An agreement between Port Adelaide and St Kilda for wantaway Power ruckman Ivan Soldo looks some time away as the Saints await confirmation of the ex-Tiger's desires to land at Moorabbin.
Soldo has requested a trade away from Alberton after just 12 months with the Power, having struggled to settle into South Australia following his move from Richmond.
The 28-year-old is now seeking a move back to Victoria but has not specified a club of choice yet, however St Kilda are viewed as a frontrunner for his services.
Given Soldo is contracted for the next two seasons, the "right" offer will still need to be tabled to Port Adelaide for a trade to be granted.
"He'd prefer to not be at Port Adelaide next year," Power football boss Chris Davies said bluntly.
"I don't think he settled in Adelaide as much as he would've liked. I'm sure that he also came to us with a view of being the number one ruck. I'm not sure that we would be willing to commit to that. That's not to say that he couldn't be if injury and form during the off-season ended that way.
"Ivan's season was unfortunately hampered through injury. We didn't bring two rucks in last year to want to tip one of them out straight away, even though Jordon Sweet looked in the second half of the year every bit an AFL ruckman. That's obviously a tick and gives us a little more flexibility around Ivan.
"The deal is going to have to be right for Ivan to go. The understanding around the place is that maybe St Kilda are the ones who are most interested in Ivan. We'll just have to wait and see how that one plays out."
The Saints have stated they are yet to interact with Soldo's party but are hunting ruck depth to support star tall Rowan Marshall this year following the exit of journeyman Tom Campbell.
Saints football boss David Misson outlined the club will continue to assess the open market before making a potential play for Soldo.
"He's currently still a contracted player, and there's a fair bit of work to do if that was going to happen," Misson said.
"We haven't had interactions. We've read what's in the press and we've heard the noise.
"We let Tom Campbell go, we've got Rowan Marshall and Max Heath on our list. It's an area that we probably need to build, whether it's with Ivan or someone else through the draft or whatever.
"We feel that ruck stocks are pretty important. We've probably been reasonably lucky in a way that Rowan's been able to play every game the last couple of years. But we want to sort of backfill that area and make sure that we've got some support.
"We just need to sit down and really stipulate what our strategy is going to be before we start moving into discussions."
The Saints hold draft selections 7, 8, 27 and 46 for this year's AFL Draft, while they could offer 2025 draft selections to potentially appease the Power.
Port Adelaide are also working with Gold Coast and Collingwood to attain Jack Lukosius and Joe Richards respectively, while two-time All-Australian Dan Houston has requested a trade from the Power and is also seeking a move to Victoria.