North Melbourne's big-money bid to lure Josh Kelly will be obstructed by his desire to stay at Greater Western Sydney.
Giants coach Leon Cameron has few doubts the gun AFL midfielder will resist a reported nine-year, $9 million offer from the Kangaroos to move back to his hometown.
He reiterated an expectation the 22-year-old will sign a contract extension with the Giants in the next few weeks.
"He really likes the place, he's in the leadership group, he's playing some really good footy, he's very popular and he wants to stay," Cameron said on Wednesday.
The Giants are no strangers to their stars being courted.
Homesick forward Tom Boyd was signed by the Western Bulldogs on a seven-year deal worth close to $1 million a season in 2014, while Adam Treloar (Collingwood), Cam McCarthy (Fremantle), Curtly Hampton (Adelaide) and Caleb Marchbank (Carlton) have also left in recent years.
"If you have success, people want your players," Giants co-captain Phil Davis said.
"We've had that the whole time."
Cameron brushed off the speculation around Kelly's contract and any impact it would have on the player or club.
"With free agency and the willingness for the player to move to another club, that happens a little bit more often probably in the last five years than what it ever did," Cameron said.
"But I'm really confident Josh wants to stay at the footy club and he'll deal with what's come in front of him right now.
"We'll look forward to getting him done and dusted in the next couple of weeks, or month or so."
The Kangaroos will have an opportunity to view their recruitment target when they meet the Giants in Hobart on Saturday.
Despite Cameron's confidence, history shows Kelly is no guarantee to stay.
Lance Franklin expressed a desire to remain with Hawthorn before accepting a nine-year, $10 million deal to join Sydney.
The Swans superstar, whose defection was partly blamed on intense media scrutiny in Melbourne, had no advice for Kelly when asked by reporters on Wednesday.
But he was not surprised by the offer.
"Probably longer-term contracts are coming into the system, so I'll leave that up to him to make his decision on what he wants to do," Franklin said.
"But good luck to him."
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