West Coast Eagles CEO Trevor Nisbett admits he isn’t a “great fan” of the AFL’s free agency system, but says the club will respect the rights of out of contract star Jeremy McGovern.
As first revealed on SEN Breakfast by Sam Edmund, McGovern has been thrown a big money offer from a Victoria club, speculation Nisbett concedes he doesn’t enjoy.
However, the CEO hopes the Eagles and McGovern can come to an agreement before the season ends.
“I don’t handle it well,” Nisbett told SEN’s KB and The Doc.
“I’ve never been a great fan of free agency because of the way it’s constructed. I’ve been on record as saying that.
“Having said that, it is on, and Jeremy is a restricted free agent and as a club, we have to deal with his rights and every player has those rights. We deal with that in due course.
“All we want for Jeremy to do is play really good football, which he did on the weekend after a reasonably slow start.
“He was terrific on the weekend and we will keep working with Jeremy to try and get this resolved before the end of the season.”
Along with Victorian clubs, it has been reported crosstown rival Fremantle is also interested in luring McGovern.
The dual All-Australian is rated elite for marks and kicks, and above average for disposals, after the first month of the season.
McGovern and the Eagles will look to notch their fourth win of the campaign this Saturday against Carlton, and you can listen to the game live on 1116 SEN from 4:30pm with Tristan Foenander, Brett Phillips and Terry Wallace.
Listen to Trevor Nisbett’s chat with Kevin Bartlett and Dr Turf on SEN’s KB and The Doc in the player below