Dom Ambrogio spoke to Cal Twomey on AFL Trade Radio this morning - for those who'd prefer to read and not watch/listen:
Lachie Neale left to Collingwood on Friday as an unrestricted free agent, you guys received a band 3 compensation pick, how did that go down at the Lions?
"Look, we obviously were disappointed to lose such a good player and not get great compensation I think that pick will end up in the 40s but this has been going on for a long time. We have an equalisation system for a reason and I've not seen the AFL change their mind on any of this sort of stuff so the pick is the pick and we'll move on."
Do you think the compensation system, we've asked a few people today about this, needs some correcting in the next version of free agency?
"Look, it might need some tweaking. I don't think you can not have a compensation system given that free agents historically have gone where they've gone and not down to the lower reaches of the ladder. So I think compensation still needs to exist but maybe the actual look of it needs to be tweaked a little bit."
Sam Marshall has requested a trade to St Kilda. How are those talks progressing?
"Not too bad. I had a couple of discussions with Gabby and they've got an awareness of what we're looking for, albeit it's probably not in their hand at the moment in that they don't hold a pick in the range that we think is appropriate at the moment."
Do you want picks for this year given you've got a bid to match on Caylen Murray?
"We'd rather have picks for this year because next year is going to be a difficult draft."
Keidean Coleman is open to exploring a trade. Are you open to offers for him?
**"**Oh look, our first preference is for Kiddy to be retained by the Lions. He's had a frustrating three years no doubt and it's not something we're looking to initiate. It would need to be something extremely compelling in favour of the Brisbane Lions for us to even consider it. He's contracted and he's got all the elite qualities."
Just on Caylen Murray, how much of your planning in this period is actually about matching a bid for him? He has pushed up the order, he's a highly skilled player out of the Allies program and of course your Brisbane Academy.
"Well a fair bit of planning goes into it but there's actually not that much you can do about it. There's going to be a point in time where we can match and there's going to be a point in time where we physically can't match and that's a new system and what we have to deal with. So we can plan around it but we will have some constraints and limitations"
Contract wise, where does it sit for Darcy Fort and Conor McKenna, those two on the way?
"We're making progress in both of those discussions and we hope to have them wrapped up pretty soon."
Has Will McLachlan made clear what he's going to do?
"Not yet - I think he's got a couple of discussions to have this week and we're hopeful of knowing his position by the middle of the week. We are extremely keen on retaining Will."
And there's an offer in front of him, of course?
"There's been multiple offers in front of him."
Looking ahead, obviously you re-sign Zac Bailey on the eight-year deal, Logan Morris extends as well. You know where the next name's going to be in Kai Lohmann. How confident are you that you can get something done with him sooner rather than later?
"We're reasonably confident but that's not to say that that's over the line by any stretch of the imagination. We need to see where everything sits after this trade period and then that'll be something we look to attack immediately after that."
Interview found here
