Sydney GM of Football Charlie Gardiner has shed further light on the club’s trade negotiations with Adelaide for Jordan Dawson.
A deal for Dawson was struck late on Tuesday night with the Swans receiving the Crows’ future first-round pick – currently pick 17 – which is tied to 2021 premiers Melbourne.
“We elected to accept the offer Adelaide had tabled on Monday. It happened very late last night after some extensive and lengthy negotiations,” Gardiner told AFL Trade Radio’s Trade Afternoons.
“We just felt that we’d exhausted those negotiations and it was time to accept the deal that was tabled, which was Melbourne’s future first, and get moving on some other things.
“Whilst we’re disappointed to lose a player like Jordan – we rated him really highly, he’s 24, coming into his prime and turning into an elite player in the competition – in terms of the trade, we feel like we did all we could, and we weren’t going to improve on the offer in the circumstances.
“We move on and we’ve got two first-round selections in 2022 which puts us in a really strong position. We move forward.”
The final offer Sydney accepted was “significantly better” than what the Crows initially offered early last week.
“In terms of the negotiations, what I can say is the deal that was tabled on Tuesday last week involving pick 17 was not as good a deal as we accepted last night,” Gardiner said.
“It involved a slide of picks in this year’s draft together with future selections given up in next year’s draft that would have compromised not only this year, but next year.
“The deal we’ve landed and the outcome we’ve achieved is significantly better than what was tabled on the second day of trade period.
“The decision we made we feel is the right one.”
Sydney is now focused on completing a deal with Port Adelaide for contracted ruckman Peter Ladhams before Wednesday night’s deadline.
“We’re in discussions with Port Adelaide. We’ve got well known interest in Peter, he’s keen to get to Sydney, but he is contracted,” Gardiner said.
“So we’ve got to come up with a deal that’s acceptable to both Port Adelaide and us. Those talks are underway.
“Tom (Hickey) has been fantastic for us this year and we don’t see any signs of him slowing down. Peter does bring the added dimension of being able to play forward.
“We’ve got some young developing ruck-forwards as well in Joel Amartey and Hayden McLean, so we’ll have some competition for spots there.
“We would like to bring him in. He provides a long-term ruck option for us, but it’s got to be on the right terms and if it doesn’t happen, so be it.
“We’ll be working to strike a fair and reasonable deal to bring him in.”
Gardiner also provided an update on unsigned Swans veteran Sam Reid.
“We’ve been speaking to Sam about next year and what that might look like,” he said.
“We’re going to wait until the end of the trade period and pick up those discussions.
“Once we’re through the trade period and we have a real sense of list spots and draft selections, we’ll pick up that conversation again.”
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