Carlton CEO Cain Liddle is not concerned about out of contract forward Harry McKay.
McKay leads the competition for marks inside 50 after four rounds and kicked a bag of seven against Fremantle and comes out of contract at the end of the year.
Liddle confirmed the club has begun talks with the key forward’s management.
“Nick’s been in contact with Harry’s management, they’ve been talking for a while now,” the Carlton CEO told SEN Mornings.
“As I’ve said with Patrick (Cripps) on a number of occasions, we’re really comfortable with where those discussions are at. We respect where those discussions are at, we respect players’ opportunity to come around to their decisions in their own time.
“He’s a great player and a really exciting young talent and very popular with our members. When you speak to Patrick and Harry, it’s hard to see them leaving given how happy they are at the club and what they’ve had to go through over the last few years and where our club is at at the moment.
“I’m happy to let that play out under the watchful eye of Nick Austin.”
It’s only April and yet the Blues have been linked to a number of players in the upcoming trade period including Fremantle’s Adam Cerra and Essendon’s Zach Merrett.
While Liddle wouldn’t comment on specific players, he confirmed the club had the cap space to be aggressive once more.
“We are confident that we still have the capability to be able to do that (target players in the trade period),” he said.
“Brad and Nick manage that part of the business really closely and I’ve got confidence that if there was the opportunity to bring another good player in, we could certainly make that work given the way we’ve managed our salary cap over the last few years.
“We wouldn’t ever engage in conversation about players at other clubs, but what I will say is we’ll continue to be aggressive behind the scenes in improving our list and giving ourself the very best opportunity to deliver premierships.”
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