Geelong list manager Andrew Mackie insists Collingwood’s Ollie Henry wants to get to the Cats this trade period.
The talented forward is out of contract with the Magpies this year and has expressed his interest in making the move to GMHBA Stadium to link up with his older brother Jack.
Henry showed promising signs in his second season in the black and white, kicking 21 goals from 15 games, but found regular senior footy hard to come by late in the campaign.
Mackie says the 20-year-old, who was taken with pick 17 in the 2020 draft, wants to join the 2022 premiers provided a fair deal can be agreed upon.
“Yeah, he wants to come down and play for Geelong,” Mackie said on AFL Trade Radio’s The Early Trade.
“It sort of popped up late that one. We were aware he was out of contract but we didn’t actively pursue it or knock the door down to his manager. Given he’s a second-year player, it’s not something we tend to do.
“Clearly his brother plays down here and we’re aware of the situation. By the end of the year, albeit even if it was a couple of weeks ago, we were aware that he would be keen to get down here.
“Am I confident? It’s hard to say. The common value for these guys where there’s still a lot of projection involved in their playing is tough, but we sat down with Collingwood yesterday and we’ll do that again and try and work through.
“We’re not sitting on our hands with any of the trades that we want to do, we’re trying to be active to make sure those clubs do well out of it.”
Mackie says the Cats and Pies will attempt to work out a trade which will include a draft pick and will not involve any other current players from either club.
“They haven’t talked players, it’s draft selection sort of stuff,” he said.
“We had a good hit-out yesterday and I spoke to ‘Wrighty’ (Collingwood’s Graham Wright) a couple of weeks ago as well and we’ll keep those conversations going.”
The former Cats defender also commented on multiple other players being linked with the club.
Gold Coast’s Jack Bowes, along with Pick 7, appears a positive move for the Cats but they will have to combat interest from Hawthorn and Essendon.
“Not necessarily today, in the next little while though,” Mackie said when asked if Geelong was expecting an answer on Tuesday about Bowes' future.
“We’ve caught up with Jack and it was a really good catchup. We’ve been aware and talking to his management for a long time about where Jack’s at and how he’s going up north.
“We’re looking forward to hearing where that lands. We’d love it to be us.”
Are the Cats more interested in acquiring Pick 7 in the Bowes deal?
“To be fair, we’ve been aware of his playing attributes for a long time,” said Mackie.
“Our midfield, we’re aware we’ll need to transition that very soon. We’re making sure we’re doing steps to do that.
“We were linked with (Jacob) Hopper throughout the year but in that same discussion was Jack Bowes, so it goes back a fair way.
“All the talk is around the pick linked with that, but with Gold Coast the discussions have been that we’re confident a trade could get done. The ins and outs of that we haven’t really discussed because there’s no point talking about it until he chooses where he wants to play his footy next.
“He’s obviously got a big decision to make. I’m not sure if he’ll go back to the Gold Coast and make that decision or do it while he’s in town.”
GWS youngster Tanner Bruhn is also on the radar of the Cats.
“There’s still work to do with Tanner and Ollie I think,” Mackie said.
“I had a good chat with Jase McCarney (GWS GM of football) yesterday, he was really good.
“But there’s still work to do, like I mentioned with the Ollie discussions. Teams have got their values for players.”
Former Essendon defender Conor McKenna, who has been back in his homeland of Ireland, has also been linked with a shift to Geelong.
“We’ve spoken to him throughout the year, albeit a while ago,” said Mackie.
“We’ve got people in our footy club who have dealt with him in the past at Essendon, James Kelly being one of them.
“We’ve had a discussion about him. He can come on as a rookie list player and that’s attractive.
“There hasn’t been much discussion about Conor for a little while. I’m sure we’ll pick up that conversation to see where he’s at and what he’s thinking.”
And current Cat Esava Ratugolea is a player who has been touted as one who could possibly leave the club.
“We’ve put games into ‘Sav’ and he’s been a big part of our succession plan forward of the footy,” the list boss said of the 24-year-old.
“Throughout the year as a circuit-breaker we threw him behind the ball and he showed some really good signs as an athletic key back and did a good job.
“Clearly blokes like Sav six years into the system just want to start playing footy and we’ve had that discussion with him. We’ll continue to try and map out for him how that would look.
“He’s a contracted player. No doubt the coach does love him, we love him, but we totally understand that he’s trying to work out where he’s going to play his footy. We’re pretty clear on how that looks, so that’s where that one sits.”
Has there been any interest in Ratugolea?
“There is interest in him, but there has been for five years,” Mackie added.
“With the attributes that he has and the size that he is, those guys are few and far between, hence the reason why we’d love to keep him.”