Adelaide coach Don Pyke bristles at Brisbane’s interest in Charlie Cameron and demands full finals focus

ADELAIDE coach Don Pyke declares Charlie Cameron off-limits and wants Jake Lever and Mitch McGovern to focus on finals as club zeros in on ending an 18-year premiership drought.

GOING NOWHERE: Crow Charlie Cameron fends off Bomber Travis Colyer during last week’s 43-point win at Etihad Stadium. Picture: (AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy).

ADELAIDE coach Don Pyke has drawn a line in the sand over rivals trying to poach his players and distracting them from ending the club’s 18-year premiership drought.

Tired of dealing with questions over the futures of young guns Charlie Cameron, Jake Lever and Mitch McGovern, the usually-reserved Pyke has hit back at Brisbane’s public courting of the speedy Cameron and declared he is “going nowhere’’ next season.

And he wants out of contract key position men Lever and McGovern — the subject of big-money offers from Victorian and WA clubs respectively — to give their “full focus’’ to the next six weeks as the top-of-the-table Crows zero in on a long-awaited flag.

Asked about Lions coach Chris Fagan’s comments on Melbourne radio that Cameron’s “age profile and talent is something we are interested in’’, Pyke vented his anger.

“It’s very disappointing, to be honest,’’ Pyke said as his team prepared to take on nemesis Sydney at Adelaide Oval on Friday night.

“He’s under contract, so he’s going nowhere. It’s unusual that you would see comments about players who are under contract.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate you talk about players at other clubs that are under contract.”

Cameron, 23, is contracted to the Crows until the end of next season but is reportedly interested in returning home to Queensland at the end of the year for personal reasons.

He grew up in northwest Queensland and Brisbane, where he has family, before moving to WA as a teenager.

“If Charlie Cameron were to be available and interested in coming to Brisbane, we’d love to have him as part of our team,’’ Fagan said.

Cameron has kicked 80 goals in 68 games for Adelaide since being a smoky rookie-draft selection in 2014.

Pyke said he had not spoken to the Lions, where former Crows head of football David Noble is now list manager, about Fagan’s comments.

But he is adamant Cameron won’t be leaving at the end of this season.

“He’s got another year (on his contract),’’ Pyke stressed, saying the electrifying small forward/midfielder had not asked to be traded.

As for the continuing speculation about Lever and McGovern’s futures, Pyke said they would “ideally’’ already be re-signed so that the team could switch its full focus to the finals, like fellow young players Riley Knight, Jake Kelly, Alex Keath and Tom Doedee, who inked new two-year deals during the week.

“That’s why it was great to get those four guys done, we will see where we get with the other guys,’’ Pyke said.

Victorian Lever, 21, has reportedly met with Melbourne officials, although he denied the claim, while Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs also are understood to be circling.

Sandgroper McGovern, 22, has attracted interest from home clubs Fremantle and West Coast, where his older brother Jeremy plays.

Pyke said that without the pair’s signatures he doesn’t want them to be distracted by the ongoing speculation over their futures.

“It’s probably more the individual,” Pyke said.

“I think the team is now in a space where their full focus is what is coming up in the next six weeks.”

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Originally published as Adelaide coach Don Pyke bristles at Brisbane’s interest in Charlie Cameron and demands full finals focus