Fremantle are confident they can trade for Luke Jackson without sacrificing Rory Lobb.
Jackson earlier this week officially requested a trade home to a WA club, with the Dockers long considered favourites for the 20-year-old’s services.
With Jackson looking set to come in, the Dockers look destined to lose the likes of Blake Acres, Griffin Logue and Darcy Tucker, with Lobb also asking for a move to the Western Bulldogs.
While Lobb wants the move, given he has a year left on his contract the Dockers have denied his request and they feel they’ll have enough collateral to appease Melbourne without getting capital from a potential Lobb departure.
“It’s interesting, it’s obviously just started that Luke’s confirmed his intention to return to WA which is exciting from our perspective,” Garlick said on SEN WA Breakfast.
“We can now start to really explore the best possibility of what we hope is Luke playing for Fremantle.
“There’s a lot to work through, but with that in mind we’ve got a lot to offer and can provide a pretty compelling proposition for Luke and his management to consider.”
Garlick first plans to talk to Jackson to see if his preference is to become a Docker over an Eagle before engaging in trade talks with the Demons.
“First and foremost, we’ve got to talk to Luke to see what his intention is and where he’d like to end up and what he’d like to do,” Garlick said.
“Then you’ve obviously got to talk to the club where the player is coming from, that’s something you can do in parallel and hopefully we’re successful at the end of it all.”
With the trade period set to begin on Monday, October 3, Garlick expects Jackson talks to ramp up in the coming weeks but is certain they won't need to offload Lobb to get the deal done.
“That’ll gather momentum in the coming weeks,” Garlick said.
“We’ve got the capacity and the room to do that we think, without linking the two (moves for both Jackson and Lobb).
“We’re really excited to start those conversations and see where they end up.”
The trade period concludes on Wednesday, October 12 and the Dockers are set to be perhaps the busiest club in the window.