Fremantle GM of Football Peter Bell says the club wants to retain contracted ruck-forward Rory Lobb amid interest from GWS.
As first reported by AFL Trade Radio’s Damian Barrett, the Giants are keen on acquiring Lobb who has two years to run on a lucrative long-term contract.
The 28-year-old played 74 games for the Giants before requesting a trade to the Dockers at the end of the 2018.
The Giants have made an offer to Lobb’s manager Colin Young, but Bell thinks it’s going to be “highly unlikely” that the club’s demands are met.
“Late last night (Wednesday), Colin Young, Rory’s manager, said there’s a possibility that GWS might be interested in Rory,” Bell told Sportsday WA.
“I said to Col, ‘he’s contracted, he’s pretty important to us and we want to keep him’.
“We caught up again this morning (Thursday) and Col said, ‘I think there’s going to be an offer coming that we would want to look at’ and I said, ‘look, it’s not something that we’re going to be really interested in, we don’t want to trade Rory’.
“I understand that an offer came through, and the understanding was with Col that if it was something they wanted to pursue after the offer came through from GWS, then we would do that, but it would have to be something that would satisfy Rory and satisfy us.
“I said, ‘that’s going to be highly unlikely, we’re really keen to keep Rory’ and as it turned out, about half an hour ago (on Thursday), Colin rang me and said, ‘what’s come through (from GWS) doesn’t look like it will get anything done’.
“I don’t think it (trade) is going to go anywhere and we’ll work really hard with Rory.”
Lobb averaged 13 disposals, 5.6 marks and kicked 20 goals from 13 appearances in 2021, polling seven Brownlow Medal votes.