Sydney coach John Longmire doesn’t plan to speak to Adam Goodes about his AFL future until the end of the season while uncertainty hangs over fellow veteran Ryan O’Keefe.
Two of the club’s greatest players, 34-year-old Goodes and 33-year-old O’Keefe, are experiencing contrasting fortunes this season.
Goodes hasn’t played in a losing side since making a late start to the season following a knee injury.
He has played the last nine games in Sydney’s ten-match winning streak.
Conversely O’Keefe, who has notched 286 appearances for the club, hasn’t featured at all in that run.
The club’s 2009 best-and-fairest winner and 2012 Norm Smith Medallist played the first four games after which he was dropped as Sydney languished with a 1-3 record.
Dual Brownlow Medallist and Australian of the Year Goodes will this week play his 341st game, the most ever by an indigenous player.
“He works really hard at his game and what he’s been able to juggle this year, on and off the ground, has been a real credit to him,” Longmire said.
“When you get to that age, you take it very much week by week and that what he’s doing.
“He seems to be enjoying that, that focus purely on the week-by-week stuff. It really suits him at the moment.”
Longmire praised O’Keefe for having a great mindset while toiling away in the reserves.
However, he offered no clue as to if and when O’Keefe could break back into the senior side.
“Our players have been playing pretty well and have been pretty consistent, so it’s been tough to this point,” Longmire said of O’Keefe’s selection prospects.
“What happens from here on I’m not sure.”
He said there would be ongoing discussions with O’Keefe about his future beyond this year.
Longmire stressed Sydney wouldn’t rush Dan Hannebery and Rhyce Shaw back from their ankle syndesmosis injuries.
“I don’t want to get them back a bit too early and re-tweak there ankles and then you are faced with putting yourselves back a couple of weeks,” Longmire said.
He was looking at taking two ruckmen over to Perth for Sunday’s clash with West Coast.
That could mean a quick recall for Tom Derickx, who was dropped last week after playing 12 successive games.
Mike Pyke handled the vast majority of the ruck workload in last Saturday’s win over GWS.
“West Coast’s ruck stocks are very strong and they’ve got probably four senior ruckmen on their list that can play in the rucks at any one time,” Longmire said.