Dylan Shiel, Rory Lobb talking to rival clubs but loss may not be as bad as it seems for GWS Giants
THE GWS Giants have confirmed Dylan Shiel will talk with Melbourne clubs in the next few days as his time in western Sydney looks increasingly likely to be coming to an end.
THE GWS Giants have confirmed Dylan Shiel will talk with Melbourne clubs in the next few days as his time in Western Sydney looks increasingly likely to be coming to an end.
GWS officials would not specify which teams the star midfielder would meet with but Hawthorn and Essendon are considered the most likely.
On Tuesday, the Giants said ruckman Rory Lobb had their blessing to talk with grand finalists West Coast Eagles as well as Fremantle.
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Both Lobb and Shiel are contracted at GWS until the end of the 2019 season but the club faces a tightening of their salary cap in the coming years.
“There is no doubt it is a strong position we have with the players we’ve got,” Giants list manager Jason McCartney said.
“Our focus is managing the list for the long term and our priority is to win a premiership.
Rory will be out of contract next year and Dylan will be a free agent so compensation is taken out of our hands.”
McCartney said the Giants were taking a long-term view on the club’s sustainability over the next decade.
“The majority of our group is contracted til the end of 2019,” McCartney said.
“We’re in a good situation there. We’ve had some good chats with a number of our players and they have wrapped up their exit interviews and have done what they need to before the go away.
“A couple of boys have been gathering information and catching up with some clubs as we work through some things we need to do.
“While they are meeting with clubs we are also talking with them and their managers to see what 2019 looks like at the Giants.”
Geelong triple premiership winner Jimmy Bartel said the loss of Shiel and Lobb may not be as big a loss as it first appears.
“Losing good players is a negative but it’s naturally giving them a great age demographic on their list,” Bartel said.
“When players leave the Giants they always get first-round picks in return. If Shiel goes out (Tim) Taranto will play a fair bit more. We will get to see (Will) Setterfield when he comes back from his knee operation.”
Bartel said GWS have been incredibly unlucky with injuries not only throughout the year but within big games.
“I’d love to see them get a good run at it,” Bartel said.
“Every time they play a big game they lose a key player. In 2016 they lost Callan Ward to concussion very early on then they lost Dylan Shiel the next year against Richmond and even this year against the Swans late in the year they lost Phil Davis and Buddy (Lance Franklin) blew them away.”
Bartel has tipped Collingwood to prevail over West Coast in Saturday’s grand final.
“The Magpies have so much midfield depth,” he said. “They have about 15 guys with top end quality but they all offer something different. What Adams can do is different to Pendlebury, Crisp and Hoskin-Elliott. If it is slippery it will help them get into the game.”
Giants coach Leon Cameron revealed he would have liked his team’s chances against Richmond had got past Collingwood in the semi-final.
“We knew they (Richmond) were vulnerable, one game in 28 days is hard to take,” Cameron said. “I know there is only a small sample of games since the finals bye and we got beaten in the preliminary final in 2016 under the same circumstances and so did Geelong.”
Originally published as Dylan Shiel, Rory Lobb talking to rival clubs but loss may not be as bad as it seems for GWS Giants