ADELAIDE captain Nathan van Berlo says the need for contingency plans for out-of-contract players in the free agency era are dependent on the character of the player involved.
His comments came after the Crows officially entered the market for Collingwood's Travis Cloke, with injured star forward Kurt Tippett linked to the Brisbane Lions and yet to re-sign.
The Lions have publicly declared their desire to lure Tippett home to Queensland and, with their disastrous Brendan Fevola deal to end this season, would have the salary cap room to fit him in.
Adelaide remain confident Tippett will re-sign and stay at West Lakes, but were burned in similar circumstances last year when young forward Jack Gunston walked out on the club to join Hawthorn in his home city.
With free agency set to dramatically change the way player trading is carried out in the future, van Berlo believed there would still be room for trust in contract negotiations.
"I guess it depends on the calibre of person you're dealing with," van Berlo said in regards to whether a player's word still counted for anything.
"The culture of the footy club has a bit to do with that as well, but I think players individually have a bit to do with that, the rest of the playing group to talk to individuals about where they're at, where they fit in and where we see them moving forward.
"I know 'Tippo' is thoroughly enjoying himself at the moment, with the environment we've got at the footy club and I've got every confidence that he'll want to be apart of us moving forward."
Despite Tippett's drawn-out negotiations, van Berlo denied they would prove a distraction ahead of a much anticipated finals berth.
The Crows skipper went as far as claiming players didn't even discuss contracts amongst themselves, but said that if advice was sought then the players would be happy to provide.
"We don't talk about it (Tippett's contract negotiations) at all in the inner-sanctum, it's a matter of everyone's got contracts and everyone's got to deal with it themselves and we leave it to the individual to do it," he said.
"Obviously if the time comes and players need to ask each other, we’ll certainly do that."
Harry Thring covers Adelaide news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry.
