by stan » Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:25 am
Essendon wants Shaun Burgoyne
ANDREW CAPEL
September 24, 2009 12:00am
MATTHEW Knights wants disgruntled Port Adelaide star Shaun Burgoyne at Essendon.
And the Bombers coach is hoping the club's strong ruck pairing of Patrick Ryder and David Hille will persuade the brilliant midfielder - who has walked out on the Power - to choose the Dons ahead of favourite Hawthorn and Melbourne.
Hours after losing champion full forward Matthew Lloyd to retirement, Knights revealed Burgoyne was Essendon's prime target in trade week.
"We're certainly interested in Shaun," Knights said last night.
"He is a high-quality player who can really add to our playing group. He's got a long career ahead of him and we've got a very young group, so he would be a quality addition."
Knights said that he had met with 2006 All-Australian Burgoyne in Melbourne late last week in an attempt to lure him to Windy Hill next year.
"Our people met with Shaun for about two hours," Knights said.
"We had positive discussions with him but we understand he's also dealing with Hawthorn and Melbourne and that they also could be very appealing to him."
Knights said Burgoyne had refused to lift the lid on any discontent with the Power, simply saying he was moving to Melbourne because he needed a change of environment and a new challenge. "We had positive discussions with him but we understand he's also dealing with Hawthorn and Melbourne and that they also could be very appealing to him."
<p/>Knights said Burgoyne had refused to lift the lid on any discontent with the Power, simply saying he was moving to Melbourne because he needed a change of environment and a new challenge.
But Knights said Burgoyne had stressed how premiership ruck pair Brendon Lade and Dean Brogan had "looked after him" at Port, raising Knights' hopes he might choose Essendon as his next destination.
Emerging star Ryder and 2008 club champion Hille, who missed most of the 2009 season after undergoing a knee reconstruction, are the best ruck combination of the clubs Burgoyne short-listed as teams he would be prepared to move to.
"Shaun was very strong in talking about how Lade and Brogan looked after him, how they were really good for him around the stoppages," Knights told radio FIVEaa.
Ben Williams told The Advertiser the prospect of playing alongside the high-leaping Ryder was appealing for Burgoyne, who also is understood to be keen on playing with fellow indigenous stars Lance Franklin and Cyril Rioli at Hawthorn.
The WESTERN BULLDOGS are firming as hot favourites to land Barry Hall.
Hall has been offered a two-year deal to cross to Whitten Oval and is believed to be on the brink of naming the Dogs as his preferred destination.
Although the Bulldogs have remained low-key publicly, club powerbrokers including chief executive Campbell Rose and president David Smorgon have met with former Sydney star Hall.
Hall last night told Channel Seven's Game Day program: "It (Bulldogs) would be a good place to be. It is a good club."
Read my reply. It is directed at you because you have double standards