Sydney confident it can re-sign Jake Lloyd despite interest from Gold Coast in the star defender
SYDNEY believes it is on track to re-sign star half back Jake Lloyd despite strong interest from the Gold Coast as the Swans battle to secure several stars for next year.
Sydney
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SYDNEY believes it is on track to re-sign star half back Jake Lloyd despite strong interest from the Gold Coast.
But the club’s interest in Darcy Moore will only ramp up if it can retain a host of senior regulars including Lloyd, Sam Naismith, Aliir Aliir and defender Heath Grundy.
The Swans met with Lloyd’s manager Alex McDonald last week and had what Swans footy boss Tom Harley believed were promising discussions.
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The Suns have ample cap room to make a bid significantly higher than a Swans offer, with reports this week former Sydney coach Stuart Dew was aggressively pursuing the defender.
Sydney rarely loses players it wants to keep, with Harley telling the Herald Sun this week he believed negotiations were on track.
“Our conversations are ongoing. We caught up with Alex last week and are really comfortable and confident in the direction those talks are going,’’ he said.
“We saw that report and there are plenty of those things going around. It’s the nature of the industry.”
Injured ruckman Naismith is out for the season but is willing to sign a new deal later in the year through his manager Ben Williams.
Aliir has returned to the senior side and is playing strong football, the exciting defender clearly in the club’s long-term plans.
“We met three weeks ago with his manager (Tim Batty) and at that stage Aliir wasn’t in the team and he wanted to get to a stage where he was playing regular senior football.”
Veteran defender Grundy wants to sign a new contract, while fellow Phil Mullen client Jarrad McVeigh is considering playing on.
The Swans are open to both of those players staying on, with McVeigh certain to remain as an assistant coach if he doesn’t play despite outside interest.
“I had a brief chat with Sydney (about Grundy) three weeks ago and we said we would talk again over the next three weeks,” Mullins said.
“He has indicated to me he is keen to go on again and he’s playing good footy. There is no rush.”
The clear indication from Sydney is that despite their interest in Moore, it would be a challenge to bring him in.
The Swans will need to use a first-round pick on father-son recruit Nick Blakey, who looks a star of the future.
They still have strong stocks of key talls - Naismith will return next year, Aliir looks to have huge promise and Sam Reid and Lewis Melican are a week away from AFL returns.
Only if there is still cap space would they attempt to lure him away from the Pies, with Moore making clear to the Pies recently he is keen to remain.
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Originally published as Sydney confident it can re-sign Jake Lloyd despite interest from Gold Coast in the star defender