Port Adelaide list manager Jason Cripps has wrapped another successful player movement period, bringing in three new players and equipping the club with picks for future drafts. 

Jacob Wehr, Corey Durdin and Will Brodie were all welcomed to Alberton over the past two weeks, adding depth and experience to the club, while the Power also boosted its future draft capital. 

Speaking with Trade Radio on Thursday morning, Cripps discussed the list strategy, his plans for the upcoming draft, and Callum Ah Chee’s failed bid to get to Adelaide. 

Cripps on the trade and draft strategy 
“Obviously we’ve lost a fair bit of games experience, 1373 (games) in the last two years and we were mindful of bringing in some players that we think can add depth to the list but also play some roles where we’ve perhaps got some gaps within our team. So that was the focus. We also wanted to reserve our draft capital going into future years and we were quite comfortable moving picks from this year into future drafts. We obviously attacked last year’s draft and we rated that really highly and we’re looking forwrad to getting stuck into the next two years. We’ve still got our pick 49 and 85 sitting there this year so we will take them into draft night and we’ve got the flexibility and some options around what we do with them.” 

Cripps on the Corey Durdin trade 
“He did (pop up late) from a trade perspective and facilitating the deal. We had some conversations with his manager throughout the year. He approached us and told us that Corey’s desire would be to get back home for family reasons to SA. We had those pretty casual and informal conversations throughout the year, we weren’t really sure where it would end up but it actually worked pretty quick in the end in terms of a trade.” 

Cripps on planning for future drafts with the ongoing rule changes 
“Not so much (confusion with) the Dougie (Cochrane) decision or application (with the AFL). I think the frustration is more around we’re all flying a little bit blind in terms of what the actual rules are going to be around access to academy players in general and the bidding system and changes to the DVI again. There were some pretty significant changes made this year and our view was really strong that the changes that were made this year, we needed to assess them, we needed time, we needed a bigger sample size before we rush in and make further changes. So there’s that aspect and then also obviously with the Tasmania concessions coming in, we were notified and given information around what those concessions would look like but it’s pretty hard when there are no dates attached or years attached. We’ve all got some idea of what year that might be and what it looks like but there’s nothing definitive around when those concessions would come in so in some ways you’re trading into future drafts actually not knowing what rule changes are potentially going to take place so I must admit, that’s been pretty frustrating to be honest.” 

Cripps on draft plans for this year 
“We’ll upgrade three rookies and as the rules allow, if you do upgrade those three rookies, they can be the changes that go towards draft so technically by the rules, we don’t have to select. But we have picks 49 and 85 and we’ve got list spots. I think every club now has opportunities and flexibility on draft night to make decisions around what you do, and you’ve got the capacity to upgrade rookies post-draft so there are a lot of different levers at our disposal. We’re open-minded on which way we go – we may select, we may not, we may upgrade another rookie post-draft. We’ll work through that as the two nights unfold.” 

Cripps on Callum Ah Chee’s failed trade to Adelaide 
“Obviously it’s pretty fresh. We’ll no doubt have the discussion internally whether we see (him) as a viable option for us. We’ll no doubt have a conversation with (Ah Chee’s manager) Ben Williams. We haven’t had many previous discussions with Ben or Callum, he wasn’t a priority for us. We’ve obviously got some strategies in place around draft and player acquisition and target players and obviously retention is going to be pretty important for us over the next couple of years also. So that all goes into the planning and strategy moving forward so we obviously don’t want to impact that but sometimes when opportunities op up you weren’t expecting, I think we need to do our due diligence and explore that a little bit further to see whether that’s a realistic option without impacting future planning and strategies we have in place.” 

Cripps on Zak Butters’ surgery this week 
“It’s something that Zak managed throughout the year to be honest. We’ve spoken a lot about Zak and the person he is and the high calibre player he is, but he’s also a tough little man. He plays under a lot of duress and we just wanted to make sure we gave him the best opportunity for next year to be 100 per cent fit. It’s a really minor procedure and he’ll get the majority of the pre-season under his belt. So it’s just looking after Zak and making sure it gives him the best opportunity to have a great season next year, fully fit.”