THE TRADE that will see Hawthorn runner Brad Hill join his brother Stephen at Fremantle will likely happen later in the NAB AFL Trade Period due to a lack of bargaining chips at the Dockers' disposal.
Hill is contracted at the Hawks until the end of 2017 but they are willing to move him on to the Dockers.
Jason Dover, of Stride Sports Management, told NAB AFL Trade Radio on Wednesday that a deal could have been done reasonably quickly if the Dockers had their second-round selection.
They traded that pick to Gold Coast last year as part of a pick swap.
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"If (Fremantle had a second-round selection) it would have fallen around the 21 mark and that might have been enough to get it done straight away," Dover said.
"We're going to be waiting on other things potentially to drop in before we know what Fremantle do have to give up for Bradley."
Despite the potential hold-up, it is highly unlikely Hill will be at West Coast in 2017.
"We've made it pretty clear to both Hawthorn and West Coast that Bradley has said that his preference is to come back and play at Fremantle," he said.
"We've been open with our communication with West Coast. We had exploratory talks to begin with to let them know what we were planning to do with Bradley at their request. They had asked about Bradley."
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The Dockers are also looking to trade for Greater Western Sydney forward Cam McCarthy.
Meanwhile, free agent Zac Clarke is expected to make a decision about his future in the next couple of days after he had his exit interview on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old is not contracted for next season.
"He'd been able to discuss a lot of things with (Fremantle) and they were able to discuss a lot of things in return. He left in a very positive frame of mind," Dover said.
"He's got a few things to work through in terms of that and really, a decision on where he wants to play his next phase of football, whether that's at Fremantle or at another club. I think in the next 48 hours we'll have another idea of what his options are and what he's likely to do."
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Superstar midfielder Nathan Fyfe is contracted until the end of next season and will be a restricted free agent, but Dover was confident an agreement could be reached by mid-season.
"We will primarily focus on signing him with the Fremantle Dockers because that has been his motivation from the outset and that hasn't wavered," he said.
"We expect that we'll be having discussions earlier in that year, or mid-year, with Fremantle. I'm pretty sure we could get a deal done fairly quickly and Nat would be staying at Fremantle if everything is consistent as what it is today."
While the team's performance is an important factor, that doesn't mean Fyfe is expecting the Dockers to return to premiership contention.
They finished 16th in 2016 after winning the minor premiership the previous season.
"If the question is, does performance get decided by (the Dockers) getting into a Grand Final and are we going to wait until the end of next year to make that assessment (about Fyfe's next contract) … then I would be surprised if that's our timeline," he said.
