Essendon, Port Adelaide bosses share latest update on Duursma, Zerk-Thatcher talks: AFL business news
Port Adelaide football boss Chris Davies and Essendon lister Adrian Dodoro have spoken about the latest possibility of Bombers defender Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and Power winger Xavier Duursma swapping teams this off-season.
Zerk-Thatcher’s desire to cross the line and use Power colors has been common knowledge for some time. But reports of Duursma possibly leaving Alberta this offseason only recently surfaced.
While swapping could be the key to a potential deal, Port Adelaide’s Davies noted there has been no movement in Duursma’s camp. “Xavier hasn’t applied yet,” Davies began. “As I have said many times over the years, if a player wants to leave our club, we have to make a decision, but at the moment that decision is not in sight.
“Certainly we had a conversation with Xavier at the end of the year to try and align our expectations of him and his position at the club, but from there it’s really a conversation for the player. Does his perspective match ours? And if not, obviously there’s a discussion going on, but it hasn’t happened yet.”
“I don’t think they’re (linked) unless Xavier wants to go and go to Essendon,” Davies said. “Again, it’s something that will be seen over the next period of time, but we’re looking at each of these deals individually right now, [but] if they end up being combined, you know. , so be it.
“It’s probably not something we can control as much as just knowing what we want to achieve in that trading period. I always said at the time that individual trades are controlled, but it’s better to re-evaluate at the end of the trading period. then probably four or five years again to find out if it was worth it or not.
“We have people we want to bring in and if we can do them we believe we will be a better team in 2024.”
Dodoro shared his take on the situation with the Bombers’ roster, who said Duursma has yet to swing one or the other.
“He didn’t give it to us, so if you have news, it’s news to us, we’ve definitely talked to him and we’ll see how it goes,” Dodoro said. As for Zerk-Thatcher’s trade value in a possible deal with the Power, Dodoro played it straight.
“We don’t know yet because we haven’t discussed with Port Adelaide yet, so contrary to what you may have heard last week [the reports] were not actually factual, there have been no discussions with Port at all,” Dodoro stated.
“It depends on whether the players are involved, but certainly that’s what we’re talking about with Port, we value him a lot, we’ve got a three-year contract on the table and we don’t want to lose him. [it’s] as simple as that.
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