Triphenylene based metal-pyridine cages

•We prepared three tris-pyridine containing triphenylene polydentate ligands.•Coordination with Pd(II) or Pt(II) metal corners led to different assemblies.•19F NMR was fundamental to monitor the formation of clear M3L2 aggregates.•M3L2 cage was confirmed by 2D-DOSY and semi-empirical calculations.•The stereochemistry of the assemblies was considered as well.