Hawthorn captain James Sicily has warned there’s “a lot of water to go under the bridge” before West Coast star Tom Barrass can be made a Hawk.
Barrass formally requested a trade to Waverley Park at his exit meeting on Tuesday, with Hawthorn poised to involve its first-round pick in a deal for the contracted defender.
The 28-year-old Eagle is one of several players linked to the Hawks, with Sicily pleased by the level of interest from rival players.
“It’s exciting that players are seeing Hawthorn as somewhere where they want to be – that’s a good feeling,” Sicily said on Wednesday.
“If (the list management team) need me to chime in in the future, I’ll be open to it, but I just let them do the job.”
Sicily said he had been excited to learn Barrass had lodged his request but acknowledged plenty had to play out before he could be joined in defence by the 2018 premiership player.
“I’m pretty excited by that prospect, but there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge still,” Sicily said.
West Coast football boss Gavin Bell said the club would respect his wishes but had to exact a fair price.
“While the club respects Tom’s request, he is contracted for another three years and our vice-captain,” Bell said.
“We will endeavour to meet Tom’s request while protecting the best interests of the West Coast Eagles.”
Sicily was cryptic when asked about St Kilda free agent Josh Battle, who appears set to depart and could also beef up the Hawks’ key defensive stocks.
“I have quite a few mutual friends with Josh Battle, I’m good friends with Bradley Hill and so is he, so we see a fair bit of each other,” he said.
The bumper trade and free agency period anticipated by the Hawks will come off the back off a finals campaign Sicily said had come sooner than he expected.
He said it was not until after a scrappy round 13 win over GWS in Launceston that he truly believed Hawthorn could contend this season.
“In terms of belief that we could get there, it was probably after either the Giants game or the Fremantle game, where we won, but we didn’t win playing our best footy,” he said.
“It was a bit ugly, and you need to win that way during the season. You get a lot of belief out of that, that you’re not firing on all cylinders but you can get the job done.
“It’s an interesting one, I hope we can find some comfort in the fact we’ve played in five or six (effective) elimination finals.”
Sicily gathered Hawthorn’s football staff and players at his house on Sunday to watch the other games and enjoy gathering together.
The Hawks resumed training on Wednesday after two days off, with Will Day remaining on a heavily modified program as he tries to overcome the pain of an SC joint injury in time to face the Western Bulldogs next Friday.
“I think he ran on the weekend – it’s just all about mobility and pain at the moment with (Day),” Sicily said.
“He’s obviously a really important player, and fortunately enough we get a bye before the finals, which should help him.”
