Power Satisfied With Trades
Port Adelaide has left itself open to raids on its uncontracted players, but the club is still very happy with its Trade Week results
PORT Adelaide has conceded it has left itself open for raids on its uncontracted players at the end of 2012 after opting to deal with Greater Western Sydney for veterans Chad Cornes and Dean Brogan.
The Power traded the pair and NAB AFL Draft selection No.69 to the Giants for pick No.49 on Monday, hours before the trade week deadline of 2pm.
They did so with the knowledge the Giants can now make an approach to any uncontracted player next season under their list establishment rules after deciding not to push the new club to take either player using that process.
General manager - football Peter Rohde said it came down to the Power wanting to send off their experienced pair, who retired this year having played a combined total of 413 games, in the right manner although conceded it would have been preferable to force the Giants to play their card now.
"That would have been our aim but it was pretty clear they wouldn't have taken Chad and Broges under those circumstances," he said, as the Power wrapped up their trade week on Monday at Melbourne's Etihad Stadium.
"Then they would have been left high and dry, which wouldn't have been good for anyone I don't think.
"It wouldn't have been great for our club to treat two premiership players and past champions that way.
"We would have loved to have been protected from losing another uncontracted player in the future but that was never going to happen.
"We wanted to make sure we did the right thing by them, wanted to get some value for our club out of it as well and to be honest, we would have been delisting them in a couple of weeks' time."
Rohde said Port Adelaide was satisfied with its trade period, having secured West Coast midfielder Brad Ebert and Hawthorn ruckman Brent Renouf.
Ebert made his way to the club in a deal that saw the Power also secure pick No.45, in exchange for selections No.28 and No.49, with the latter pick originally coming from the Giants as part of the Cornes-Brogan deal.
Rohde said the trades, which saw the Power give up selection No.33 to the Hawks for Renouf, capped off a successful week after an initial threat to push Ebert through to the December NAB AFL Pre-season Draft.
"We were keen to do the right thing by West Coast and we were keen to get him to our club as quickly as possible to start pre-season," he said.
"All those things came into it. Some people encouraged us to force him through to the pre-season draft and pick him up then but I don't think that's good for the industry or good for anyone.
"We're happy in the end to give up 28 and 33 for Brad and a ruckman and improve our position a bit later in the draft.
"We came into Trade Week with the view we wanted to keep our first pick and to get a ruckman and Brad back to the club, and that's what we've been able to achieve and I suppose in five years' time we'll look back and see how it's all worked out.
"[Ebert] has got a long heritage at Port Adelaide footy club and since he was drafted we've always had an eye to try and get him back to our club, and now we're able to reunite him with Port Adelaide and get Brad and [cousin] Brett to play together.
"Both their fathers played together so it's a great story for the club."
Meanwhile, out-of-favour and uncontracted forward Daniel Motlop remains in footballing limbo after the Power failed to strike a trade for him.
The 29-year-old was reported to have been seeking on a trade to Western Australia to be closer to his young son, who lives in Perth.
"We're going to sit down now and discuss the whole Daniel Motlop situation," Rohde said.
"He was keen to be traded, there's no doubt about that, and we spoke to a couple of clubs briefly about him and that's not going to happen.
"We'll get everything together over the next couple of days and make a decision on Daniel going forward."
No trades are official until paperwork has been accepted by the AFL and formally recognised after 2pm on Monday, October 17.
Follow our complete coverage of the 2011 AFL exchange period from October 10-17. Join the AFL trade conversation on Twitter: use #tradeweek in your tweets
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs