Live: Blakey closes in on North move, Lion requests late trade to Bombers

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Dave Trotter is on Trade Radio speaking about his client Zane Duursma, who is still hoping to get to Melbourne in the next 48 hours.

You never say it's a lock, but he's out of contract so I'd be reasonably confident something gets done. Melbourne have pick 33 on the table. You'd hope North can take the pick and do what they need to with it.

I am hoping it's today and not tomorrow night.

Trotter went into some interesting detail about Zane too, and how it might have taken a little longer than others for him to get his head around the requirements of an AFL footballer. Even used his brother Willem, who Trotter says has had none of those problems, as a direct counter-example.

Trotter says Zane is pursuing this move, which will represent a pay cut, to take himself out of his comfort zone and try to kickstart his career.

Not 20 minutes after I mentioned Laitham Vandermeer's desire to get to Essendon, SEN's Sam Edmund says Laitham has changed his mind.

Edmund says Vandermeer had strongly considered a move to the Bombers, but has now decided to stay at the Dogs and will fight for his spot in the team.

And fair enough too, who would want to leave the Bulldogs right now?

Not expecting anything from Freo between now and close. They'll take pick 19 to the draft and have some good options around that mark, and will back themselves to be 1% better in 2027. Because that's all it will take.

A little bit of semi-Freo related news that has just come in though. Josh Gabelich from AFL.com.au says Sam Switkowski, freshly retired, is going to follow Jaymie Graham from Fremantle to North Melbourne to sign on as a development coach at the Kangaroos.

That's about right Sam. Laitham Vandermeer is still looking to move, most likely to Essendon. Not sure if the Kiddy Coleman chase impacts this one at all, but I would doubt it.

And yes, the Dogs would love to get some points in the bag to potentially match a bid for Khaled El Souki on draft night. There's a bit of variance in rankings of El Souki, so it's tough for the Dogs to know exactly what they would need to have prepared, but they'll do their best.

I imagine Bulldogs fans can hardly wait for season 2027.

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The other big bit of news that came after the blog closed last night was around Keidean Coleman, who has been canvassing his options over the past couple of weeks.

He has now made a decision, and Coleman has told the Lions he wants to be traded to the Bombers.

Dons fans, how does that one get done? Pick 21 and a bit of extra sprinkled on top? Surely not pick 17?

Less than 48 hours for a deal to be struck on that one.

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After a day of little to no movement on the Nick Blakey front, an update came in last night that suggested this deal was not too far from being completed.

Both Tom Morris and Cal Twomey reported that North Melbourne had upped its offer to Sydney. It now consists of pick six this year, a 2028 first-round selection and potentially a 2027 second-round pick.

Would that be enough to get it over the line? Sounds like it's not far away, and Twomey even believes that it could be completed today. Once again, watch this space.

Good morning, and welcome back to ABC Sport's live blog coverage of the 2026 AFL trade period. The penultimate day has arrived, and with more than a dozen deals still up in the air we are rapidly approaching now or never time.

Could be a big Tuesday ahead as we set the scene for deadline day tomorrow. Chris will be back with me soon and together we'll be here all day. Hit up the comments with your thoughts and questions and let's get going.