Melbourne's Liam Jurrah is in Port's sights. Source: Getty Images
LIAM Jurrah is expected to train with Port Adelaide in the next two weeks as the club zeroes in on the troubled star.
Football manager Peter Rohde said the former Demon would be asked to train with the Power just before or after the November 22 national draft with a view to selecting him in next month's pre-season or rookie drafts.
Jurrah who is living in Adelaide has had fruitful discussions with Port, mainly through some of its community department employees who are family friends, and has indicated he wants to resume his 36-game, 81-goal AFL career at Alberton.
But the Power first wants to see him on the track and test him medically after he suffered serious ankle and wrist injuries this year.
"We need to have a good look at him,'' Rohde said on his return from London yesterday with the Port Adelaide team which beat the Western Bulldogs by one-point in an AFL exhibition match at The Oval.
"We won't be considering him for the national draft (where Port has three picks inside the top 31) but we might get him out to train with us just before or after that and we'll see where we go from there.
"Clearly he is an amazing talent but we need to see just how keen he is to play AFL football again, what his fitness is like and put him through a full medical because he has had injury problems and we don't know how his body is holding up.
"So we'll do our due diligence and see where that leads us.''
Rohde said the recruiting of Jurrah, 24, was far from certain because there are other delisted AFL players Port also is monitoring.
But clearly the Power is excited by Jurrah's talent.
"He's in town and he doesn't look like he'll get picked up in the national draft and if he's not we'll certainly consider him for the pre-season or rookie drafts,'' Rohde said.
New coach Ken Hinkley is said to be open minded about drafting Jurrah.
If Port claims Jurrah in the December 11 pre-season or rookie drafts, it faces an anxious wait until March when Jurrah will front a court hearing in Alice Springs to answer three counts of alleged aggravated assault.
"Everyone hopes to see him get another opportunity to play elite football,'' Rohde said of a player who Melbourne finally lost patience with after in 2009 making him one of football's greatest stories when it drafted him from remote central Australia club Yuendumu Magpies.
Jurrah was the Demons' leading goalkicker in 2011 with 40 goals but he played just one AFL game this year.
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