Eagles explain why they didn’t sign Ballantyne

Despite reports linking Hayden Ballantyne to West Coast, the crafty small forward will once again suit up for the Dockers in 2017.

West Coast general manager of football Craig Vozzo revealed on Monday morning that the Eagles wanted to sign Ballantyne, but in the end, simply could not afford him.

“Hayden expressed a want to leave his football club, I think, at one point,” Vozzo told 6PR’s Sportsworld.

“Our position has always been, we’ve got some TPP (total player payments) restrictions, we don’t even know what our TPP is which is a bit unusual at this time of year for all clubs.

“We’re working on some estimates and when we brought in Sam (Mitchell) that made it very difficult to bring in another player of any significant value in terms of money.

“That was basically the long and short of it, he’s a great little player but we’ve got TPP restrictions and we had priorities to fill.”

Ballantyne, who is contracted for next year, has kicked 221 goals in 141 games for the Dockers to date.