Carlton is seeking a future pick for Paddy Dow from St Kilda as it warns North Melbourne a high price will be put on the head of contracted speedster Zac Fisher.
Dow, who is out of contract, requested a trade to the Saints on Sunday after playing 10 games in 2023, but being confined to the sub role on five occasions.
Blues list manager Nick Austin said the club would “love to keep” Dow but accepted he could find more opportunity elsewhere after playing 73 games since he was selected with pick 3 in the 2017 draft.
“We’ve had some good discussions with Paddy and his management at the back end of the year,” Austin said.
“His exit meeting was really productive – we’d obviously love to keep Paddy but we’ve also agreed to help him further his opportunities to help his career.
“So we’ll work with St Kilda, we’re just after something we can use in the future, that will be the preference.”
Austin said discussions had started with the Kangaroos over a trade for Fisher, who fell out of favour for most of the 2023 season before a promising shift to halfback in the final rounds.
The 25-year-old was dropped after round 24 and did not play in Carlton’s three finals, but Austin said the Blues would drive a hard bargain for the left-footer.
“Zac’s got two years to run on a contract – he’s proven himself to be a quality AFL player,” he said.
“(We) had a little bit of a start with Brady (Rawlings) over the combine, but North have got a fair bit going on too, so we’ll be looking for something that represents the opportunity they’ve presented Zac but also what Zac means to us.”
Austin said there was some interest in Gold Coast wingman Elijah Hollands, the older brother of Carlton’s Ollie Hollands, but a lot remained to be discussed before a deal could be reached.
The older Hollands was taken with pick 7 in the 2020 draft but has only managed 14 games in three seasons.
“There’s some interest there, Elijah is a contracted player and Gold Coast has got a bit to work through, they’ve got a new coach, those sort of things,” Austin said.
“There’s some interest there but again, it will play out this week.”
