Hartley on uncontracted duo, trading picks and more

Richmond Executive General Manager, Football Talent, Blair Hartley, joined AFL Trade Radio on Thursday to discuss a variety of topics. Catch up on his updates below.

On the trade for Patrick Retschko:

"I walked into Marvel Stadium (Wednesday) night, not thinking we'd be too busy, but I had a quick chat to Simon Murphy at Geelong in the hallway about Patrick, since he was delisted from Geelong a couple of weeks ago. We've tracked him closely, and they mentioned that they would be comfortable facilitating something that would allow Patrick to come to us now, rather than waiting for the delisted free agency window to open on November 3rd, and it just made sense. Patrick had showed some strong form for Caulfield last year and played in a strong Coates team at Oakleigh with Jagga Smith and Finn O'Sullivan, and Jasper Alger, who's on our list now. We rated him last year, and due to the numbers we had coming in, our rookie list was full, otherwise, we probably would have taken him then. He'll give us some run through the wing and the halfback line, while joining that group of eight (first-year players) from last year."

On drafting potential father-son selection Louis Kellaway:

"We're working through all that now. We've just got to find where the draft sits in terms of Louis, we've been pretty open with that with Louis himself and Duncan (Kellaway). We visited their family home not long ago, and speaking with his manager Ben Williams, we'll work through that in good time."

On having trade offers for draft picks three and four on deadline day:

"Lots of phone calls, as usual, but not much substance."

On the potential of still trading picks three or four before the draft:

"We're pretty comfortable with where we're at in the draft, but while that's happening, we have to listen to offers, and I think it'll take something pretty special for us to turn our heads. As I've said before, you never say never."

On Tyler Sonsie and Thomson Dow:

"They're both out of contract at the moment. I've been speaking with (player agents) Nick Gieschen and Matt Bain about those guys and have spoken to both Tyler and Thomson as well. It's an unfortunate part of what we have to do. We have to keep list spots open, so just through this next little bit while we're working through the pick swap window, we'll have to leave those spots open, and that's where it sits with them right now."

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