Port Adelaide General Manager - Football Chris Davies on the potential of players returning to South Australia:
“When a young South Australian player wants to come home at any point then we’ve got an interest.
“Orazio (Fantasia) hasn’t necessarily suggested that’s the case with him yet, but I think you can say across the board, if a South Australian wants to come home then both us and Adelaide would generally be interested.
“It’s hard sometimes - we obviously lose players going back to Victoria, so we’ve got to make sure when those guys want to come home then we are in the market.
“I think there is a fair bit to play out in regards to Orazio.”
Davies on whether he has spoken to Orazio Fantasia:
“I haven’t spoken to him, he is in a position now where he is in between managers.
“I imagine once he has settled on who he is going to go with, we will be able to have a conversation with whoever his manager is.
“At this point, I certainly haven’t had a conversation in regards to that.
Davies on Fantasia’s connection to Port:
“I know that he has relationships with people at our club that pre-exist his time at Essendon.
“But I don’t want to get in too deep - other than to say - if a player like that wants to come back to South Australia, then we would have an interest.
“The specifics of it certainly haven’t played out yet.
Davies on Dougal Howard’s future:
“Dougs (Dougal Howard) played the first half of last year as a defender and the second half of the year as a forward.
“At this time of year, players are considering what their options are into the future.
“Dougal has got more of a chance with us in 2020 and beyond with where our list is at as a forward. He’s got to work out what he wants from his own career.
“He’s a contracted player who we value really highly. He’s a fantastic guy. Right now, I’d be suggesting he’d be at our club into the future unless he makes a decision that that’s not going to be the case for him.
Davies on Port’s desire to improve its list throughout trade periods:
“Throughout the trade period there is potential for us to look at different things we can do.
“Ultimately, we approach this trade period as we do any other one. We want our list to be better at the end of it.
“We’ve got to make decisions now that will be in the best interest of our club, both in the short and long term.
“We are a pretty pragmatic club - in the sense that if something needs to get done, we generally get it done.
Davies on Sam Powell-Pepper:
“There’s been a lot of talk throughout the year in regards to Sam (Powell-Pepper) hasn’t there?
“He’s a player who played basically every game for our club last year.
“Again, a contracted player who we highly value and unless there is a specific reason for him to go, I’d be suggesting he would be at our club into the future.
“Again, we want to make sure we are making the right calls for the club. We want to look to make decisions for our next premiership team.
“It’s an approach to say we want to get better at the end of trade period, whether it be players in or our draft position.
“We are open-minded with regards to a lot of those things.
Davies on media speculation surrounding Ollie Wines:
“Nick Gieschen (Ollie Wines’ manager) I think shut that down as quickly as the talk started.
“We appreciated that at the time because these things can fester if they’re not knocked on the head.
“We don’t expect Ollie to go anywhere. He’s contracted until 2022. He’s the co-captain of our club. This is something that you don’t entertain in these periods.
Davies on Port’s ruck stocks:
“Scott Lycett is contracted to our club for a long period of time.
“We are really pleased with the development of Peter Ladhams this year. We’ve got a guy - Sam Hayes - who we think is going to be a really, really good player.
“We are good in terms of the quality of players we’ve got. Going into next season with only three genuine ruckmen on our list - you could probably suggest we might be looking for something else there but that will unfold throughout the trade period.
Davies on the trade requests from Paddy Ryder and Billy Frampton:
“Paddy (Ryder) has obviously been a great person for our club.
“He’s a great guy, and we will try and facilitate that deal to St Kilda where we can.
“Billy Frampton is one who probably started as a ruck but played this year as a key forward in the SANFL.
“We are disappointed to lose Bill in the sense that he has taken some steps forward as a key forward this year, but he is out of contract and he’s expressed an interest to look for more opportunity elsewhere.
Davies on Sam Gray’s future:
“Sam (Gray) is another one of those guys who we discussed with his management throughout the year in regards to what his future looks like.
“We weren’t able to come to an agreement through that period. Sam has expressed an interest to want to have a look throughout the trade period.
“There is a fair bit going on in the small forward market, so Sam’s probably going to have to get caught up in that.
“We haven’t been told right now which club his management want us to deal with, so we will look throughout the trade period to what’s best for us and for Sam.
“We will be disappointed to lose Sam as well. He’s been a pretty consistent player at AFL level for us, but again he’s out of contract and he wants a bit more security than we were looking to give him.
