Manager of Jordan de Goey Ben Niall has said his priority is getting a deal done with Collingwood.
The out of contract forward has been steadily increasing his value this season with quality performances, including a close to best on ground performance on Queen’s Birthday Monday.
Niall said the Pies have done wonders getting him in the right headspace after preseason indiscretions and they want to stay at the club.
“If he can stay, we’d obviously like to be able to facilitate that,” he told SEN Breakfast.
“We hope we can get it done with the Pies.
“Fundamentally, he’s been in an environment that’s been really good for him.
“He’s been challenged and supported in a great way, the club has been really good with him.”
Niall admits that it’s still possible a club could come to him with an offer they can’t refuse.
“If he gets a godfather offer then what do you do? We’re not looking to leave, we’re going to have the conversation with Collingwood and we’ll try and get a deal done,” he said.
“We’ve also got to be realistic that if there’s a big gap between offers, then we’ve got to have a look at it.”
The player manager said working out de Goey’s value has been challenging, but he has a better idea of it now than he did six weeks ago.
“The market tells you what he’s worth and there’s a price to leave and a price to stay, so we always agreed with the footy club that by the middle of the year so in the next couple of weeks we’ll sit down and just start a conversation,” Niall said.
“I’ve talked to enough clubs and gotten an indication of the sort of offers that are out there and then there’s two dimensions, you can make a great offer for a player, but what’re you going to do to get the deal done?”
Former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon believes Collingwood supporters should be feeling very excited right now.
“If I’m a Collingwood supporter, I am almost getting the pipe out this morning listening to that. I am absolutely confident he’s staying,” he said.
Listen to the full interview with Ben Niall below.
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