Geelong list manager Stephen Wells told radio station SEN on Tuesday that both Deledio and Carlton defender Zach Tuohy had approached the Cats.

"Both those players, we received an approach through their manager late in the season for us to consider those boys coming to join us at Geelong," Wells said.

"Of course with players the quality of those two, we have an interest. We would love them to come and play for Geelong."

As late as September 15, Deledio was adamant that his future lay at Punt Road Oval.

"It (speculation) is all noise and that's all it is," Deledio told radio station RSN at the time.

"(Deledio's manager Anthony McConville) obviously said with all this noise that's been created by the media, people are ringing up and seeing if there's any truth in it.

"Of course, he's just knocking it all on the head."

Wells admitted that acquiring both Deledio and Tuohy this trade period would not be easy.

"It's a bit different to this time last year when we brought in four players (Patrick Dangerfield, Zac Smith, Scott Selwood and Lachie Henderson)," Wells said.

"We had been preparing for it for quite a long time, probably a couple of years really, and had the draft picks and the salary cap space and positions on our list where we were able to do those four trades.

"Whereas this year, coming late, it's going to be a bit harder for us to do."

Wells was pleased that Deledio and Tuohy had nominated Geelong as their club of choice, but he also stressed that the Cats wouldn't be forcing any of their players out in order to accommodate one or both of the pair.

"We're not going to do that and we don't want to do that. We want to be loyal with the players that we've got as well," he said.

"It's a good, young group coming through together."

The Geelong list manager said finances would be the biggest stumbling block to executing either of those trades and that a third club might have to be involved to satisfy Richmond and/or Carlton.

"That's probably the way it's going to have to happen," he said.

"Without having a first-round pick and also we can't trade our second and third (picks) this year because we've trade our first (last year to get Dangerfield) and can't trade next year's first-round pick, I think everyone's read the landscape well and that is it's going to be difficult to do either of these two deals."

Wells agreed that, while Geelong has been one of the big beneficiaries of free agency and the trade period in recent years, the desire of players wanting to go to a handful of clubs every year wasn't healthy for the competition.

"No it's definitely not the way it's supposed to work, equalisation is a key factor for the AFL and if something was compromising all of that – whether it be free agency or the trading or whatever it might be - it certainly needs to be reviewed," he said.

Meanwhile, Wells was surprised at the low level of interest from other clubs in trading for Steven Motlop.

He also conceded that "there's a really good chance" that Nathan Vardy and Shane Kersten will find new clubs in this trade period. Port Adelaide and Fremantle are strongly interested in Vardy and Kersten respectively.