The Bombers and Power have plenty to discuss over the next week.
Port Adelaide football boss Chris Davies and Essendon list manager Adrian Dodoro have shared the latest on the possibility of Bombers defender Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and Power wingman Xavier Duursma swapping clubs this off-season.
Zerk-Thatcher’s desire to cross the border and don Power colours has been common knowledge for some time. However, reports of Duursma’s potential Alberton departure this off-season have only recently come to the fore.
While a player-for-player swap may represent the key to unlocking a potential agreement, Port Adelaide’s Davies declared there hasn’t been any movement from Duursma’s camp.
“No request has come from Xavier’s side yet,” Davies started. “As I’ve said a number of times over the years, if a player ends up wanting to move from our club then we’ve got a decision to make, but right now that decision isn’t presenting itself.
“We certainly had a conversation with Xavier at the end of the year in order to try and align what our expectations are of him and also his position within the club, but from there, it’s really a discussion for the player [in terms of] does his perspective align with ours? And if not, then obviously there’ll be a discussion down the track, but that hasn’t come about yet.”
Quizzed directly about the possibility of a Duursma-for-Zerk-Thatcher swap, Davies was skeptical.
“I don’t think they are (related) unless it ends up that Xavier wants to go and wants to head to Essendon, I guess,” Davies said.
“That will be something, again, that plays out over the next period of time, but we’re looking at all of those deals individually at the moment, [but] if they end up being linked down the track, well, you know, so be it.
“That probably isn’t something that we can control that much as just knowing what we want to achieve through this trade period. I’ve always said over my time that individual deals, there is scrutiny over those, but you’re best to judge this at the end of the trade period and then probably again in four or five years’ time to work out whether it was worthwhile or not.
“We’ve got the people that we want to bring in, if we can get those done we think we’ll be a better team in 2024.”
Dodoro shared his perspective on the situation, with the Bombers’ list boss indicating Duursma hasn’t yet leaned one way or the other.
“He hasn’t indicated that (requesting a trade) to us, so if you’ve got news then it’s news to us, we certainly have spoken to him and we’ll just see how that plays out,” Dodoro stated.
As for Zerk-Thatcher’s trade value in a potential deal with the Power, Dodoro played it straight-bat.
“We don’t know yet because we haven’t had a discussion with Port Adelaide yet, so contrary to what you may have heard last week, [the reports were] actually not factual, there’s been no discussion with Port at all,” Dodoro declared.
“It depends if there might be players involved, but it’s certainly something that we’ll talk to Port about, we actually hold him in extremely high regard, we’ve got a three-year deal on the table and we don’t want to lose him, [it’s] simple as that.
“He’s a required player at the Essendon Football Club.”
The trade period concludes on Wednesday, October 18 at 7:30 PM (AEDT).
