It was the first question asked to anyone who stopped on the way into the corporate suites at Telstra Dome on the first day of trade week and the general manager of player personnel & strategy at Hawthorn, Chris Pelchen, was doing what everyone else did – not saying much.
"That's just speculation at the moment," he said.
"Firstly, Ryan has to make the decision that he wants to come home to Melbourne – if he does that, then we'll talk further.
"He hasn't formally told the Swans that yet – as of yesterday – but we'll wait to hear more."
The Hawks have bountiful stocks of key forwards, and it's inevitable that quality forwards who can't get a game, like Tim Boyle, are going to be thrown into the mix.
"Look, with all our players, whether it be Tim or someone else, we'll certainly listen to offers put forward.
"Certainly, from the clubs we've met with during the course of last week, they've raised certain players’ names, including our forwards, so we'll take them all on board."
Collingwood's chief of football operations, Geoff Walsh, was even less forthcoming about his club's plans, although he did manage to slide in a dig at the media.
"Look, today we'll find out a hell of a lot of things that we don't know right now, so we'll be better positioned to make a comment on a whole range of things at the end of the day," he said as the Collingwood contingent arrived for the talks.
"So – we're not going to get anywhere today, fellas, unless we get something that we want to tell you about, and we'll do that at the end of the day.
"Right now, who knows? It's all speculation.
"And in terms of speculation, there's no-one better than the people in front of me."
