Former Carlton list manager Stephen Silvagni has opened up for the first time on the club’s pursuit of Port Adelaide midfielder Ollie Wines.
The 26-year-old, who becomes a restricted free agent at the end of 2022, has been constantly linked to a move back to Victoria in previous years.
It was widely reported following the 2019 trade period that Wines' management approached Carlton about a move to the club, but a trade never eventuated.
While Silvagni confirmed the talk around Wines joining Carlton at the end of 2019 was real, the timing of his interest meant it was "highly unlikely" a deal would ever be able to get done.
“The difficultly with the Wines (deal) is it came late,” he said on AFL Trade Radio’s The Late Trade.
“This is the thing – it’s about planning. We certainly had a number of players committed to the football club – we had Jack Martin, Tom Papley, Marc Pittonet and Eddie Betts wanting to come.
“It’s about how you get that deal done and we wanted to go to the draft last year, for us to get Wines over the line was – how were we going to get that deal done? Was it for a player and a pick?
“There’s a bit of planning that is involved and you’d rather say to the player and agent that it’s just come too late and we can’t get this done.
“It’s also about being sensitive to the playing group, it can put a bad taste in their mouths.
“It was highly unlikely that it was ever going to occur, we had already committed to a number of players and we had to try and get those deals done.”
Wines played 17 games for Port Adelaide in 2020 and recently confirmed intention to stay at the club for the longer term.