Richmond general manager of football Neil Balme has confirmed that Shane Edwards has re-signed for a further two seasons.
The club veteran is fresh off another premiership and will be sticking around Punt Road going forward.
“That’s been done for ages (a two-year deal),” he told Telstra AFL Trade Radio.
“There were a few other things, the paperwork hadn’t been finished, but he’s very much a Tiger.”
Brandon Ellis confirmed yesterday that he would exercise his free agency rights to join the Gold Coast Suns.
Balme said losing the running defender is simply part of the new realities of list management.
“We want him to stay, he wants to stay, he loves being here. The system is set up so other clubs might be able to find players with better circumstances, like he’s got,” he said.
“So I think they have offered him something pretty significant so he’s got to consider that because in his life there’s more important things than just playing for the Tigers, he needs to set himself up and we will only support that.
“It’s not that we want him to go and not that we’re pushing him out, but if that opportunity comes and he wants to do it, we’ll maturely look at that.”
Small forward Dan Butler has been linked with a move to Carlton and Balme can see it ending up as a similar situation to Ellis.
“I honestly don’t know the circumstances there, but he hasn’t been able to get a game, he’s a very good player, we’d love him to stay, but if something like that happens, that’s probably best for him as well, but we’ll deal with that as it comes along,” he said.
“There’s a commercial reality in the game. We can only have a certain amount on the list, we’ve only got a certain amount to pay and a certain amount we can play in the team so we have got to be realistic about that sort of stuff.”