Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell flew West Australia to meet with premiership Eagle Tom Barrass as the Hawks zero in on the star defender.

But the Western Bulldogs are trying their best to stay in the race with The West reporting they’ve offered Barrass a five-year, $5 million deal.

Channel 7 reports that after Hawthorn players flew home to Melbourne following Sunday’s win over Adelaide, Mitchell instead boarded a flight west to meet with Barrass.

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It emerged last week that the Hawks had entered the race for the 28-year old, who, despite being contracted at the Eagles until the 2027 season, is believed to be weighing up his future.

But West Coast premiership defender Will Schofield, a former teammate of Barrass, thinks he will leave telling Fox Sports News’ AFL Tonight the club has “pulled the rug” from under him.

“If anyone’s making moves it’s the West Coast Eagles. From what I’ve read and my understanding, Tom and the footy club sat down and tried to come up with anagreement to go and get him paid what he’s valued on market,” Schofield said.

“I don’t think the Eagles have come to the table so it means someone of Tom’s quality as a player is gonna look elsewhere. The way footy is right now, if you’re a player in demand you’re gonna have to look, especially if your football club doesn’t come to the table.

“To use Tom’s own words, he’ll be a West Coast player until the rug has been pulled out from under him, well I think West Coast have pulled the rug.

“They’ve identified him as high-end talent, as someone they can get some picks for and I expect him not to be a West Coast player next year.”

Mitchell played and then coached Barrass at West Coast from 2017 to 2019 including during the club’s 2018 premiership-winning season.

Asked directly on Channel 7’s Talking Footy if the Hawks had interest in Barrass, Mitchell said: “Every player at the moment who’s a free agent, I think we’ve been linked to all of them.

“I think that market is something that’s changed enormously since I finished playing. It’s not fair for coaches to talk about what players are doing in the positions that they’re in.

“Every head coach would love to improve their list for next year – and whether that’s through draft, free agency or trade, they’re all ways to do it. So any talented players we think will help us, we’ll obviously be talking to.”

Barrass last month downplayed any speculation of a move.

“I am a West Coast Eagles player and unless the rug gets pulled out from under my feet I will stay that way,” he said.

“I am really excited about what we are doing here and I am really excited about some of the talent.

“It happens every year and it is hardly a story. AFL clubs chasing an established key position player,” he said.

“It is the currency of football so I wouldn’t be reading into it too much.”

Mitchell has been one of the most hands on coaches in the trade space in trying to lure players from rival clubs.

The Hawthorn coach has reportedly made direct contact with other targets, Saint Josh Battle and Bulldog Bailey Smith, and led a Hawks contingent that travelled to Sydney to meet with Giant Harry Perryman.

The report states a meeting with Jack Ginnivan at Mitchell’s house last October convinced the former Magpie to move to the Hawks.

Barrass would cost Hawthorn at least one first-round pick, while it’s believed the Hawks would be open to parting ways with their first selection after taking a top 10 pick in each of the last four drafts.

The ninth-placed Hawks are currently tied to selections 10 and 27 in the 2024 draft.

Channel 7 indicated last week Hawthorn would be well placed from a salary cap perspective to acquire both Barrass and Battle, who’d cost nothing in a trade sense being a free agent.

HOWE DISCUSSES FUTURE

Collingwood veteran Jeremy Howe says he’s having active conversations with the club about whether or not he’ll play on next year.

Howe, 34, and fellow Magpies champions Scott Pendlebury, 36, and Steele Sidebottom, 33, are out of contract at season’s end in a year the club has slid down the ladder amid question marks if it’s the end of an era.

Ahead of his 400th game against Carlton this weekend, Pendlebury revealed on SEN he had a contract in place at Collingwood for 2025 that still needed a few finer details ticked off.

Speaking on his own future on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Tuesday night, Howe indicated he was keen to extend his career into next year as long as he can still provide value to the Craig McRae’s side.

“It’d be great. I feel like it’s definitely a conversation we’re always having within the club with us old guys. If you feel like your body and mind is willing to go on, then yeah,” Howe said.

“But it’s a conversation with the club around: ‘Do you still feel like we hold enough influence within the team to be able to keep us around?’ I’d like to think so.”

Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley believes Howe, Pendlebury and Sidebottom are all still playing at a high enough level to warrant contract extensions, while Tigers champion Jack Riewoldt suggested it might hinge on whether the Pies think they’re capable of another flag tilt in 2025.

“It’s probably more where they think they’re at,” Riewoldt said on Fox Footy.

“Do you think this is the end of that premiership era and maybe it is time to regenerate? Or does Craig McRae, which I firmly think he does, believe they can go again and hold onto those stars?

“A different club that might be struggling, say it was Richmond, might look to move them on to regenerate.”

TRELOAR EARNS EARLY CONTRACT EXTENSION

Western Bulldogs star midfielder Adam Treloar is set for an early contract extension beyond the 2025 season.

Treloar was traded from Collingwood to the Bulldogs at the end of 2020 with five years remaining on a deal the Magpies have contributed towards.

And amid Treloar’s rich vein of form this season for the red-hot Dogs – averaging 32.3 disposals – the second-best return of his career – the 31-year old is set to be rewarded with at least another season at Whitten Oval.

“He’s flying, this man is airborne at the moment. In All-Australian considerations and could beat Marcus Bontempelli for the club best and fairest this year, he is going that well,” Herald Sun journalist Jay Clark said of Treloar on Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle.

“The Western Bulldogs are making moves on a deal, I suspect they’ll sign him for one more season that will take him out to the end of 2026.

“When he signed at the Western Bulldogs from Collingwood against his wishes, it was a $900,000-a-year deal – $600,000 from the Bulldogs and $300,000 from Collingwood – that will end next year.

“But Adam Treloar will play on until 2026.”

Fellow Herald Sun journalist Sam Landsberger believes Treloar has been arguably the Dogs’ greatest pick-up of the modern era.

“It’s a great get from the Dogs, this has been one of the best trades probably this century,” he said.

“To get Adam Treloar and his output for $600,000 a year, I think that’s just about their best acquisition for the century.”