O’Meara focused on AFL trade to Hawks

Jaegar O’Meara’s manager will go into the AFL trade period without a plan B, confident Hawthorn can engineer a blockbuster trade with Gold Coast.

The Hawks will be major trade players again, announcing a week ago that O’Meara wants to join them from the Suns.

They are also said to have Sydney’s Tom Mitchell and Richmond ruck-forward Ty Vickery on their radar.

But O’Meara will not come cheaply and Luke Breust, Will Langford and James Sicily are all being mentioned as potential trade bait.

Still, O’Meara’s manager Colin Young has backed Hawks list manager Graeme Wright and Suns counterpart Scott Clayton to make the deal happen.

“Out of respect, Gold Coast let Hawthorn go through the finals and obviously, now that it’s over, they’re going to start kicking into gear,” he said at the launch of AFL trade radio.

“They’re two of the best who are going to do this trade so, hopefully, it will get done and I don’t think Hawthorn would entertain a trade like this if they didn’t believe they could get it done.”

Young also revealed Hawks doctor Michael Makdissi was a key reason why O’Meara wanted to join the club.

O’Meara has not played senior football for two seasons because of a ruptured patella tendon.

He has previously worked with Dr Makdissi and is encouraged by Shaun Burgoyne, whose career has flourished since arriving at the Hawks in late 2009 on crutches.

“Jaeger has a relationship with Michael back from the AIS days, when Jaeger said they met, they clicked, and obviously with Burgoyne back in the day, it really got to him,” Young said.

“So he was pretty happy that all the planets lined up and Hawthorn was the one.

“It’s always a risk because of two years out of the game, but they (Hawthorn) … have got the proof in the pudding.”

Meanwhile, Essendon defender Michael Hibberd said he was torn before deciding he wanted a trade to Melbourne.

Hibberd is the only banned Bomber still on their list to request a trade.

Of the 12, Tayte Pears has retired to pursue a firefighting career and Jobe Watson remains undecided about his AFL future.

Hibberd said when he was overseas for three weeks with his banned teammates, he thought strongly about staying.

But then he spent three weeks with his girlfriend and Hibberd decided he wanted a fresh start.

“The fact that it changed back that way pretty quickly, I thought in a few months’ time, it is probably going to change even more,” he said.

Also on Tuesday, Young said Melbourne forward Jesse Hogan was unlikely to seek a trade back to WA this year.

But Young has talked up the prospect of Fremantle small forward Hayden Ballantyne going to local rivals West Coast.

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