Western Bulldogs director of football Chris Grant says that the club is interested in recruiting young Adelaide defender Jake Lever should he desire a new home.
The Victorian native has had a breakout season from the Crows in 2017, but is yet to commit to his current club beyond the end of this year.
This has led to a host of Victorian sides chasing the 21-year-old key defender's signature, and Grant has confirmed that the Dogs will be one of those clubs should he want to move away from Adelaide.
“He’s certainly a terrific young player, and being a Melbourne-based player… there is going to be an opportunity for him to come home if he did want to do that,” he told SEN Breakfast.
“He’d certainly be the type of player that we would be interested in talking to.”
Grant also discussed the re-signing of rebounding defender Jason Johannisen on a new five-year deal.
The new contract for the 24-year-old, reportedly worth over $3.25 million, sees him stay at the club until the end of the 2022 season, warding off interest from rival clubs.
The Dogs footy boss called it great news to finally have the 2016 Norm Smith medallist put pen to paper after the protracted contract talks between the player and the club.
“It certainly helps us with our playing group, knowing our list over the next five to six years, which is tremendous,” said Grant.
“In incidents like this you’ve just got to give players and their managers enough time to come to a decision that they’re really comfortable with. You have to remember that when player is contracted until the end of a particular year, they are well within their rights to run it until the end of that year if they like.
“As a club you always prefer to do it a bit earlier, but JJ took the time that he needed and we were happy to give him that were are really pleased that he’s come to that decision.
“We’ve had really good discussion with him probably over the last five months and really probably over the last four weeks we’ve been pretty sure we’re are going to get a deal done.”