KEN HINKLEY has confirmed Port Adelaide would part with its first-round draft pick (currently No.16) for outgoing Essendon ruckman Paddy Ryder.
Ryder, who wants to leave the Bombers, was in Adelaide on Tuesday and will meet with Hinkley on Thursday to speak about his future.
Although Hinkley said Port wouldn't "spend all the money" to secure the ruckman/forward, he told Adelaide radio station 5AA its first selection at the upcoming draft was certainly on the table.
Ryder appears likely to choose between the Power or the Brisbane Lions, but the Lions have reportedly refused to offer their first-round pick (currently No.4).
Their next selection is pick 22.
The Power have long flagged the need for another tall forward and while Mason Shaw and Mitch Harvey were drafted last year to satisfy that requirement, both are yet to debut at senior level.
"Paddy's got a lot of decisions to make, we're one of his options – there's no doubt about that," Hinkley said.
"I'll talk to Paddy [on Thursday], I'll just confirm that, if for you to play football next year it's important that you be part of a club and a great club culture and what you want to achieve is team success, Port Adelaide can offer you that opportunity.
"Lobbes (Matthew Lobbe) needs a hand [in the ruck], if we could get Paddy Ryder into our football club we'd be excited by that, but there's a long, long way to go before we get to that point.
"We would give up our first round draft pick if that's what it took to get Paddy."
A self-professed people person who rates a player's character as his most important asset, Hinkley said Ryder was the type of man he wanted at Alberton.
Questions remain over Ryder's future, though, given ASADA's ongoing investigation into Essendon's supplements saga.
But Hinkley said the ASADA cloud wouldn't hinder the Power's efforts to recruit the 26-year-old, just as it didn't stop the club securing Angus Monfries at the end of 2012.
"They're things we don't know the facts to … we've had Gus with us for two years who's come out of the same environment," he said.
"Look, I've just got to trust those things will be taken care of by the right people at the right time.
"There's just nothing we can do … at the moment we have a player who's possibly available who fits a need for us and we'd like to go after that as hard as we can."
