Geelong's Mackie on Butters failure; Tassie, Ridley, Blakey, Marshall & more

Geelong have their irons in the fire with plenty of players ahead of the upcoming trade period.

Andrew Mackie, the club’s Executive General Manager Football, answered all the questions from Sam Edmund and Kane Cornes on AFL Trade Radio’s Early Trade.

From the failed Zak Butters pursuit, to the players they can use that Butters money on, plus the likes of Jordan Ridley, Rowan Marshall and Toby Greene, Mackie went through it all.

On missing out on Zak Butters:

“Oh, I'm not sure, I think Zak can probably answer that for us,” said Mackie.

“But we're really thankful that we got a chance to talk to him over a couple of year period and put ourselves in a place where we felt like we were a chance to land him.

“We were made aware that the Bulldogs went pretty hard a couple of times after we'd put a financial offer in. We stuck to our parameters on what we think is right in that situation.

“Big credit to the Bulldogs. He chose them and on we go. We were really optimistic about what we have, what we can do. We're pretty pragmatic about those decisions.

“We understand the industry. We want to talk to the best players. We've got a chance to do that.

“So I'm not sure about where it went wrong. Only Zak and (his manager) Peter Lenton can probably talk to that. We wish everyone well.”

Why didn't Port Adelaide want to deal with you over what a deal might have looked like?

“That was a non-issue from our end. We drove up to Zak’s management and made it really clear we’d do anything within reason that Port Adelaide wanted to do from a trade point of view.

“So they would have been really clear that the manager broke is that we'd been in contact with Port Adelaide. I’m confident the deal would have got done.

“We made that really clear to Peter and his team. I think it's up to Zak to talk to this more.

“From our point of view, we're really clear and made it really clear that we would have done whatever it took to get a trade done to Port Adelaide, as I said, within reason.

“We had our financial parameters that we stuck to. Whether that was right or wrong, time will tell.”

Is it factually correct that Butters and/or his management had indicated to the Cats that you were his club of choice?

“I’m not going to talk to personal and private conversations yet. We had reasons to believe that we were a good chance of having him, but in the end he chose the Bulldogs.

“Whether it was the doubling down on the offer that then meant that the nostalgic sort of reasons (with the Dogs) got real for Zak. I think there's every chance that's exactly what happened and ultimately he chose the Bulldogs and we do wish him well.

“I think that decision for Zak wouldn't have been easy, and we’ve got sympathy for him in that. I think it's become clear that it was a tough decision. And when these things are so close, they're line-ball, you look to ways to help you make a decision.

“I think that's the way it played out. But I haven't debriefed with Zak about it. He's a star player. As I said, we would have loved to have had him. But he wants to go to the Bulldogs and we wish them all well.”

Can they now use that money on pursuing players such as Matt Rowell and Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera who the Cats have been linked with?

“It gives us flexibility going forward.

“We've got some (current) guys that we think have a lot more upside on our list that we might need to pay going into the future, which is important for us.

“Yeah, those talks (with players from other clubs) have been happening, ongoing.

“I'd like to think that that's part of what we need to be great at. There's lots of things that go into doing what Brisbane did on the weekend (winning the premiership).

“Being proactive in this space is one of them, and continuing to be a club and hold ourselves accountable to providing an environment to our players and staff that they'd love to come and thrive.

“That's where all the work goes into. We want to keep giving ourselves chances to talk to these players. That's where our focus goes to.

“There's players on our list that I think have got so much upside that they will need to be looked after at some stage. And hopefully we're doing that. It means they're playing really good footy.

“We are close, but we've got to keep getting better. And there's things that we need to do.”

Are the Cats interested in Sydney’s Nick Blakey?

“That's not something that we've sat down and discussed. I’m aware there's been some reporting around Nick maybe thinking about us.

“I try not to delve into the hypotheticals this time of year, it’s dangerous territory. There's probably a hundred of those guys. But that's not something we've thought about other than reading some speculation.”

Is it correct that you offered Essendon a future first-rounder for Jordan Ridley?

“Yeah, that's right. Simon Murphy does a lot of work with our list management team and Matty Rosa have been catching up regularly on Jordan.

“We’ve offered that. We're talking, they're productive conversations.”

Why do you think you can get his body right?

“We're optimists. Sometimes with these players, you see it a bit. It might even be placebo, just a different environment. Now, that’s high risk. That's why the trade value is hard in a guy like Jordan.

“Clearly, Essendon see the talent. That's why you extend a guy's contract. But there is risk from from our end bringing in a player that's had injury history.

“We don't sit here and say we're definitely going to get his body right, but maybe a change of environment. We've seen that work before. It's worked against us, Lincoln McCarthy left us for the same reason and went to Brisbane and played some really good footy.

“Jordan is someone that we'd like to do if it works out, but we understand that he's contracted.”

Are the Cats still attempting to recruit Rowan Marshall?

“I’d love to have more certainty on that and answering it. But we’re having productive chats.

“I’m talking to SOS and our clubs are talking, we've caught up. So we're trying to see how it gets done.

“They have wanted a player. We'll just see what works from their end. Ultimately, it is much easier. Unrestricted free agents are great. You just get them in.

“Uncontracted players or out-of-contract players are the next best. So he is contracted. There's work to do, but there's been good conversations about how it gets done.”

On landing Toby Greene:

“We’re ready to put that in. Really excited about what Toby's going to bring to the footy club. Obviously a massive decision for him leaving the Giants and he's spoken about that the magnitude of everything he's done there.

“But we were rapt that we were a club that he was willing to to talk to and then ultimately choose..

“I'm looking forward to the way he makes other players stand taller and his leadership within our footy club.

“(We were interested) probably for 12 months and then sort of ramped up at the start of the year and the middle of the year with Paul Connors.”

On Mackie to Tassie rumours:

“This job is too consuming, especially this time of year to even think about those sorts of things. So I'm aware of that interest, but I'm all in on doing a job for the Geelong Footy Club and what we need to be doing.

“This is the window in the year where you set up your footy department, your playing list, your staff, and I must admit there's no spare time for anything else at the minute.”

Listen to the full chat below: