Why Fremantle should prioritise Warner over Bolton and Pickett

Fremantle has been urged by Kane Cornes to prioritise Chad Warner over the likes of Shai Bolton and Kysaiah Pickett.

A report from Jon Ralph on Fox Footy suggests that Sydney star Warner is keen to return to Western Australia at the end of next season when his Swans contract expires.

The Dockers have already been linked with Warner and will no doubt again be at the forefront of speculation given it’s only them or West Coast in WA.

But Freo is also keen on Richmond’s Bolton while club great Paul Hasleby is not ruling out a possible Dockers move for Melbourne’s Pickett.

With all that in mind, Corns feels the Dockers would be best placed to put their energies into Warner given Bolton and Pickett would chew up prized draft capital which currently stands at Picks 9, 10, 16 and 27 for 2024.

“This is the point with Fremantle. If you thought you could get Chad Warner, that’s the priority over Shai Bolton and Kozzy Pickett,” Cornes said on AFL Trade Radio’s The Early Trade.

“Warner is that player (they need). This is a tough one for them. With the assets they’ve got now they can probably make it happen if they manoeuvre things so they’re in a good position this time next year.

“But if they move out two first-round picks for Bolton, you would take the same for Pickett, then they’ve got no hope of getting Chad Warner.

“This is how they must assess their priorities and their likelihood of landing Chad at the end of next year.”

Warner remains contracted with the Swans until the end of 2025 and the report from Ralph indicates that the 23-year-old will likely request a trade back to WA after another demoralising Grand Final defeat.

Furthermore, Cornes believes the Swans should have traded key forward Logan McDonald to land some valuable draft picks, and in this instance with Warner, should not be too perturbed by losing a quality player.

He feels Freo and the Western Bulldogs also missed great opportunities to cash in on Sean Darcy and Tim English respectively.

“I get frustrated with clubs that are so petrified of losing players,” he added.

“Logan McDonald for example. What you could have got for Logan McDonald is extraordinary.

“Surely they’d seen enough from this guy to go, ‘You know what, he’s definitely not Josh Kennedy (West Coast), he’s not Jack Riewoldt, he’s not Tom Hawkins, he doesn’t have 800 goals in him’.

“And if there’s a club that’s going to give you two first-round draft picks and pay him stupid money, then move him out and move on.

“It’s the same discussion with Sean Darcy (at Fremantle). Two first-round picks they would have got, instead they sign an injury-prone ruckman on big money who doesn’t play.

“Tim English (at the Bulldogs) we discussed yesterday. Why aren’t clubs prepared to lose a couple? They never are.”