Lockyer lifts lid on unpopular coach axing after bizarre claim<\/a><\/p>\nAt the time, Aleer’s manager Dylan Smith told 9news Melbourne that the decision came as an “absolute shock”.<\/p>\n
“They’ve been wining and dining him for two years. They loved where he was at and finally turned his head,” he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Leek](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760452519_403_105e6a22ee881ff3c2d27198ca0b3cec80f51b2d.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Leek Aleer.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n
Smith explained the Saints backflipped because they didn’t have the picks to trade for him.<\/p>\n
“Leek is not happy and to be honest, livid with the situation,” he continued.<\/p>\n
“Clubs have rung me and said ‘it’s a disgrace, what have they done?’ Nobody from the Saints has spoken to him.”<\/p>\n
After the shock call, the Giants confirmed Aleer was welcome to extend and he’s done just that. <\/p>\n
GWS executive general manager of football Jason McCartney said he was thrilled to have Aleer commit.<\/p>\n
“He’s a player we’ve invested in and one we believe has a bright future in the game,” he said.<\/p>\n
“As a developing key defender, Leek brings elite athleticism, aerial ability, and a desire to improve each time he takes to the field.<\/p>\n
“While in recent weeks there’s been discussion around where his future lies, we have always been steadfast in the fact that Leek is a highly valued player and person at the Giants and we’re thrilled to have him on board through to 2027 and we believe he’ll continue to grow into a key part of our backline for years to come.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The drama surrounding Leek Aleer has ended after the young key defender extended with GWS for two years.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-212915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212915","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=212915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}