AFL player manager Scott Lucas has denied a report out of the West Australian that his client Sean Darcy has been tabled an enormous deal from Geelong.
The report suggests the Fremantle ruckman has been offered a $1 million deal over five seasons, despite being contracted until the end of 2024.
Darcy has become one of the game’s premier ruckmen in recent years, though speculation around his future has grown since the club’s decision to trade for Luke Jackson.
Speaking on SEN’s Crunch Time, Lucas was firm when asked if the story was accurate: “No. Absolutely not”.
“I can confirm it’s fully incorrect,” the Essendon champion continued.
“I will be honest and say I did make a call to confirm that was the case.”
Lucas elaborated on his frustrations with the reporting, given he has already previously poured cold water over Darcy requesting a trade to Victoria.
“Unfortunately I’ve got a view that whatever I say, people will ignore and they’ll still run it anyway,” Lucas said.
“Now they’ll say they tried to contact me and I didn’t respond, well that’s good, but I can guarantee that if I had said ‘no that’s not correct’ they wouldn’t have believed me.
“I haven’t had a discussion around Sean with Geelong for three years. They asked three years ago what he was doing, but just out of ‘we might be in that space’, but that was three years ago when I think we had just extended him out.
“Sean is enjoying his time at Freo, there’s no rush, he’s contracted for next year as well.
“I just get disappointed when that gets reported when that’s not true and there’s been a little bit of stuff around Sean and Luke Ryan to a lesser extent.
“Now, I’m aware of that because I manage both of those players. I’m assuming there’s other Freo players that managers are having to deal with because that’s the nature of the press in WA unfortunately, where they like to report on everything that they’re doing.
“Sean is really happy at Freo.”
Lucas added that discussions around a contract extension with Fremantle will be had at the end of the season.
“That’s always the reality with good players,” he said.
“I think the Dockers would like to extend him, but there’s no rush. He’s got 18 months to go.
“Most players go ‘everything is going okay, let’s have a chat at the end of the year’, but we haven’t even got to that path yet.”
Darcy is currently sidelined with a hamstring issue, with the Dockers stating it is on the minor side.
The Geelong Advertiser also reported that senior Cats officials have denied the link with the ruckman.