most improved player from 2025 to 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\nChief Herald Sun reporter Jay Clark revealed earlier this month that Melbourne was \u201cconfident\u201d Sparrow would stay at the club.<\/p>\n
Mail from Melbourne is they\u2019re confident he\u2019s staying,\u201d Clark said on Fox Footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s despite a massive offer from Port Adelaide. I think you can put a line through Essendon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sparrow has played 138 AFL games since 2019 including in Melbourne\u2019s 2021 drought-breaking premiership.<\/p>\n
HOGAN, STRINGER TIPPED TO DEPART GWS<\/p>\n
Giants veteran forwards Jesse Hogan and Jake Stringer have been tipped to leave the club as it begins to turn the page on a new era. <\/p>\n
SEN\u2019s Sam Edmund reports contract talks between Hogan, 31, and GWS have broken down just days after the club prioritised striking an extension with Max Gruzewski.<\/p>\n
It comes in a season Hogan has been restricted to just nine AFL games due to injury, with a fractured finger ending his season early.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s believed Collingwood and Gold Coast have maintained interest in Hogan as well as \u201cone or two other clubs in a meaningful sense,\u201d as the Coleman medallist eyes a move to a fourth club after previous stints at Melbourne and Fremantle.<\/p>\n
Jesse Hogan and Jake Stringer face uncertain futures at GWS (Photo by Steve Bell\/Getty Images)Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
\u201cThis all centres on a two-year deal,\u201d Edmund began on Locked In.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially, it was going to be (a one-year deal) at GWS but the money was sort of too sizeable. So it was going to be spread over the two for the Coleman Medallist.<\/p>\n
\u201cClub and player were so close here, they were about $75,000 apart, then they got stuck on incentives and clauses and then it just broke down.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen suddenly Jesse Hogan\u2019s injury issues are brought up as a consideration and then all the conjecture over Toby Greene fires up and maybe the Giants thought: \u2018Well, maybe here\u2019s a chance to reset\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was clear the Giants had started to prioritise Max Gruzewski in the background.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edmund says it\u2019s \u201clong odds\u201d for Hogan to stay a Giant, with Stringer, 32, also expected to depart.<\/p>\n
\u201cHogan\u2019s played for three AFL clubs. I think there\u2019s a high chance now it\u2019s going to be four,\u201d Edmund added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Giants won\u2019t even really come back to the table now in a negotiation sense. I think this is high and dry. I\u2019d say he and Stringer are now both on the outer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skipper Toby Greene, who\u2019s been linked to Geelong, Stephen Coniglio and Kieren Briggs are other key Giants out of contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Melbourne free agent has made a contract call. Plus two Giants veterans have been tipped to depart.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,85,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-854583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854583","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=854583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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