Port Adelaide coach Josh Carr says the Power will continue to “explore every bit of the market when it comes to making our list better” as target Tom Sparrow closes in on a new deal to remain at Melbourne.
While Carr also indicated superstar midfielder Zak Butters was running out of time to feature in the Power’s final game of the season against Essendon next week.
Sparrow has had a career-best season this year as a midfielder for the Demons and the Power were keen on the 26-year-old to add some quality to its engine room under Carr.
But the unrestricted free agent is reportedly set to remain at the Demons – who Port host at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night – on a five-year deal, leaving Carr and the Power to shop elsewhere.
“Good on him, he has had a great year and they have had a great year,” he said.
“If that is the case then well done.”
While one target is set to be off the board, Carr said the Power would still have to look at making moves to improve the quality of the list at Alberton.
“We are going to explore every bit of the market when it comes to making our list better,” he said.
“Now that is through trade, through free agency, through the draft.
“The draft is going to be the main one that we are going to hit and bring in some players through there.
“We need a lot to be honest, we need young midfielders to come in and develop.
“And all areas of the ground, we need to bring some youth in and some talented youth to make us better.”
Much of this will depend on what superstar vice-captain Butters decides to do regarding his long-term future.
It is widely expected that he will look to return to Victoria as a restricted free agent come the end of the year.
Carr said he was still unaware of what Butters wanted to do.
“No not at this stage,” he said.
“There is not much left of the season so the time will come quickly.”
Butters was hoping to make a near-miraculous recovery from an syndesmosis injury sustained last month to feature in the Power’s last game of the season against Essendon at Marvel Stadium next week.
This is a prospect that is looking increasingly unlikely.
“We will give him right to the last training session to get himself up,” Carr said.
“We won’t rule him out and give him every opportunity to play.”
Butters headlines the Power contingent out of contract at the end of this year, with a couple of Port players set to have a nervous couple of weeks about their futures at Alberton.
Two of them, Jackson Mead and Will Lorenz, have been dropped for the clash against the Demons.
Carr said he was having “honest conversations” with them.
“They will be aware of where they are at and their careers at our footy club,” he said.
“There’s no surprises in these conversations.”
Mead and Lorenz were part of four changes the Power made for the clash against the Demons, after its heavy 97-point loss to Sydney last time out.
Ruckman Dante Visentini will continue as a defender after being a rare bright spark for the Power against the Swans.
Carr said it was a positional change he had discussed with Visentini for a while.
“Vis and I have had this conversation over the last 12 months, maybe further back,” he said.
“He said to me he was a defender as a junior and that was always in the back of my mind.
“So I thought it was an opportunity for him to show us what he has got and he did that.
“He is one of the best prepared players that we have on the list.”
With two games to go, the Power are set to finish 15th in Carr’s first season in charge.
Captain Connor Rozee said on SEN on Friday that a wildcard berth must be the goal for the Power next year.
Carr said the goal should be even higher.
“My view is that when we start the year every year we always have aspiration that we want to play finals,” he said.
“That doesn’t matter where the list is at.
“Because you never know… if you put a ceiling on it and say wildcard then that is all you are trying to achieve.”
‘I’LL BE BACK FOR ROUND 1’: ROZEE OPENS UP ON FRUSTRATING RECOVERY
Port Adelaide captain Connor Rozee says his “frustrating” recovery from a significant hamstring injury is still on the mend with no clear timeline on its complete recovery.
But the Power star says he expects to be fully fit by round 1.
Rozee sustained a significant hamstring injury in the Power’s round 2 win over Essendon, with an initial timeline slating him for a mid-season return.
But complications relating to the nerves in the injured area meant a decision was made to end his year early.
“It has been a frustrating one for sure,” he said on SEN.
“I think with the initial injury they thought it was just a hamstring coming off the bone.
“Which would have been roughly 14 to 15 weeks, so I should have been back for a month or two now.
“And probably after nine to 10 weeks it started to plateau a bit so we went back in there to find out what was happening and found that the nerve wasn’t letting the muscles fire as much.
“So my rehab was slowing down a bit, and with nerves they quite a long time to regrow and repair if they are damaged.
“So it is quite a long process but I am taking little steps and it is probably going to take a lot longer than what we thought the initial injury would be.”
Rozee said while he felt no pain in the hamstring and the related area, he just couldn’t get past 90 per cent sprint speed right now.
“I’ll be back for round 1,” he said.
“They just can’t really put a timeline on when your nerve starts to fire.
“That could be in the next couple of days, that could be in the next couple of weeks, it could be a month or two.
“But the good thing is that I have a long time before round 1 … so we have such a long time to make sure it is good to go.
“It is a bit of strange one, I have no pain whatsoever.
“So I can run at high speed, I just can’t get to 90 per cent plus.
“The way to describe it is I have a weight on my left leg, it feels a bit more tired than my right one.
“But there is no pain.”
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Simeon Thomas-WilsonAFL reporter