Mitch Clark has told Brisbane he wants to be traded to Freo ....Brisbane Lions play hard ball on Mitch Clark Andrew Hamilton
From: Sunday Herald Sun
September 11, 2011 The Brisbane Lions have demanded a top draft pick and a rising young star as their minimum price for Mitch Clark, who has told the club he wants to be traded to Fremantle.
The Lions want Fremantle's top draft pick, yet to be determined but expected to be somewhere between 12 and 15, and an established player capable of slotting into a senior role - possibly exciting Zac Clarke.
Clark told Lions coach Michael Voss before the club club's champion function that he wanted to join the Dockers but was warned the deal would be done on Brisbane's terms.
Docker Clarke, a late bloomer, came to football after a junior career in basketball.
He has emerged as a serious talent, and is in a similar mould to Lion Clark in that he can play deep forward and ruck.
Contracted to the end of 2013, he is an exciting long-term prospect but the Dockers feel Mitch Clark's greater experience could be the missing ingredient for a tilt at a premiership.
The Dockers are torn between trading for Clark or winning the frenzied auction for exciting WA 17-year-old Jaeger O'Meara, who is ineligible for this draft but can be pre-drafted by expansion club GWS and then on-sold.
Coach Mark Harvey wants the deal done but it is understood the club's recruiters lean towards the long-term strategy of O'Meara.
Brisbane football manager Dean Warren said the Lions were keen to retain Clark but accepted his reasons for wanting to go home.
The fact Clark has only nominated one club has made it difficult to get a deal done.
Given his importance to Brisbane's structure, the scarcity of talls on its list and that Clark was a top 10 draft pick with five years invested in his development, a trade will not come cheap.
"We have to do what's best for our football club," Warren said.
"So it is going to be a hard deal to get done."
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/brisbane-lions-play-hard-ball-on-mitch-clark/story-fn69a32t-1226133842314
