North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkon has confirmed the club is interested in luring Melbourne veteran Jack Viney, less than 24 hours after saying he “never comments publicly” on potential trade targets.
Reports circulated last week that the Roos were keen on Viney despite the 30-year-old being contracted to the Demons until the end of next season.
Viney has a family connection at North with his father Todd the GM of football.
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The Kangaroos have made no secret of their desire to target experienced players to help their young list begin their charge up the ladder and eventually into finals contention.
But Clarkson has rarely engaged in such conversations, often leaving it up to the list management team.
And he reaffirmed his stance on not commenting publicly on opposition players when asked about Viney specifically on Thursday.
“We’re entering the silly season. It’s just unfortunate for players and clubs that there’s just so much speculation, but we always leave that to our list management staff,” he said.
“We never comment publicly about any player that we’re either trying to pursue or otherwise. I don’t think that’s fair on the player, I don’t think that’s fair on the club, I don’t think it’s fair on the opposition club. ”
But on Friday morning, Clarkson broke his own rule when asked the same question on Melbourne radio station SEN.
“We want anyone that’s going to help us in that space,” Clarkson said.
“There’s half a dozen players that have been successful, that have had really strong careers and are really strong in their leadership.
“All the guys that we actually want are probably contracted to their club because they’re required for a reason. It’s just can you extract one or two of them out who feel like they’re either not going to get the same opportunities as what they had before or they feel like their club is going in a different direction.
“We’re just hoping we can extract one or two of those. Jack’s (Viney) is part of that.”
After confirming Viney is a trade target, Clarkson went on to mention another four players from opposition clubs that are on their wishlist.
“Ollie Wines we’d like to have a chat to,” he added.
“Luke Parker, Dane Rampe, he’s 34 now. Cal Ward, there’s these guys that are just terrific leaders who have been part of successful programs and are high quality men.”
It remains to be seen whether the Roos can land any of them with Clarkson conceding his strike rate isn’t great.
“You’re never confident (of landing these players). I don’t know what the hit and miss ratio is for all other clubs, but I reckon mine is one in 10. You miss nine beauties that you’d love to get to your footy club, but you can’t land every one,” he said.
“You’re never confident but we know that’s what we’re searching for. We’ll go to market and see how we can go.”
The Kangaroos play the Western Bulldogs this weekend before finishing the season against Clarkson’s former club Hawthorn.
They appear certainties to finish in 17th place, which will be the fifth-straight year they have placed in the bottom two.