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Fremantle champion Pavlich set to remain a Docker for life |
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Written by Chris
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Sunday, 06 September 2009 14:53 |
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Source: perthnow.com.au   FREMANTLE champion Matthew Pavlich has given the clearest indication yet that he will be a Docker for life. Pavlich will be swamped with multi-million dollar deals when he is out of contract at the end of next season.
 He will have numerous options including moving to new AFL club Gold Coast, ending his career back in home town Adelaide or staying with Fremantle where he started his decorated career a decade ago.
But the Dockers' greatest player has declared he is more likely to stay at Fremantle to see out his playing days.
"I'm contracted for another 15 months and I'm very confident that I will continue my career at Fremantle after that point in time," Pavlich said.
"I get so focused in the process of week to week and seeing our younger players developing further and for me it's very much about that core focus of that particular time.
"So it's hard for me to think big picture and commit to long-term outcome based thinking. That's just how I operate."
While Pavlich has raised the prospect of extending his career beyond next season, when he believes Fremantle could be poised for a return to the finals, he refused to reveal whether he would sign a new deal before his current contract expires.
"I haven't given that any thought at the moment," he said.
Pavlich, who turns 28 on New Year's Eve, last week appealed to his teammate and close friend Paul Hasleby to end speculation on his future and sign a new one-year agreement to extend his distinguished career with Fremantle.
Pavlich and ruckman Aaron Sandilands are both out of contract at the end of next season.
Pavlich has played 213 games with Fremantle and committing beyond next year would almost certainly conclude his brilliant career as possibly the Dockers' first 300-game player.
The Dockers captain is convinced that enormous promise revealed from a troop of exciting youngsters at Fremantle this season, headed by draftees Stephen Hill, Nick Suban and Hayden Ballantyne, offers greater success from 2010.
Fremantle has won six games in each of the past two seasons.
"We at least got our game plan implemented and working in the back half of the year really well," Pavlich said.
"We probably struggled at times to implement it early in the year, but by the end of the season we couldn't make too many changes and the continuity of the group playing together actually meant that we were able to really stick to our game plan."
"So with the understanding of how we want to play, with further development over the pre-season, we're well situated."
Fremantle's five-times club champion and six-times All-Australian expects to resume more full-time forward duties next season after spending large chunks of this year in the midfield.
He revealed that discussions with coach Mark Harvey last week targeted just where he best suits Fremantle's chances of success.
Pavlich disclosed that with centreman Rhys Palmer and on-ball tagger Ryan Crowley back from long-term injuries he will play closer to goals for extended periods.
"We did get more game-time into young players likes Stephen Hill, Nick Suban and Garrick Ibbotson through the midfield with our many injuries this season," Pavlich said.
"So with that being the case and if they can play well and stand up to everything about the midfield, I would expect to resume a bit more full time up forward for us." |
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Last Updated on Sunday, 06 September 2009 14:59 |
