Greater Western Sydney coach Leon Cameron is confident of retaining young midfield ace Josh Kelly, but is disappointed all three of his AFL club's mature-age recruits are injured.
Kelly 22 has been linked to North Melbourne, where his father Phil had played 61 games from 1981-85.
The Giants' youngster, who has played the same number of senior games as his dad, comes off contract at the end of this year.
Cameron is able to see the funny side of another talented GWS youngster being linked to another club, as has happened frequently over the past two years.
"I thought I heard it was an 18-year deal, wasn't it?" Cameron quipped on Wednesday.
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"Josh is a long way down the track in terms of his contact negotiations with us.
"We're really happy where it's at and I wouldn't be surprised if it gets done over the next month or two.
"He's really comfortable here - that's the most important thing.
"He loves the environment, he loves playing for the Giants and he's in our leadership group and he's a fine young player and we expect him to be leading the charge for us for many years to come."
Cameron revealed Tendai Mzungu would be out for up to three months with a hamstring injury, joining fellow former Fremantle player Matt de Boer and ex-Richmond star Brett Deledio on the injury list.
"It's really disappointing having some of those mature players brought into our footy club (getting injured)," Cameron said.
De Boer is listed as one to two weeks from returning from a hamstring injury, while the Giants remain cautious of rushing Deledio back for fear of him getting reinjured.
"He's frustrated because he just wants to play, but we're going though this really slow burn process with him and he's heading in the right direction," Cameron said.
"Hopefully, he can play with us in a couple of weeks."
Cameron said hard-nosed midfielder Jacob Hopper was the likely option to replace Mzungu on Saturday against Gold Coast after having a couple of practice games following an interrupted pre-season.
He expected key forward Jon Patton to recover from a hip issue and said back Aidan Corr could be available after making good progress from his hand injury.
Cameron said there might be one or two changes, but he wanted to give most of his players another chance after Sunday's season-opening 56-point hammering by the Crows in Adelaide.
"Something I'm confident of is when we have had a performance that's been sub-par, that our group has responded, particularly over the last 18 months," Cameron said.
