I'm thinking it's the old "why would I strengthen a competitor" mentality. I can't remember what we offered for Stevens but undoubtebly a player with Steven's footskills and polish would have significantly bettered our "workman-like" team in 2003. If Port wasn't going to get a player that could potentially influence their team to the same extent, or get a very promising young gun a la Didak, then why would they strengthen the opposition?
Lyon probably sees a similar situation with Ball. Clearly we could use a gun clearance winner as has been shown by our midfield matchup's during the finals and considering we made a prelim this year why would he give us a player that could potentially (barring injury) make a significant positive impact on our team, whilst not getting the same impact from our side of the deal? I considered our offer to be fair considering Ball's groin situation but I can see what he's thinking could have been.
Oh also, Ross Lyon's a prick.
