Fremantle's aggressive AFL trading raids will escalate with rising hopes of good mates Joel Hamling and Shane Kersten forming bookends with the Dockers from next season.
Hamling, 23, has told Dockers coach Ross Lyon he will make a firm decision before the end of this weekend.
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The Western Bulldogs full-back is torn whether to turn his back on a blossoming career and go home to Western Australia just a fortnight after the gangly defender was a star performer in a stirring and historic premiership.
Hamling is understood to have an extremely personal desire to return home for closer ties to his country town roots at Broome, from where he was recruited originally to Geelong through WAFL outfit Claremont five years ago.
Kersten, 23, is committed to leave Geelong and head back to his home state as another potentially effective scoring avenue in a fully reformed Dockers forward division.
Dockers and West Coast officials will also have to ponder prospects of requests for future playing appointments from West Australian pair Marcus Adams from the Bulldogs and Collingwood defender Jon Marsh.
Adams, 23, has rocked the Dogs with a request to head home and Marsh told Pies officials on Thursday he is homesick and wants to move back west.
Adams' football career was nearly derailed after his brother Luke Adams, a former Swan Districts player, was the victim of one punch attack that left him in an induced coma back in 2011.
![Joel Hamling has become hot property after a standout finals series for the Bulldogs.](/web/20161016161807im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/s/y/k/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs2erz.png/1476418783633.jpg)
And while Fremantle could turn its attention to Adams, Hamling and Kersten have already met with Lyon and Dockers football operations manager Chris Bond - over lunch in Perth on Thursday.
Kersten looks certain to be traded to Fremantle early next week.
![Geelong's Shane Kersten is on the Dockers radar during trade week.](/web/20161016161807im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/p/6/6/5/w/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs2erz.png/1476418783633.jpg)
If Hamling agrees to head to the Dockers alongside Kersten it would probably round out a highly successful Fremantle recruiting model with strategic targeting of young West Australian expatriates.
The Dockers have already snared nippy Hawthorn triple premiership winger Brad Hill as well as key forward Cam McCarthy after the South Fremantle product sat out of football this year while serving out another season of his contract at Greater Western Sydney.
![Western Bulldogs player Marcus Adams has indicated his desire to come home.](/web/20161016161807im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/n/q/w/s/a/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs2erz.png/1476418783633.jpg)
Dockers list manager Brad Lloyd told Perth sports radio 91.3 that an attraction for good mates Hamling and Kersten is to play in the same team.
"Yeah, they are best mates, they seem to be together all the time whether it's down in Geelong or up in Melbourne," Lloyd said.
"There's no doubt that everyone respects that would be a challenge, he (Hamling) has just come off playing in a premiership and makes the decision a bit more cloudy.
"We respect his celebrations for the flag, he's been able to do that.
"It's now coming down to the stage to make a decision on what he wants to do with his footy, where he wants to play and where he wants to be."
Lloyd expects a decision from Hamling over the weekend to allow negotiations with Bulldogs officials ahead of trade closing deadline next Thursday.
Hamling is likely to be offered a three-year contract and is still considering a new deal to stay at the Dogs.
He confirmed his impressive potential as a standout hero in the Dogs finals campaign with outstanding defensive lock-down efforts on gun West Coast forward Josh Kennedy in the opening week of the month-long campaign and then Sydney superstar Lance Franklin in the title decider.
He would command a complicated trade agreement from Dogs management as a rising young star.
Hamling could attract a trade in the region of a first round pick where the Dockers retained number seven in the switch for Hill.
As it stands Fremantle also still hold picks at seven, 35 and 43 to bargain in possible trades for the talented Hamling and Kersten.
Hamling would at least be an early second round selection with Fremantle forced to trade to accommodate the Dogs demands.
Whether Hamling makes a stunning move to Fremantle after just 23 senior Bulldogs games or not appears to influence an outcome for borderline Dockers defender Alex Silvagni.
Silvagni, 29, is awaiting advice whether he will be offered a new contract.
He played the last five Dockers games of the season and turned in an impressive September finals series with alignment team Peel Thunder to resurrect fading chances of a new deal.
The burly defender has managed just 38 games in the past six seasons with a succession of concussion and soft tissue leg injuries as well as permanent presence in the Dockers backline of champion Luke McPharlin, Michael Johnson and Zac Dawson.
It is likely Silvagni will get an extension offer and a substantial pay rise if Hamling rejects moves from Dockers to head home