Speaking after O’Keefe had agreed in principle to a four-year deal with the Swans, Roos scoffed at trade week rumours that the Hawks were set to obtain the 27-year-old until they withdrew their first-round pick from the trade table.
“Hawthorn was never really in the mix despite what you’d believe from some people at Hawthorn, and that is the difficulty of trade week. You don’t know what to believe and who to believe,” Roos said.
“I spoke to Ryan after Hawthorn’s interest and he said he had no interest in going to Hawthorn whatsoever. They never really had a contract offer on the table with Ryan’s management either. There are a lot of games being played during trade week and that is probably one of the reasons why not much gets done.”
Roos said Carlton was O’Keefe’s preferred destination but the Blues made no effort to do a deal, concentrating instead on luring ruckman Robert Warnock from Fremantle.
“At the end of the week we didn’t have anything concrete from anyone and that probably was the most frustrating thing from Ryan’s point of view as well,” Roos said.
“I think Ryan’s preference was to go to Carlton but we didn’t get any formal offers from Carlton. It was a frustrating week for Ryan and for us and probably a frustrating week for everyone involved in AFL footy.”
Roos said the Swans worked hard to satisfy O’Keefe’s wish to return to his home state but after no deal could be done he was happy to stay a Swan.
If O’Keefe was to enter into the pre-season draft he would have been no guarantee to return to his home state, with non-Victorian clubs holding three of the top four picks and the debt-ridden Melbourne having the other pick.
The Swans coach admits he thought he had seen the last of O’Keefe as a Swan but is happy to have him back on board.
“When a player wants to go we respect that and we tried as hard as we possibly could to facilitate his transfer to the club he wanted to go to,” he said.
“We felt once he made the decision that he probably wouldn’t be here but once trade week finished -- considering the uncertainty of the draft -- we went back and asked him to reconsider and he has done that.”
