COACH Paul Roos says he won’t be drawn into key Demon James Frawley’s contract situation, adding that free agency will continue to dominate talk in the coming years.
Frawley, who is an unrestricted free agent, has come under the spotlight in recent weeks, but Roos said he would not interfere in the decision-making process of the key defender, who played up forward last round against Greater Western Sydney.
“I don’t speak to players about contracts – it’s not my role and James and his management have chosen to wait and see,” he said on Roos’ Views on Dee TV.
“We’re just in that new era of free agency now and we’re going to see that more and more, and we’ve seen it with ‘Buddy’ Franklin, Travis Cloke and Gary Ablett and [it’s happening] over and over again.
“There are players at other clubs that are going through similar things as well, so that’s what the AFLPA wanted and that’s what they’ve got.”
Roos said he also wouldn’t get involved in out-of-contract key defender Tom McDonald’s discussions.
“Tom’s not a free agent, so it’s a little bit different. I think it’s an era we’ve come to now with 18 teams and with free agency,” he said.
“We saw last year a lot of players moving – even young players demanding ‘we want to go to this club’ ... so certainly that’s an AFL issue – there’s no question.”