Essendon legend and GWS' inaugural coach Kevin Sheedy has told Victorian clubs to keep their "hands off" out-of-contract Giants star Jeremy Cameron.
It comes after Bombers great Matthew Lloyd declared last week that his former club should throw everything at signing the 2019 Coleman medallist, especially amid doubts over fellow out-of-contract forward Joe Daniher's future.
But AFL legend Sheedy told The Herald Sun he was sick of Victorian clubs "wrecking the game" by pursuing Giants stars.
โIt is ridiculous, we are trying to build the game in Sydney, this is hands off Jeremy Cameron,โ he said.
โWe have put in all the expenses of going into Sydney to build the AFL game and clubs want to steal another group of players. They have taken a full team of players out of Sydney.
โThe Collingwood centre line is (Will) Hoskin-Elliott, (Adam) Treloar and (Taylor) Adams in the guts.
โThe Bulldogs have already taken a premiership player in Tom Boyd. The Bombers have taken three or four in Devon Smith and Dylan Shiel and Jake Townsend (and James Stewart).
โSo why do you want to keep wrecking the game? Leave Cameron in Sydney with Coniglio and Toby and build a great club. Just ripping into them now is just ridiculous.
โIt is just ridiculous and just let him be a one-club player and it will be appreciated by the game in the end.
โEssendon surely wonโt bother. Thatโs it. We have stolen enough Giants. We donโt need them at Essendon, we have got plenty of good forwards, we just need to get it right.โ
Sheedy went on to insist Cameron should remain a one-club player, and that any club thinking of raiding the Giants should find its own next star.
โTo me here we are right in the middle of the crisis in this world disease and people want to roll into Sydney and have another crack at them again. Leave them alone and let it settle down. Go and find your own champion, or a top-class player like Marlion Pickett.
โThere are top-class players out there we keep walking past. Just leave the Giants alone.
โJeremy Cameron and Coniglio and Greene will finish like Tim Watson and Matthew Lloyd, like Kevin Bartlett and Francis Bourke, they never changed their club. Itโs what they are.
โChris Grant and Mark Ricciuto, who was happy in Adelaide, they will always be remembered as one-club players.โ
