West Coast remains hopeful of landing Melbourne ruckman Luke Jackson and will continue discussions with the athletic big man’s management during the Trade Period, national recruiting manager Rohan O’Brien says.
Jackson has indicated a desire to return home to a WA club after three seasons with the Demons, where he became a premiership player in 2021.
O’Brien believed the 21-year-old would be a good fit for the Eagles list, initially playing alongside and eventually taking the No.1 ruck mantle from three-time All-Australian star Nic Naitanui.
“Obviously we’re keen to bring Luke in, if possible. He’s asked for a trade back to WA,” O’Brien said on the opening day of the Trade Period at Marvel Stadium.
“We’ll just keep in contact with Luke and his management and Melbourne in particular to see what that looks like and hopefully we’ll get a positive outcome.”
West Coast currently holds pick No.2 in next month’s NAB AFL Draft but O’Brien doubted that prized selection in its entirety would be part of a deal for Jackson.
“We won’t – I don’t think - give up (pick) two in its entirety at this stage,” he said.
“There’s a whole range of things we can do and it might be split (the pick), but that will come down to Melbourne’s expectations and whether we’re prepared to look at that.”
The Eagles are also in discussions with Port Adelaide after premiership small forward Junior Rioli requested a trade to the Power.
“Very preliminary (discussions) at the moment,” O’Brien said.
“They’ve been good. They’ve obviously got a bit going on at the minute so we’ll work through that over the coming week and hopefully we can get him to his desired club.”
O’Brien reiterated West Coast would continue to target the draft in coming seasons after selecting five players - Campbell Chesser, Brady Hough, Rhett Bazzo, Jack Williams and Greg Clark - in the national player ballot last year.
“We’re in a transition phase, for sure. We’ll hit the draft as much as we can over the next few years,” he said.
“That’s really been our plan for the last two years or so. We started with that last year and we’ll continue on this year.”
