ADELAIDE might have to work hard to acquire Carlton ruckman Sam Jacobs despite the Blue’s intention to return to his home state and play for the Crows.

Jacobs has told the Blues he wants to return to South Australia but Carlton is determined to ensure it is adequately compensated for his departure.

Having developed the 22-year-old from his days as a rookie, the Blues will want the Crows to find them a suitable trade - be that from within their own ranks, by way of a draft pick or by getting other clubs involved.

If they can’t, Carlton appears prepared to look elsewhere or even let Jacobs walk to the national or pre-season drafts.

Blues coach Brett Ratten said the club was willing to accommodate Jacobs and a couple of other Blues seeking a new club but it would not be walked over at the trade table.

“Well, the Gold Coast’s got the first pick [in the pre-season draft], so if we don’t get there, he might be going to the other side of the country,” Ratten said when asked if the Blues were prepared to play hardball with Adelaide on a trade for Jacobs.

“We’ve got a few boys that have indicated that they would maybe have a look outside the club.

“We won’t make any changes unless we get the right deals done there.”

Along with Jacobs, Ratten said defenders Andrew Walker and Bret Thornton would also be the centre of trade discussions.

However the Jacobs deal looms as the most intriguing ahead of next week’s official player exchange period.

“We value Sammy and we put four years [into him] and we put a development coach who was more of a ruck-specific coach in Matthew Capuano [on to help our ruckmen],” Ratten told afl.com.au.

“Sam’s had the tutoring of Matty Capuano, a premiership player himself, and he’s developed really quickly along the way.

“From a rookie-listed player, he’s gone and had 42 hit-outs or so on (Shane) Mumford in that final and really was one of the best players on the ground.

“We’d be really disappointed to lose Sammy, but at the end of the day, yeah he would like to go home. But if a trade’s not done, well we’ll have to see what can happen elsewhere.”

Ratten said Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs had made contact with Walker. However, he said the former No.2 draft pick - who is contracted for 2011 - would happily stay a Blue if a deal could not be done.

Thornton’s potential departure would leave Ratten’s defence further under-sized.

The Blues are hopeful of landing Chris Tarrant but he wants to return to Collingwood.

“We’d investigate any of the tall defenders that we see that could sort of fill the void for us and help in that defence where we seem to, at times, leak some goals when we had the game where we wanted it and we just got beaten in a few one-on-ones,” Ratten said.

Follow our complete coverage of the 2010 AFL exchange period from October 5-11. No trades are official until paperwork has been accepted by the AFL and formally recognised after 2pm on Monday, October 11.

Join the AFL trade conversation on Twitter: use #tradeweek in your tweets.