Player moves, deals, pick trades and more with Charlie Curnow, Zach Merrett, Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver in the mix for new clubs
Giants football boss Jason McCartney described key defender Leek Aleer as “shattered” following the collapse of his lucrative move to St Kilda yesterday.
McCartney said both he and coach Adam Kingsley spoke to Aleer yesterday following St Kilda’s decision to pull out of the move. Aleer is on holiday in Barcelona.
GWS defender Leek Aleer is flying one point ahead of Essendon’s Liam McMahon in July.Credit: Getty Images
“This wasn’t a tough trade [negotiation] “I want to put this on the record,” McCartney told AFL trade radio.
He added that a future runoff election was part of the talks.
“The runoff was part of it, but you can trade two years into the future. There are a lot of mechanisms, but I’ll leave it at that,” McCartney said.
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He said the young defender was still a player the club wanted but was now in shock after being convinced he was on his way to Saints.
“I will say Leek is shattered,” McCartney told AFL trade radio.
“He loves this football club so much, he burst into tears in his exit interview. He just needs game time and we have two elite key defenders at our football club.”
“Leek is welcome at our football club, he has a place there but our thoughts are with him at the moment.”
McCartney said the Giants have re-signed 16 players this year, with many of them out of contract until future seasons in anticipation of Aleer possibly leaving, but there is still room if he chooses to stay.
