THE NEWS that Brisbane star Dayne Beams wants to return to Collingwood is "a complete surprise" to Lions coach Chris Fagan, but he acknowledged "footy's full of surprises".
AFL.com.au's Damian Barrett reported on Thursday morning the 28-year-old would request a trade to the Pies, where he was drafted in 2008 before leaving at the end of 2014.
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Beams is contracted until the end of 2020 and Barrett, breaking the news on NAB AFL Trade Radio, revealed Brisbane CEO Greg Swann intended to hold the midfielder to his deal.
Fagan told Melbourne radio station SEN the report caught him unawares.
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"It was news to me. I had a conversation with Dayne post-season, on our normal exit interviews with our players, and he was bright and bubbly about the future of our footy club, and looking forward to continuing with us," Fagan said.
"I've seen Dayne several times since, the most recent at the weekend at Horsham for the haircut for the Breast Cancer Network Australia for the Berry family.
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"I saw Dayne there and spent time with him. He's not mentioned that to me, so that news is a complete surprise."
Beams recommitted to the club publicly at the best and fairest last month.
Thus far, Beams hasn't officially sought a swap.
"He has not requested a trade. There's been nothing come through our club. We'd be surprised," Fagan said.
"'Beamsy' stepped down as captain mid-season and his form picked up … I'm puzzled by it, I've had no discussion with our club about it so it's news to me.
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"Our club really put their arms around the Beams brothers this year and looked after them through a pretty tough time, and they did a terrific job as well, both Dayne and Claye.
"Beamsy courageously stepped down from the leadership group during the season."
Fagan will call Beams at some point to discuss the story but indicated he would be surprised if it was true because he believed the former Lions captain would have told him about wanting a move home to Victoria.
"I'll probably have a chat to Dayne to see if there's anything in it," Fagan said.
"I don't want to insult him either because I'm pretty sure that we have a relationship that if he was feeling that way, that he'd come and chat to me about it. I'm more inclined to think I would've heard from him by now."
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Beams dealt with mental health issues throughout a year which saw the death of his father Philip.
"As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing to discuss," Fagan said.
"Now, I haven't seen (football manager) Dave Noble or (list manager) Dom Ambrogio this morning. I'll head down to [Marvel] Stadium shortly but they haven't rung me to say there's anything to the contrary, to the situation as we understand it.
"I don't think anything's going to emerge in the days ahead but footy's full of surprises."
