GOLD Coast CEO Mark Evans doesn't believe the AFL should be involved in helping the club retain restricted free agent Tom Lynch.
With the Suns co-captain yet to decide where he'll play his football next season, speculation is mounting the Victorian could return to Melbourne, with Collingwood, Richmond and Hawthorn reported as potential suitors.
The AFL has several ambassadors on its books and could employ Lynch to promote the game in south-eastern Queensland if he remains with the Suns.
Speaking on SEN on Tuesday morning, Evans said while the League shouldn't play a major role in the club keeping Lynch, it did need to be mindful of keeping a competitive balance throughout the competition.
"I know the conversation over the last couple of last couple of days has drifted to should the competition do something to retain Tom (at Gold Coast), but that's our job and Tom's decision to make," Evans said.
"My concern and watch for us going forward is free agency doesn't distort competitive balance, not so much for Gold Coast, but for the entire system.
"If teams are continually on the bottom (of the ladder), what is the right mechanism to help them, and it's only help because of the responsibility sits with the clubs to get things right.
"I want the reality that Tom says he wants to stay, and I'll give him time for that."
When a decision comes, Evans believes it won't come down to money for Lynch.
"I don't think Tom Lynch is going to make a financial decision on whether he stays or doesn't stay," he said.
"Tom is a restricted free agent, so it would need to be (a rival club) would clear many millions of dollars out of their salary cap so we couldn't possibly match it.
"It won't come down to a financial decision."
Evans wasn't "overly fussed" with Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley's comments that Lynch had every right to play where he wanted next season, and believed a strong relationship with coach Stuart Dew, a settled football department and new and improved training facilities had the Suns in a strong position to retain the key forward.
"The things that I think are important to him is a great relationship with a coach he thinks is a modern coach and great communicator," Evans said.
"As a football manager and a list manager, I've already proved to him about how we want to integrate our leadership group in the major decisions for the club.
"We have solved the facility issue that sat with the club for seven years.
"I think what Tom needs to see in all of that, if he believes all of that, is the hope that Stuart Dew, Craig Cameron, Jon Haines, Steven May and other important leaders around the placeare going to help him get to a premiership in his time."
