Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has implored both Jack Gunston and Isaac Smith to stay put with the club.
The three-time premiership pair are both being spoken about in trade circles with 2020 best and fairest forward Gunston very loosely linked with Collingwood while wingman Smith is attracting interest from Melbourne and Geelong.
Smith is believed to be weighing up his future at the Hawks by considering an offer from the Demons with the Cats also believed to be keen.
Asked by Dwayne Russell if the Hawks are in a position to move on some of their more experienced players like they’ve done in the past, Kennett insisted that he would like to avoid that scenario and see the duo remain.
“As far as I’m concerned, Jack Gunston and Isaac Smith are part of the Hawthorn family,” he said on SEN’s Dwayne’s World.
“They’re part of the culture of the club. I would hate either of them to go and I don’t think they will, but you never know.
“I think Jack’s still contracted to us, I think Isaac’s a free agent at the moment.
“I like the concept of players being one-club players.
“This year, Ben Stratton retired, Paul Puopolo retired. They both retired with premiership medals around their necks, but they were one-club players.
“I think there’s a lot of grace in it, to be quite honest, and I think it stands them well for the future.
“But I’m not my brother’s keeper and as you know, this is a very competitive world and there is movement, so we’ve got to go through the processes.
“Under Graham Wright, he manages our list so to speak, we’ll see what happens.”
Gunston, 29, remains under contract with the Hawks until 2022 while Smith, 31, is now an unrestricted free agent.
The former, of course, commenced his career with Adelaide before moving to Hawthorn in 2011.