide player. We might be very naïve to think that there’s a chance that he’s staying, but we’ve had a relationship with Nathan over four years and we’d like to think that we could sit down with him and talk our way through it.”
Rohde said the club expected to receive written confirmation of Krakouer’s intentions by the end of the day.
