Port Adelaide's rare absence from the 2025 AFL Draft can be explained by the club's future plans, headed by the link to Pick 1 fancy Douglas Cochrane.
The Power went into this year's draft with two late selections, with the first coming at Pick 58 following trades over the past 12 months.
Within those moves, the Alberton club bolstered their 2026 hand, grabbing Carlton's future second and Gold Coast's future third selections.
But the no selection in the national draft made history, with Port Adelaide becoming the first club to exit the intake without selecting a single player.
The acquisition of three players in the 2025 mid-season draft forced a list squeeze at Port Adelaide, and although they had a late pick to use, Port Adelaide National Recruiting Manager Geoff said their desired prospects were off the table by that point.
"We definitely came into this draft with a list of players to pick, so there was never a thought that we weren't going to pick," said Parker as he left the draft room on Thursday night.
"We had a list of players, and when you come in at pick 58, you need a long list. So by the time it got to our pick, they'd disappeared. We had the three mid-season picks, so we brought in some talent there. So we look at that as we've already got three new players on our list, really, and if we were going to get another one tonight, we would have, but unfortunately, it didn't work that way."
The Power made the necessary primary list spot moves via upgrading a host of rookies, including Logan Evans, Josh Lai, Harrison Ramm and Tom Cochrane.
Evans' promotion opened another rookie list spot, which the club used on Jack Watkins, who previously trialled for an SSP spot 12 months ago, but remained with the SANFL side in 2025.
But Port Adelaide's main "focus" was ensuring they targeted future selections, especially following Cochrane's acceptance into the club's NGA.
"It's been a focus (to trade into next year's draft), and it's been spoken about since trade period," Parker said.
"Our focus was to try and get some capital in next year's draft. Obviously, Dougie Cochrane was approved by the AFL (to join Port Adelaide's Next Generation Academy) last week.
"There is a lot of footy to be played. We know (Cochrane) is talented, (but) whether he's the number one, we don't know yet. The football the boys play next year will decide that."
The Power could have access to potential selections of father-son combinations, Louis Salopek and Tevita Rodan in 2027, with NGA prospect Zemes Pilot also potentially in the mix.
