Trade talk: Star Giant “high and dry”; Blues target wants Swans stay

Jesse Hogan looks increasingly likely to leave GWS this off-season.

The 31-year-old, who is out of contract this year, is yet to agree a new deal with the Giants who he joined six seasons ago.

SEN’s Sam Edmund is reporting that Hogan’s management at TGI Sport and the club have been unable to come to an agreement on a two-year deal which could spell an end to his time in orange and charcoal.

“This all centres on a two-year deal. So initially it was going to be one at GWS but the money was sort of too sizeable so it was going to be spread over the two for the 31-year-old Coleman Medallist,” Edmund said on SEN’s Locked In.

“Now, club and player were so close here, they were so close, they were about $75,000 apart, then they got stuck on incentives and clauses and then it just broke down.

“Then suddenly Jesse Hogan's injury issues are brought up as a consideration and then all the conjecture over Toby Greene fires up and maybe the Giants thought, ‘Well, maybe here's a chance to reset’, hence the uncertainty over Jake Stringer and all his stuff.

“The Giants, it was clear, had started to prioritise Max Gruzewski in the background, who recently re-signed.”

Edmund says the former Melbourne and Fremantle key forward continues to attract interest from Collingwood as well as Gold Coast, with the latter likely to lose Ben King to Hawthorn.

He also believes that fellow forward Jake Stringer will find his way out of the Giants at season’s end.

“Hogan's played for three AFL clubs. I think there's a high chance now it's going to be four. Collingwood are interested. Gold Coast as well. There's one or two others in a meaningful sense,” he added.

“The Giants won't even really come back to the table now in a negotiation sense. I think this is high and dry. I'd say he and Stringer are now both on the outer.

“You think about the geography of Jesse Hogan's journey. He could almost go full 360 here. Starts in Melbourne, goes to Perth, goes to Sydney, could yet finish back in Melbourne, who knows, with the Magpies or he heads north and finishes in the sun at the Gold Coast.

“I’d say long odds now to stay at the Giants.”

Hogan, who won the 2024 Coleman Medal, has booted 239 goals in 100 games for the Giants since crossing from Freo at the end of 2020.

Another tall marking forward plying his trade is New South Wales who is a chance to be on the move this trade period is Sydney’s Joel Amartey.

The 26-year-old, who is without a contract for next year, is the subject of a five-year offer from Carlton and has interest from other clubs, says Edmund.

“There's still back and forth there between both parties. Sydney still aren't willing to pay what Carlton and others are for Joel Amartey,” he said of the injured Swan who partially tore his Achilles in late June.

“He wants to stay. The cash isn't right. It's a five-year deal there. It's a five-year deal elsewhere. So it's just about the money.

“A couple of the clubs have got meaningful interest as well. He's back running too, by the way. So there actually is a world where he makes it back for finals, even if it is unlikely.”

Amartey, who debuted in 2020, has kicked 114 goals in 76 outing for the Swans.