GOLD Coast coach Rodney Eade has downplayed suggestions the Suns have launched a bid for Fremantle star Nat Fyfe, saying the club hasn't discussed trading for the Brownlow medallist.
Reports emerged this week that the Suns were eyeing the 24-year-old superstar, who becomes a free agent at the end of next year and has publicly said he will explore his options throughout 2017.
The Suns look set to hold at least six of the first 30 picks at this year's NAB AFL Draft, giving them a strong hand at the trade table during October's exchange period.
But asked after the Suns' 71-point loss to Collingwood on Saturday night if the Gold Coast was setting itself to target Fyfe, Eade said "not that I know of".
Click here for Rodney Eade's full press conference
"We'd be interested in any quality player. I'm 100 per cent certain that we have not spoken to Fremantle," Eade said.
"I don't know for a fact, but list managers talk to player managers all over. Those conversations would be going on, so I imagine something has been flown and unfortunately probably one of the managers has said that it's a fact of life.
"As a club, we haven't discussed it. And I imagine if we are going to make a full-blown investigation or appeal on one player, yes we would know as a club because it would be a measured approach."
Eade threw up suggestions about what Fyfe would be worth on the open market, but said the Suns had not considered a deal.
"I haven't really thought about it, but he's a great player and a good age demographic. But we haven't thought about it or discussed it. You can fantasize and dream," Eade said.
A fit Fyfe would have been a handy addition to the Suns' line-up on Saturday night against the Pies, as Gold Coast lost its fourth straight game and was blown away by a dominant Collingwood outfit.
Eade said the club's injury troubles had left it with a lack of depth and that a number of players wouldn't be playing at senior level if not for fitness concerns at the Suns.
"We needed to use the ball as well as we could but we struggled in that area as well. We're struggling for run," Eade said.
"[Callum] Ah Chee shouldn't be playing, Tom Lynch is carrying a little bit (a leg injury) at the moment. All our markers on a few of our guys [shows] we should be resting about six or seven of them. But we can't so we just have to push on and get up for next week."
With one week to go before the sun sets on Gold Coast's 2016 campaign, Eade admitted his team had hit the wall.
Sean Lemmens has been taken from the ground on a stretcher following this collision with Jesse White #AFLPiesSuns https://t.co/0PugPXYPwJ
— AFL (@AFL) August 20, 2016
But he said the week-long stint in Melbourne between its loss to Essendon last week and the Magpies defeat had nothing to do with the Suns' poor showing on Saturday night.
The team stayed in Melbourne instead of heading back to Queensland due to its back-to-back Etihad Stadium games.
"It had nothing to do with it. I don't see the relevance, to be honest. I said we're fatigued coming into the last week," Eade said.
"Whether you sleep in a different bed, how's that make a difference? Because it's the end of the season we knew the guys were fatiguing and it was just to change it up and give them a different stimulus.
"If we were back on the Gold Coast we would have done something different too, like going to Paintball or something to actually change it up. They've given as much as they can for the last eight or nine weeks, and especially since all the midfielders have gone out, which has been the last five or six weeks. You couldn't ask any more."