AFL Trade Whispers: Dockers star’s mega offer could force club to ‘let him go’, young Tiger a target
The Dockers may have no choice but to let a midfield star go if reports of a mega offer are true.
Plus, clubs are circling a Tigers young gun as he struggles to get a look at senior footy for his all-conquering side.
Get all the latest player movement news in AFL Trade Whispers!
‘LET HIM GO’, SAYS EX-DOCKERS COACH
Former Fremantle assistant coach Peter Sumich says the Dockers should let midfield young gun Adam Cerra go if he’s offered an exorbitant sum by rival clubs.
Earlier this week, journalist Kim Hagdorn said the 21-year-old, out of contract at season’s end, had been offered a deal worth nearly $3 million over four years from Carlton.
Club CEO Simon Garlick said there had been “positive discussions” with Cerra’s management and there was an offer in front of the midfielder, but Sumich said Carlton’s reported offer would not be worth matching.
“I think if you’re selling your club to a player like that, your club is going down the wrong path,” Sumich told AFL Nation.
“Let him go. If he wants $750,000 you let him go and say ‘see you later because we can’t win premierships like that’. Hawthorn did it properly, Geelong did it properly. Their players got paid a nice amount of money and they kept their list together.
“If you’re going to go and pay a kid at 21 $750,000, you’re gone, your club will not win the premiership because that kid will only have to go up with his wage and I reckon they’re done.”
Sumich suggested earlier this month ruckman Sean Darcy could opt to return home to Victoria despite being contracted until 2022, a claim which Darcy rejected this week.
RIVAL CLUBS CIRLCE TIGER CUB
Richmond young tall Callum Coleman-Jones is reportedly set to be a figure of interest in the coming off-season, as clubs look to adapt to a lack of tall prospects in this year’s national draft.
Jones, taken with pick 20 in the 2017 draft, has managed only one game at senior level given the form the side’s tall timbre has been in across its premiership run, and is yet to be signed beyond 2021.
Additionally, the 21-year-old had been serving a 10-game AFL suspension for his COVID-19 rules breach during his side’s time in the Queensland hub last year.
The Herald Sun reports rival clubs are keeping an eye on Coleman-Jones, with Greater Western Sydney having already attempted to lure him out of Tigerland in recent years.
Some clubs are prepared to offer up late first-round selections in a bid to secure his services, the report details.
PIES SWOOP ON 202CM RECRUIT
Collingwood has signed another tall AFL prospect from overseas, landing Bassirou Faye, an 18-year-old, 202cm Senegalese basketballer.
The Pies, who famously brought American forward Mason Cox onto its list via the International Rookie system in 2014, have reportedly secured the signature of Faye, who impressed in summer trials with the Oakleigh Chargers before returning to Senegal due to visa constraints, AFL Media reports.
Faye was pushing for a basketball career before switching his goal to football late last year, with former AFL forward Tyrone Vickery putting Faye through a two-month training program at the start of this year.
The report details Faye is expected to return to Australia within the next month, before completing a two-week quarantine period and hopefully being granted league approval to play in the 2021 NAB League season.
Faye ran a sub-three-second 20 metre sprint and registered an 84cm running vertical jump, with testers having to increase the height limit to accommodate his leap.