'We are confident': Three-club race for Port star heats up... and the ...

The race for Dan Houston — and Pick 13 — is on, with Collingwood, Carlton and North Melbourne vying for the dual All-Australian’s services as the trade period opened on Monday.

Port Adelaide’s position remains as it has since Houston, contracted until 2027, requested a trade back to Victoria — but didn’t nominate a specific destination — that it’s open to a deal but needs to be adequately compensated.

Gold Coast’s Pick 13 potentially holds the key to the Pies and Blues getting a deal done given Collingwood doesn’t have a first rounder and Carlton wants to keep theirs.

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Suns list boss Craig Cameron suggested they’d prefer to deal with Collingwood given Gold Coast’s attempts to land John Noble, but noted the prized selection has “become pretty popular” as multiple clubs clamour to get more stock in the highly rated draft.

“We’re keen to deal with the clubs we’re trying to find some players from, that would be our first preference. But Pick 13 has become pretty popular, so we’ll see how it pans out,” Cameron said on AFL Trade Radio.

“I wouldn’t say (Collingwood is) in front, but we’re prepared to deal with them to see where we can get to on the John Noble stuff.”

The Magpies are also due to strike a trade with Port Adelaide already after Joe Richards officially requested a move to Alberton, though Collingwood list manager Justin Leppitsch said it hadn’t been discussed yet as part of a possible Houston deal.

Still, Leppitsch was growing in confidence of obtaining the 27-year old Houston.

“We are confident,” Leppitsch said.

“We want to bring him into our footy club, but I guess we’ve got to get the deal done.

“There is lots to play out with him and Port Adelaide … Gold Coast may be involved in that. There’s a lot to play out.

“With John’s (Noble) desire to leave it’s a pretty obvious replacement of the same position.”

Leppitsch confirmed the Pies were in talks with the Suns for Pick 13 and hoping to “get a result,” with the 2023 premiers open to taking the selection to the draft.

“We’re open to anything, one thing we want to do is win for now, but also (have an eye on) our future,” he said.

“So if we felt that that using a pick will help us achieve one or the other, we will do that, but we’re not going to just give that away.

“We think we’ve got to give our fans hope for now or the future.”

Carlton list boss Nick Austin said the club “haven’t spoken to Dan directly” in recent days, with Port Adelaide still “working through some things internally.”

But he remained adamant that the Blues wouldn’t part ways with their first rounder — currently No. 12 — to get a Houston deal done.

“Dan is a contracted player at Port Adelaide, he hasn’t nominated a club yet, so we’ll wait and see where it goes,” Austin said.

“We’ve been really clear with our first pick, we’re taking it to the draft. It’s a really strong draft with some quality kids there in that region.

“We feel like there’s a 10 to 12 year player there for us, so we’ll be taking that pick to the draft.”

The Blues have reportedly offered their future first rounder and second rounder to try and get hold of Pick 13 — a selection they’re also comfortable using.

“It’s a good pick either way, it gives us some flexibility,” Austin said.

“We’ll be looking to get another pick in between our 12 and 31 — we rate the draft and we’d love to get in as high as we can — our future picks are on the table to try and do that.”

Kangaroos list manager Brady Rawlings was also hopeful the club was well positioned to satisfy Port in a deal after offering up a future first-rounder, which on recent history has been a top two pick.

“We’d like to be in the race, we’ve meet with Dan, so there’s enough will there that he would look at us and entertain us,” Rawlings said.

“But it’s going to come down to who can satisfy Port Adelaide the best and we have some good currency.

“We’d like to be in it and hopefully we can have some discussions this week.

“(Out future first rounder) is definitely on the table ... if it’s to help this year’s draft hand or get a player of Dan’s quality.”