The Blues have their key forwards stock as a “number one” priority now that their stunning run to the AFL finals has come to an end, with out-of-favour Sydney Swan Joel Amartey top of the list.
Amartey is still considering whether he wants to stay in New South Wales beyond his current deal, and his now weighing up a five-year deal from Carlton. The Blues aren’t offering the world pay-wise, but a deal through to 2031 would have to be very appealing for the 27-year-old right now.
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It makes complete sense for Carlton: Amartey can immediately become a target for the Blues midfielders, with the expectation being that he can kick a bag every few games and add some real strike power at the top.
Through 2026, he kicked 28 goals and 18 behinds, and that was largely playing second or third fiddle behind dangermen like Tom Papley and Coleman medallist Charlie Curnow.
He may well have played more, too, but was felled by a serious Achilles injury that saw him sidelined for much of the Swan’s season up to this point in September.
The Blues are also chasing Buku Khamis, the club’s chief executive Graham Wright confirmed recently, while Jesse Hogan and Calsher Dear are also on shortlists as the team looks to be “aggressive” this offseason.
“We’ll still try and be as aggressive as we can be,” Davies told Fox Footy.
“We’ve got a CEO who has a significant amount of experience in this management.
So I’ve done the job for a long period of time to have a view of whether I’m capable of doing it or not. We’ve got other people in our list management and recruiting area who have long histories in the AFL.
“Probably think right now is not the appropriate time to be ripping someone out of another club to do that for us. So we’ll get through the next period in a way that will position the club for what we want for 2027.
“But we’ll be going through with our existing people right now.”
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