They also said the following:
"Patrick Dangerfield has informed the Club he wants to return to Victoria."
Interesting.. As a restricted free agent he is obviously entitled to nominate a specific club if he chooses, and I think we all expected him to say Geelong.
I still anticipate that's where he'll end up, but by leaving it ambiguous like that (as opposed to saying "It's Geelong or nothing") he's left the door open for the Crows to explore their "options" and maximize their return while still doing the right thing by Patrick and allowing he and his partner the opportunity to return to Melbourne/Geelong to be closer to their families - of course that's only if Geelong try to be clever and refuse to offer fair value for him.
As I said, I doubt that scenario will eventuate and I'm sure a deal will be struck that allows him to join the Cats. It's not often a player of Dangerfield's calibre comes on the market, and even rarer still for a player like that to nominate your club as their desired destination. Geelong are a well run club, and fortunately for them there's no chance that they'll follow the fanciful advice being offered by a few of their supporters and risk cocking up this once in a generation opportunity.
They'll also have additional targets of their own that they'll want to pursue outside of Dangerfield so I'm sure if they haven't already, the 2 clubs will come to an agreement that is fair and reasonable for both sides well before trade week commences.