BEAMS TO THE PIES?

BRISBANE says a report linking Dayne Beams to Collingwood is “reheated soup” and it has heard nothing from the player or the Magpies about a potential trade.

When the latest story linking Beams to Collingwood broke yesterday, the Lions made contact with his manager Paul Connors who assured the club Beams had not spoken to him about requesting a trade.

Since his father died in March, Beams — who has two years to run on his contract — has made it clear he would eventually like to return to Victoria.

However, his stated position with Brisbane in meetings with chief executive Greg Swann and football manager David Noble was that he would not ask to be traded, but if the club identified a deal it was interested in, he would be happy to return before his contract expired.

The Lions have not explored any deals or conducted any analysis of Magpies’ players because their preference is to keep their former captain to steer a midfield that could be bolstered by the addition of Docker Lachie Neale.

The suspicion is the Beams to Collingwood story re-emerged because of Fremantle’s hard-line stance on club champion Neale.

Brisbane is adamant its offer of draft pick No.5 is sufficient and is not budging but the Dockers want another first-round pick.

The Dockers, having heard rumours of Beams’s desire to return to Victoria, suggested the Lions could secure the necessary pick to get the Neale deal done by trading with Collingwood for pick 18.

With the arrival over the past two years of high draft picks Hugh McCluggage (No.3), Jarrod Berry (No.19) and Cam Rayner (No.1), who are set to be long-term midfielders, the Lions feel they do not need to get any younger and are not desperately chasing extra picks.

It would leave the Magpies needing to offer a quality player to even get the Lions into a room if Beams did make a last-minute request for a trade.

Swann said other than the early morning phone calls, the latest Beams story had not created much of a ripple at the Gabba and he couldn’t see a scenario where Beams was not at Brisbane next year.

“We’re pretty relaxed about it, nothing has changed as far as we know,’’ Swann said.

“It looks like a bit of reheated soup. It’s not happening.’’