West Coast Eagles midfield star Luke Shuey is headed for top priority status to sign a new deal in 2017 despite not being out of contract until the end of next year.
He will emerge as a crucial re-signing with West Coast as a member of potentially the most imposing midfield battery in the league alongside decorated Hawthorn recruit Sam Mitchell and Matt Priddis as well as gifted winger Andrew Gaff.
West Coast officials are understood to be determined to lock the highly regarded Shuey into a long term deal early into the new premiership season.
Shuey, 26, enters contract talks with Eagles management in coming months as a new vice-captain on the back of his first fairest-and-best award when the tough midfielder averaged 26 disposals an outing through his 23 engagements last season.
The classy follower will be a free agent at the end of 2018 after heading west from Victoria a decade ago as the Eagles second pick at number 18 in the national draft.
He was in the same intake as injured big ruckman Nic Naitanui as the Eagles first pick and second choice overall.
He is widely considered among Eagles powerbrokers and insiders as possibly a future captain after his rapid rise into leadership standing alongside veteran defender Shannon Hurn who is into his third season as skipper and champion power forward Josh Kennedy.
Shuey has already held preliminary discussions with his personal management to prepare a strategy to handle imminent more formal negotiations with Eagles powerbrokers.
The 134-game veteran is certain to rise into one of the highest paid Eagles in the region of $650,000 a season for up to four more years.
He could command an even bigger deal as looming club skipper as well as on the back of hefty pay rises AFL players have won for this season and through to the end of the next broadcast rights agreement over the next six years.
He joins another West Coast star play-maker and decorated on-baller Matt Priddis, as well as veteran forward Mark LeCras and important utility Sharrod Wellingham headed for contract talks at West Coast in 2017.
Priddis, 32 this month, as well as LeCras, 30, will be free agents at the end of the 2017 season.
The pair are tipped to re-sign deals early into the 2017 home-and-away premiership season and avoid any heavy bargaining from other AFL outfits.
While Priddis remains among one of the most prolific ball-winners in the game, the 2014 Brownlow medallist is unlikely to be in high demand as a free agent.
But the creative LeCras appears headed for a switch back to more permanent duty as a specialist goal-finishing small forward and not roaming well up field in midfield support-cast roles as he has over the past two to three seasons.
A hefty haul into the regions of his 2010 All-Australian selection season when LeCras booted 63 goals in a team that finished last on the ladder with just four wins and he could emerge as a hot piece of trade bait if unsigned before October's annual trading frenzy if he was still out of contract.
LeCras was the Eagles sixth-highest possession winner last season at an average of just over 16 touches an outing as well as 38 goals, behind Kennedy who bagged 82 and Jack Darling 44.
LeCras booted 45 goals in 2015 at an average of more than 18 disposals a game as West Coast stormed into a grand final but copped a 46-point hammering from champions Hawthorn in the title decider.
Darling, 24, was the first of Eagles big guns wanted for long term security in the starting line-up to sign a new deal ahead of going out of contract in October.
The athletic forward signed a deal until the end of 2020.
Inconsistent key defender Eric Mackenzie is another experienced Eagle out of contract at the end this season as the 2014 club champion battles to regain a regular back line spot in his on-going attempt to revive his career after missing the entire 2015 season with reconstructed knee.
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