Fremantle are anticipating limited player movement in the upcoming Continental Tyres Trade Period, according to Head of Player Personnel David Walls.
The 2023 AFL Trade and Draft periods kicks off with the free agency period opening on Friday 6 October, while the trade period will start Monday October 9 and wrap up on 18 October.
The three day AFL Draft will be on Monday 20 November (first round), Tuesday 21 November (second round until completion) and Wednesday 22 November (rookie draft).
Walls is confident Fremantle can make Sean Darcy a ‘Docker for life’, with the star ruckman out of contract at the end of the 2024 season, while key defender Joel Hamling is also in discussions for a new deal.
“It’s coming along, we’ve met with Sean a number of times, met with his management and his family as well,” Walls said.
“They love Fremantle, they’re as passionate as we all are about success at Fremantle and where the Club’s going.
“Sean loves the lifestyle and living here, he’s heavily invested and the playing group love Sean and want to play with him as well.
“It’s still early days but I’m confident that he’ll be a Docker for life.”
Hamling is out of contract this year however Walls is eager for the key defender to re-sign. As well as helping Peel to the WAFL Grand Final, Hamling played four AFL games late this season as the 30-year-old put three injury-interrupted years behind him.
“We’d love to have Joel at Fremantle next year and we’re working through that at the moment,” Walls said.
“We’ve got an offer to him, we’re just working through that at the moment.
“His back half of the year was really strong and he’s moving the best he has for a number of years.
“His attitude at Peel was outstanding and he’s really helped develop a lot of our young guys to get them through to the grand final.
“It was good to see him play some (AFL) games at the end of the year as well.”
Liam Henry is likely to be the Club’s only outgoing player via trade this year, with the winger recently completing a medical with St Kilda.
“We’ve been informed by Liam and his manager that St Kilda is their preferred destination,” Walls said.
“We still haven’t caught up with St Kilda but we’ve been notified by Liam’s manager that he did a medical and he was all ticked off.
“We’re not going to be big players in this year’s trade period. Last year, we lost a lot of senior players.
“We’re probably going to have minimum changes this year, we won’t be doing a lot at the trade table and have only a few draft picks.”
Holding picks 22, 41, 55 and 59 in the draft, Walls said Fremantle would look at options to move up into a late first round pick.
He expects every Club’s draft hands to be heavily impacted by potential first round bids on a handful of players, including Jed Walter (Suns academy), Ethan Read (Suns academy), Jake Rogers (Suns academy), Jordan Croft (Bulldogs father-son) and Will McCabe (Hawks father-son).
“Gold Coast will do as much as they can to maximise that position and move their picks around,” Walls said.
“We’ll do our best to try and get our current pick 21 up into the teens.”
