Roll up, roll up: The Chad Warner contract circus is here

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Tuesday suggested that stage five is here.

The Swans held their annual photo day, in which media is invited to capture footage and portraits of every player on their list. Warner was available for photos – but, despite numerous requests, not for interviews. He hasn’t done one of those since the dark hours after their 10-goal defeat to the Brisbane Lions on grand final day last year – although he was asked, during grand final week, what he had been told to say when asked about his contract.

Chad Warner.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

“Pretty much focusing on the finals and that, which is what I’m doing anyway,” Warner said with a grin.

So it was left to Gulden to answer a flurry of questions about Warner’s future, and his real estate decisions.

“Looks like a nice pad,” he told reporters. “Obviously a nice holiday house for him.”

Gulden can relate to how Warner is feeling – although as a native Sydneysider, there was no go-home factor pulling him in another direction.

Looking back to when he was mulling his options in the early part of last year, Gulden said he felt it affected his football negatively. Then again, as Gulden also noted, some players have their best seasons in contract years, and Warner is certainly built differently.

Until Warner speaks – or signs – the speculation will linger, casting a shadow over Sydney’s season. That’s how it works, and players (and their managers) use that tension to their advantage in negotiations.

In the meantime, teammates like Gulden will have to say all the right things publicly, on behalf of the club, while trying to sway him privately.

“I’m certainly doing my best,” he said.

“But at the end of the day, it’s Chad’s decision, what he wants to do. We play football for a small part of our lives and everyone’s got an individual decision to make – what’s best for you, what’s best for your family.

“It’s entirely up to Chad. It’s going to be wrong for me to stand here and make rash comments when he’s got his process he’ll go through. It’s obviously going to play out throughout the year, and it’s something we’ve got to be aware of as well, not put too much pressure on him. I love playing with him, he’s one of my best mates.

“I just want to see him be happy – and at least he’s got a pretty nice pad now, too.”

The Swans have enough to deal with as it is, with a new coach in Dean Cox in charge, and atonement for their second grand final shocker in the space of three years top of his agenda.

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“You don’t have to sugarcoat it. It was one of our worst games for the year – you can say that, it’s fine, it’s reality,” Gulden said.

“There’s some stuff you watch the game back, and we hadn’t done that all year. We’ve spoken about as a team; was it mentally, what space were we in? Was it gaps in the way we played as a team all year, that we maybe were able to cover up with moments of brilliance throughout the season that you ultimately can’t get away with on grand final day?

“It’s stuff that we don’t necessarily want to give away to our opposition, so I’m not going to say it here. We’ve uncovered every stone … it’s up to us now as a playing group to go out there and actually do something about it, I guess.”

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