Carlton’s Davies on Amartey, Whitfield, Walker & Cripps

Carlton Head of Football Chris Davies has provided a comprehensive update on the comings and goings at Ikon Park on the opening morning of the Trade Period.

It’s set to be another busy off-season at Carlton, with significant list upheaval already underway. The club has delisted 11 players, while ruck pair Flynn Riley and Hudson O’Keeffe have requested trades to Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs respectively.

The Blues have secured unrestricted free agent Joel Amartey on a five-year deal from Sydney and have also been linked to GWS defender Lachie Whitfield as well as delisted Collingwood defender Wil Parker.

Carlton is also working to accrue enough draft points to match a bid for highly rated father-son prospect Cody Walker, while beginning discussions around a new contract for captain Patrick Cripps.

Davies joined Kane Cornes and Josh Jenkins on AFL Trade Radio on Monday morning to discuss all that and more.

On what Joel Amartey will bring to the club:

“One of the things that we wanted to bring into the club was some key position forward depth. And certainly with Joel, we're able to bring in a player that we think has played some really good AFL footy but also, from a structural perspective, can help our other forwards,” Davies said.

“We felt that Harry was probably a bit one out at different points this year. So, bringing Joel in gives us that another opportunity to have another target.”

On the club's interest in Lachie Whitfield:

“Along with the key position stuff, we've been talking about getting a little bit more run and kicking ability into the team. So that really has sparked our interest in Lachie.

“It’s more a conversation for GWS at this point as to whether they're going to be willing to let him go. But, if Lachie were to become an available player on the market, we would certainly have an interest in bringing someone like that into the club.”

On the current draft hand and securing Cody Walker:

“We've prepared as well as we could have, for rules that we didn't know were going to be coming in.

“We knew that the AFL were going to change the rules. We didn't quite know the depth of where they would get to with those rules. So, last year's trade period, we planned as well as we can, and We've got in between now and the draft to make sure that when the draft comes, we've got enough points to be able to obtain Cody, and we'll work through that next period of time trying to achieve that.

“We won’t take anything for granted. We will make sure that by the time the draft comes around that we have a good sense of who is going to go at pick one… There’s still a lot of water to go under the bridge, and we will prepare as best as we possibly can, but clearly, any player being selected before Cody helps us from a points perspective.”

On beginning talks on a new deal for Patrick Cripps:

“We’ll get to Paddy once the trade and draft period is finished.

“He finished third in our best-and-fairest last night and showed again why he’s a fantastic player in this competition and showed that he’s still got footy ahead of him.”

On whether Cripps will still be captain of Carlton next season:

“I reckon that’s something that will be going around in his mind in the off-season. I’m not entirely sure what he wants to do next year.

“What I did see this year was that he did a fantastic job with a group that needed leadership at different points in the year. You can imagine when the club was 1-8 and on its knees from a performance perspective, and keeping the group up.

“I’ll certainly be indebted to him for his leadership of our group this year.”

Listen to the full chat with Davies below: