GWS Giants’ GM of Football Jason McCartney has commented on two key players who are continually being linked with a move away from the club.
Star Giants midfielders Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper are the pair who could potentially be out the door this year.
Taranto, 24, is out of contract and being linked to both Richmond and Collingwood, while Hopper, 25, is being earmarked for a shift to Geelong.
McCartney admits GWS would love to retain both on-ballers and the job is now in front of the club and new coach Adam Kingsley to make that the case.
Does McCartney see both those players staying with the Giants in 2023?
“It’s hard to answer, but Tim’s easy, Tim’s out of contract,” McCartney said on SEN Breakfast.
“So he’s got a call to make. We would love to retain Tim. Tim has been a wonderful player for our club over the last six years.
“He was a best and fairest winner in a Grand Final year (2019), so we’d love to be able to retain Tim. Obviously the opportunity for him to speak with the new coach in Adam Kingsley over the next few days will be important.
“But Jacob is contracted and that will be something we’ll need to sit down with Jacob and work through with his management, whether it’s retaining (him) and playing a really important role in our midfield or is he keen to explore some opportunities elsewhere.
“Those conversations have been with management all year, but with the players we just finished some medical reviews and some reviews of their season.
“Those in-depth contract conversations haven’t been had directly with the players as yet.”
SEN’s Sam Edmund reported on Tuesday that Taranto is set to make a call on his future by the end of the week, but insists the Giants have “dug in” on trying to keep him.
In the case of Hopper, the Cats have targeted him a long way out and are intent on luring him in exchange for a first-round draft pick.
McCartney also commented on the club’s proposed ‘salary cap dump’ which includes the likes of Taranto and Hopper exiting.
“There’s speculation around our players pretty much every year so we do get used to it,” he added.
“I always know that October is going to be busy with the role we fulfil at the club. That’s nothing new, we do deal with that.
“We do know that we need to have a little bit of a reset and some balance in our list. We’ve been preparing for that over a couple of years and we’ve also been challenging, but the reality is we didn’t challenge this year. We won a final last year which was great, but we only won 11 and a half games to qualify which generally isn’t enough.
“So we’ve only won 40 per cent of games since we played in a Grand Final in 2019, so it’s not tracking in the right direction and we’re acutely aware there needs to be some tweaks and some changes.
“Obviously coaching is a big part of that but there’ll need to be some things happen with the list.
“We’ll go through the trade period and obviously there will be players that will exit the club but we’re also in discussion with players that we feel can fit some positional needs as well.
“Then we’ll have a very strong draft hand over this year and next year as well.”
The Giants finished 16th in 2022, wining just six games having progressed to the Semi Finals last year.