HAWTHORN will meet with Ryan O'Keefe today or tomorrow in a bid to learn whether the uncontracted Sydney forward can be accommodated within the club's tight player payments regime.
Carlton has all but ruled out trading its first draft pick, No.6, for O'Keefe, and Collingwood has indicated it would not part with its first pick, No.11. Hawthorn's major issue is whether it can meet the 2006 All-Australian's salary demands without unbalancing its carefully managed salary cap.
Hawthorn general manager of player personnel, Chris Pelchen, yesterday confirmed the Hawks intended to meet with O'Keefe to discuss whether it was feasible for him to join the club.
Sydney has asked the Hawks not only for their first-round pick (No.16) but also a player in return for O'Keefe.
"We've said we're not in a position to make a formal offer, but we're interested," Pelchen said of O'Keefe.
Sydney has agreed to O'Keefe's wishes and will seek the best possible trade for the forward, but interested Melbourne clubs won't be getting a bargain.
Unless a suitable deal can be done before Friday, the club expects the 28-year-old to be back next season.
O'Keefe was the major topic of interest in Melbourne yesterday as the five-day trade period began. Sydney's manager of player personnel, Stuart Maxfield, said while several clubs had showed interest, no formal offer had been made.
"Uneventful is probably the best way to describe the day," Maxfield said of the series of meetings between the AFL's 16 clubs at Telstra Dome.
Maxfield confirmed O'Keefe had declined Sydney's offer of a three-year contract, rumoured to be worth $1.5 million, and wanted the club to make a deal with a Melbourne club.
"I suppose every club has asked the question, but no club has come up with a formal offer … There is no way we are going to do a deal just for the sake of making a trade," Maxfield said.
"I think a first-round pick is a minimum. That would be the starting point."
If a deal cannot be done, O'Keefe has the option of entering the pre-season draft, but that would not guarantee he would go to Melbourne, and he could find himself heading to another state, a risk Maxfield said O'Keefe might be unlikely to take, meaning he would stay put.
"He's a fantastic player, and we are still on really good terms with Ryan," Maxfield said. " If a trade can't be done with a Melbourne-based club, we are reasonably confident we can retain Ryan as a player. That's the way we view it."
Maxfield said another Swan rumoured to be headed for a trade, out of favour forward Nick Davis, had not been mentioned on the opening day, with most talk revolving around O'Keefe and Fremantle ruckman Robbie Warnock, who is also seeking a trade.
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