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Speaking on Fox Footy\u2019s Midweek Tackle on Wednesday night, Barnes said of the players selected in the week one finals teams across the six clubs still in the flag hunt, 15 were out-of-contract at season\u2019s end. <\/p>\n
Brisbane had three: Defensive duo Brandon Starcevich and Ryan Lester, as well as forward Cal Ah Chee.<\/p>\n
While free agents Starcevich and Ah Chee have strong rival interest, Lester is set to sign another deal that will see him play on into a 16th AFL season.<\/p>\n
\u201cRyan Lester will sign another one-year deal. That would be his eighth one-year deal \u2026 that\u2019ll be ticked off probably in the next week or so,\u201d Barnes told Fox Footy\u2019s Midweek Tackle.<\/p>\n
Brisbane\u2019s semi-final opponents, Gold Coast, had three off-contract players in its elimination final team: Jy Farrar, Connor Budarick and Brayden Fiorini.<\/p>\n
Budarick is a man in demand with Brisbane keen on luring him north, but Farrar \u2014 who\u2019s regained his spot in the side late this season \u2014 is set to stay with the Suns. Barnes reported the Farrar camp were \u201cin negotiations at the moment\u201d and would \u201cline up a new deal\u201d.<\/p>\n
Razor: Ump mistakes part of bigger issue | 04:47<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Hawthorn was \u201cstill hopeful\u201d James Worpel would stay, according to Barnes, but that the wide expectation is the free agent will sign with Geelong next month.<\/p>\n
Barnes added a big Hawks contract watch was Sam Butler, who came in for Saturday\u2019s elimination final against the Giants for just his fourth AFL game of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cSam Butler is a player of intrigue to rival clubs with his speed as a small forward,\u201d Barnes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was one of the heroes on the weekend with a final-quarter goal (against GWS), he\u2019s putting off contract talks now to focus on finals. So, we\u2019ll keep a watch on him over the next few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adelaide\u2019s off-contract players from its qualifying final loss to Collingwood were Taylor Walker, Brodie Smith and Zac Taylor, while Geelong was the only team without an out-of-contract player in its team \u2013 although Rhys Stanley may come back in later in the finals.<\/p>\n
But of the six clubs, Collingwood\u2019s qualifying final team had the most off-contract players: Brody Mihocek, Jamie Elliott, Mason Cox, Wil Parker and Roan Steele.<\/p>\n
Barnes said both Mihocek and Elliott \u2013 Collingwood\u2019s two leading goalkickers in 2025 \u2013 had been \u201cpushing and pulling with Collingwood\u201d in their respective contract negotiations.<\/p>\n
Fellow Herald Sun reporter Scott Gullan said the Magpies couldn\u2019t afford for both Mihocek and Elliott to depart.<\/p>\n
\u201cElliott to the Gold Coast (mail) is very strong,\u201d Gullan told Midweek Tackle. \u201cHe owes Collingwood nothing, he\u2019s much, much loved.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he goes for say a change of environment to finish his career and help them (the Suns) elevate to be an elite finals team, where would Mihocek fit then? You can\u2019t lose both.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dees edge closer to new coach | 02:59<\/p>\n
Barnes added: \u201cCollingwood have been hunting for a key forward for a long time and they just can\u2019t really land one. Dan McStay is out of the team right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019d be in trouble in their forward line without Jamie Elliott\u2019s 56 goals for the season and they\u2019d be looking for answers \u2013 and this is a team right in the premiership window.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cox, 34, last week returned to Collingwood\u2019s line-up for just his ninth game of the year and first since Round 19, impressing with his aerial competitiveness while giving Darcy Cameron a chop-out in the ruck.<\/p>\n
Gullan said he believed Cox still had more to give at AFL level.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould Collingwood keep him or would someone else have a nibble?\u201d Gullan asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think someone else would definitely have a nibble now if you saw what Mason can do. We know he\u2019s capable of this, he again showed it in their biggest game of the year so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d have a look at Mason Cox.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A veteran Lion is poised to sign an eighth one-year contract extension, while a Hawks goalkicker has put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,3423,20781,3237,14452,10133,16686,91124,2362,91123,49773,28452,91120,70802,13213,91126,91043,2485,7492,36878,91125,13126,91042,677,91122,25294,31723,1137,64903,85549,88720,701,60969,91121,19071,19078,14366,29653,85,16702,11236,12920,56650,27731],"class_list":["post-131379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-brandon-starcevich","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-brodie-smith","tag-collingwood-magpies","tag-contract-calls","tag-contract-decisions","tag-contract-talks","tag-contract-watch","tag-dan-mcstay","tag-darcy-cameron","tag-elite-finals-team","tag-final-team","tag-finals-series","tag-finals-teams","tag-finals-umpiring-mistakes","tag-gold-coast","tag-hawthorn-hawks","tag-jamie-elliott","tag-josh-barnes","tag-mason-cox","tag-mistakes-part","tag-oceania","tag-off-contract-players","tag-one-year-deal","tag-paul-guerra","tag-player-movement-developments","tag-qualifying-final","tag-qualifying-final-loss","tag-qualifying-final-team","tag-queensland","tag-ray-chamberlain","tag-respective-contract-negotiations","tag-rhys-stanley","tag-ryan-lester","tag-sam-butler","tag-scott-gullan","tag-sports","tag-taylor-walker","tag-trade-news","tag-trade-whispers","tag-wil-parker","tag-zac-taylor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}