Former Eagles star Andrew Embley has suggested that Fremantle should consider trading skipper Nat Fyfe.
The Dockers are currently 16th on the ladder having won two of their opening eight games this season in the midst of a full list rebuild.
Fyfe, a dual Brownlow Medal winner and amongst the league's highest paid players, is contracted at the Dockers until the end of 2023.
Speaking on Triple M, Embley posed the question to ex-Hawk and Eagle Xavier Ellis: “Can Fremantle win a flag in the next three years?”, to which Ellis replied no.
Embley added: “So on the back of that question, Nat Fyfe turns 29 this year, he’ll be 32 in three years’ time. So potentially on the back of that, Nat Fyfe’s not going to be part of Fremantle’s premiership team."
“He’s such a wonderful player and given so much to the Fremantle Football Club. (But) Is there a conversation that comes in the next one or two years between management at the Fremantle Dockers and Nat Fyfe to say: ‘Listen, is it time that we potentially could offload you? Could you go to a Melbourne club, could we get two first-round picks?’ And with that trade help Fremantle be able to build towards that next premiership?”
Ellis questioned whether a player of the champion's stature and captain of the club would be open to a move.
“I’m not sure. Champions like Fyfe, I’d imagine – they probably believe internally that they’ve got the ability and the fortitude to turn things around and win that flag themselves,” Ellis said.
“I find it hard for him to say: ‘I don’t think we can win a premiership in three years, I’m up and out’ – because it wouldn’t be for financial reasons. He’s got a great set-up here in a two-team town, but he’s going to be paid like a squillionaire whichever club he plays at.
“Don’t get me wrong, ideally you’d go ‘give us a couple of first-rounders’ and whatever you can get for Fyfe – that’s probably going to help Fremantle get closer to a premiership. But him moving on, I don’t think he’d be putting his hand up.”
