Port Adelaide want to get their heads around departed Melbourne forward Liam Jurrah’s complex off-field situation before deciding whether to give him a new AFL home.

Jurrah, due to face trial in Alice Springs in March over an alleged machete attack, moved to Adelaide in August to be with family.

The Demons had hoped he would return and play for them again next season, but the forward has now told Melbourne he will not be back.

He plans to remain in South Australia and hopes to join an Adelaide-based AFL club.

Power football manager Peter Rohde said Port had talked with Jurrah’s management and would continue to do so, but they were not ready to commit to recruiting him.

“We think he is a very talented player,” Rohde said in a statement.

“He is working through some complicated issues which we are keen to better understand before making any decision regarding our interest in bringing him to Port Adelaide.”

The 23-year-old kicked 81 goals in his 36 games with the Demons over four seasons.

The exciting start he made to his AFL career in 2009 provoked enormous attention, both for his freakish skills and cultural background.

Jurrah comes from the indigenous desert community of Yuendumu, about 300km northwest of Alice Springs, with English not his first language.

But after being Melbourne’s leading goal-kicker last year, he played just one AFL game this year, his season thrown off course both by the assault charges and an ankle injury.

He is facing three charges of aggravated assault and one count of unlawfully causing serious harm, over an altercation in March this year at a town camp on the edge of Alice Springs.

Jurrah’s manager Ned Guy has told The Age website the forward understands he is risking his AFL career by staying in Adelaide, but feels it is more important for his wellbeing to be near family.