The GWS Giants aren’t considering trading club captain Stephen Coniglio despite his indifferent form over the last two years, according to football boss Jason McCartney.
Coniglio’s play has been under the microscope since he signed a lucrative seven-year, $7 million contract extension and was handed the Giants’ captaincy.
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However, after being one of the AFL’s best two-way midfielders prior to the deal, Coniglio’s form has fallen off a cliff in the two years since his extension.
With the club performing well under stand-in skipper Toby Greene this season as Coniglio nursed a long-term ankle injury, there were suggestions that the Giants would be wise to move their captain on in a trade.
Fremantle has been the club most linked to Coniglio due to his WA roots, but McCartney said there had been no dialogue between the two parties thus far.
“Fremantle haven’t asked the question,” he told AFL Trade Radio.
“I’ve spoken with nearly all the clubs – and these early chats, it’s pretty much line and length to be honest, everything tends to heat up when it starts Monday and through next week – but it’s not something we’ve discussed, it’s not something another club’s discussed with us.
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“We’re comfortable with our whole leadership group and in terms of their output this year,” he said of Coniglio’s captaincy.
“There was a lot of discussion about Toby and his performances this year, which were absolutely outstanding and he was stand-in captain for a long period of that … but what’s not seen is just the work in the leadership that Stephen was doing off-field.
“That’s not in the spotlight obviously … he did an enormous amount of work with our young players, so we’re really happy with that.
“The reality is the leadership process every year at out football club is something that’s worked through in the pre-season, so we’re comfortable where it sits at the moment. We’re also excited by some growth in other players.”
Despite winning a final this season, the Giants head to November’s national draft armed with the second overall pick due to a deal done with Collingwood in last year’s trade period.
McCartney admitted that rival clubs had reached out regarding the prospect of a deal, but said the club was “really comfortable” with its current draft position.
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“A couple of clubs that are not too far away in picks from us that are inside that top five that haven’t really asked a question but have sort of sounded out a little bit,” he said.
“We’d be loathed to be moving back too far when essentially the genesis of that Pick 2 is basically the last first-round pick we got for Jeremy Cameron last year. At this point in time, it’d need to be something very, very appealing to move back from Pick 2.”