Mark Evans says while the number one priority is to keep superstar forward and co-captain Tom Lynch at Carrara, there is plenty of time for negotiations to be completed.
The 24-year-old, who has booted 199 goals over the past four years, is a restricted free agent at the end of 2018, and some football experts have linked whether his signature to the future of Gold Coast as a club.
He said Lynch played a key role in helping woo Lachie Weller from Fremantle, and was genuine with his thoughts.
“He’s a star player, a star person and a good captain, and club person. You don’t want to lose Tom Lynch, but we’ve got some time with this one,” Evans told SEN’s Crunch Time.
“Tom did a couple of things for us, certainly when we tried to talk to Adam Saad about whether he would stay, and also when we met with Lachie and we had dinner with him.
“He was fantastic, and told Lachie all of the good things about the club, and he’s very genuine about that.”
The Suns were seen by many as having given up too much when handing over their prized No.2 pick to the Dockers, as part of the deal to secure 21-year-old Weller.
However, Evans backed in his list management team, led by Scott Clayton, in deciding whether pick two was equivalent to Weller’s talent and the ability of the player who was selected at that pick.
“When you’re trying to assess what pick 2 talent is, what Lachie Weller’s talent is, trying to assess a future pick next year- and what’s the talent of that, in two or three year play that is where Scott and his team said that they were okay to do it,” he said.
“If they came back and said no we won’t do that, then I think we would’ve said ‘We would have to back you in on that too’.”