Collingwood star Jamie Elliott remains unsure where he will continue his AFL career next season following a key meeting with Magpies football chief Geoff Walsh.
Elliott, who is an unrestricted free agent, played 16 games this season after missing all of 2018 through injury and is believed to have attracted interest from Melbourne and Hawthorn.
“I just went to have a chat with Walshy about a few changes happening … I’ve got a few things happening in the next couple of days but hopefully (I’ll stay at Collingwood),” Elliott told the Nine Network as he left the club on Thursday.
The 27-year-old, who also missed all of the 2016 season with back and hamstring injuries, was intent on returning to form on the field before picking up talks on a new contract.
“I probably wasn’t happy with my first half of the year then was interrupted (by injury) during the middle of the year, so I wanted to put it off until the end of the year,” he said.
“I signed a one-year contract last year to, I suppose, put everyone at ease when I came back this year.
“I said that I wanted to chat at the end of the year and we did … I played a little bit of good footy and here we are.”
Elliott has won Collingwood’s leading goalkicker award twice but the club faces a tricky task to satisfy his contract needs while also signing stars Brodie Grundy and Jordan De Goey, who will command highly lucrative extensions.
“He’s got a few options, he’s a good player,” Elliott’s manager Adam Ramanauskas told RSN.
“The thing with Jamie, I’ve been speaking with Collingwood all year.
“Jamie has never wanted to engage until he was playing some sort of decent football. For whatever reason that came later in the season.
“So the talks have only really just started a couple of weeks ago.”