CO-CAPTAIN Jack Grimes will remain with the club until at least the end of 2016, after the club announced he will sign a new three year contract on Thursday.

Grimes said the new deal “all happened pretty quickly” after his manager and general manager of list management Tim Harrington locked in the next contract on Wednesday.

“The club has been through a fair bit this week in the last couple of weeks, but I’m definitely backing them in all the way,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“I was glad it all happened this week, because I really wanted to show the faith that I have in the club and where we’re heading. I’m definitely not heading anywhere, and I’m sticking to it.

“It hasn’t been a good week at all for the Dees, but I’m absolutely pumped to sign for another three years after this year, and I couldn’t be happier.”

Grimes, who has played 55 matches, has flourished in incredibly difficult circumstances since taking on the co-captaincy at the start of 2012.

Last year, he played all but one match and finished second in the club best and fairest. Now, the 55-gamer has locked away his future after belying his age with a combination of leadership and maturity.

The still only 23 year-old – he will be 24 in May – said it made a “massive” difference knowing where his future was for the next three years. 

“I couldn’t be happier with the faith that the club’s showed in me, by giving me a longer term deal as well,” he said.

“I want to repay that faith at the same time. Three more years is really good as a player – you don’t have to think about that for a long time.

“When a player signs a deal, they can simply focus on their footy and not worry about the outcome personally, because they’ve got their future secure at the club. I’m rapt to know I’m basically here for the next four years, including this year.”

The midfielder/defender said it had been a “rollercoaster” week, but he was delighted to secure his future with the Demons in such a trying time for the club.

“The start of the week was really tough for everyone involved in the Melbourne footy club. It took the boys a bit more to get over from last weekend, because of the extent of the loss. We had such high hopes going into the game,” he said.

“What’s been really good is how the group’s handled it together – we’ve really stuck together through this tough time - it would’ve been really easy to splinter off into our groups and split the group, but it hasn’t happened at all.

“I really wanted to show my support towards the club in a week like this. I pushed for it to get done this week, because I thought it’d be a good week to do it. It had been in the pipeline for a couple of weeks.”

Grimes said the overnight trip to Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula proved to be a “really positive experience”.

“It was great heading down there a couple of nights ago,” he said.

“It was great just to get away and chat about a few things. We also reinforced the point that two poor games don’t make a season, and there is a long way to go.

“We’ve got the belief in everything we’ve done up until now.  Unfortunately it hasn’t been coming out on the field, but we’re sure it will, if we keep working hard.”