Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has again addressed the future of his forgotten superstar Bailey Smith.
Smith has been out of AFL action this year with an ACL injury he suffered last December, and he is also out of contract.
Rumours have been swirling all season that he will depart the Bulldogs, with Geelong and Collingwood widely viewed as the frontrunners.
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Now Beveridge has also admitted that he is losing confidence on Smith remaining at the club the longer contract negotiations drag on.
“When a player hasn’t told you he is staying, as time goes on, your confidence levels start to wane a bit,” Beveridge told reporters on Friday.
Beveridge recently said on Channel 7’s Talking Footy that the club could only pray he remained in red, white and blue next year.
“I hope he is — I wouldn’t say ‘expect’,” Beveridge said.
“I think he’s got a lot to work through and we haven’t got our head in the sand, we know there (are) a number of clubs who Bailey appeals to.
“… if there’s a club or two or three that come to him with an astronomical deal, he may not be able to knock it back.”
Smith is not a free agent and any club interested in luring him away from the Bulldogs will need to agree on a trade, or risk walking him to the pre-season draft.
After he was injured in December, Smith said he hoped he could still lift his teammates up from the sidelines.
More to come …
