Adelaide Crows players feel "dudded" by Kurt Tippett, his former AFL teammate Josh Jenkins says.

Tippett walked out on the Crows and requested a trade to Sydney but both clubs have yet to strike a deal.

Jenkins, who left Essendon last year to join Adelaide, suggested Tippett burnt bridges at the Crows.

"I still keep in contact with my ex-teammates and some of the football staff," he wrote in a column for the Adelaide Advertiser.

"Being relatively unknown, I feel lucky I was able to depart the Bombers yet keep up the relationships that had been built in my time at the club.

"For Kurt Tippett, that may not be the case."

Tippett had expressed a desire to return to his native Queensland, before shocking the Crows in choosing Sydney as his preferred new club.

"Speculation continued to suggest he would seek a move home at some stage," Jenkins said.

"Most could understand that. But last I checked, Sydney is not in Queensland.

"I couldn't imagine spending several years at the one club, only to leave and burn almost all the bridges that had been built over the years.

"I am not saying Kurt no longer has friends or positive relationships at the Crows.

"But most from West Lakes would have some right to be disappointed in his actions.

"Kurt's situation is not the first and won't be the last trade/free agency scenario where the club that loses the player feels dudded."

Swans chief executive Andrew Ireland said on Thursday the two clubs were finally getting somewhere in their bid to strike a deal.

He said Swans recruitment manager Kinnear Beatson and Crows counterpart David Noble had held a constructive meeting.

"We might well now be on the road to completing something," Ireland told the AFL website.

"We've still got a bit of work to do but they thought it was a positive meeting."

Ireland said it was possible a third club might get involved.

He ruled out Swans youngster Tom Mitchell being included in any deal and reiterated that Sydney did not want to give up any premiership players.