ESSENDON has denied Joe Daniher’s request to continue his career at Sydney, the Bombers refusing to do a deal for the star forward before the AFL trade period ended on Wednesday night.
Essendon’s Adrian Dodoro was adamant he would hold Daniher to the final year of his contract unless the Swans came up with a blockbuster deal and the veteran list manager didn’t blink as the 7.30pm AEDT deadline came and went.
Dodoro told reporters as he arrived at Marvel Stadium on Wednesday that Sydney would need to come to the party for his cub to entertain a trade, but a suitable offer wasn’t forthcoming.
“We went into it with an open mind but we set some really clear parameters with the Sydney Swans from the first day,” Dodoro said.
“We were really consistent with what we said, we were honest from the first day and we stuck to our principles.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t get a deal done for Joey.”
The Bombers were keen to secure a player or players in return for Daniher, but Sydney were intent on offering up draft picks only.
Dodoro confirmed that the Swans’ No.5 pick was not offered up as part of a potential deal.
“We went into the negotiation with what we thought was an attractive draft hand, we were open-minded about what a selection of picks to satisfy Essendon might look like,” Swans football boss Charlie Gardner said.
“We were open to exploring a number of options but it was made pretty clear to us that pick five and pick nine, or two first-round draft picks, wasn’t going to be enough.”
Sydney forward Tom Papley’s move to Carlton and Gold Coast forward Jack Martin’s move to the Blues were other key trades that didn’t get over the line.
Deals that were finalised on the last day of the trade window included St Kilda sending Jack Steven and Josh Bruce to Geelong and the Western Bulldogs respectively and Bradley Hill moving from Fremantle to the Saints.
Adelaide shipped Alex Keath to the Bulldogs and Josh Jenkins to Geelong in deals done in the last hour of trading.
After days of relative inaction, 29 trades were completed on deadline day with paperwork for a total of 46 deals lodged with the AFL over the 10-day trade period.
© AAP 2019
