NEWLY appointed Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir is yet to pitch the Dockers' case to wantaway Cat Tim Kelly.
Longmuir could potentially be Fremantle's trump card in their bid to win Kelly over, given his arrival represents a fresh start at Cockburn.
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However, Dockers football boss Peter Bell told reporters on Monday that a meeting between Longmuir and Kelly "could eventuate" but was yet to be scheduled.
At this stage, the Geelong midfielder has nominated West Coast as his preferred landing point, but Bell is still holding out hope.
"We've got to be respectful of Tim's wishes and we've put our case to Tim's management, and obviously as was the case last year, he wants to go to West Coast," Bell said.
"We'll continue to do the best we can to present as a viable option for Tim should negotiations stall between Geelong and West Coast. But we are respectful of Tim and (partner) Caitlin's wishes.
"Our stakeholders would expect us to be as aggressive as possible but at the same time being respectful, so there is that balance and there's a lot to play out."
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Cats list manager Stephen Wells confirmed he would speak to both the Eagles and Dockers about Kelly.
Wells declined to discuss exactly what Geelong wanted in return for the second-year midfielder but multiple first-round picks, rather than a player, is believed to be the preference.
"Obviously, it's the first day of Trade Period but Tim's made it clear he wants to go back to Western Australia and we'll be interested to hear what those two clubs have to say," Wells said.
"The specifics of any deal will be worked out, hopefully, over the next 10 days, if it's worked out at all."
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Eagles football manager Craig Vozzo said the club knows it will have to pay a "heavy price".
"Geelong has put a position to us for consideration," Vozzo said.
"We're going to consider all of our options. We've had some good discussions with Stephen (Wells) and the rest of the Geelong crew this morning and we'll keep them going.
"It's a deal that we need to consider. There's always too high of a price. It's what is fair and reasonable in any market circumstances. We acknowledge he's a very good player for their football club and we acknowledge that a heavy price needs to be paid."
Fremantle faces the reality of missing out on Kelly and losing Brad Hill (St Kilda) and Ed Langdon (Melbourne), who both finished in the top five of the club's best and fairest count.
Langdon hasn't officially informed the Dockers of his wish to be traded to the Demons.
"Indications are that he'd like to return to Victoria – we'll get some clarification on that today, hopefully," Bell said.
"There's a lot of speculation that Melbourne is a club that's very interested in Ed and we're looking forward to catching up today to get some clarity on that.
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"We'll discuss (Langdon's value) with the team that Ed indicates he'd like to play for next year but, look, he's been top five in our fairest and best the last two years.
"He's a very durable player (and an) outstanding character, so we value him very highly and clearly there's a lot of clubs that value him highly."
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