SHAUN Higgins has turned his back on interest from Geelong, extending his contract with North Melbourne for a further season.
The classy midfielder – who grew up in Geelong and sister Danielle Orr currently plays for the Cats – was already in contract until the end of next year but will now also be at Arden Street in 2021.
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Higgins has played 220 games over 14 years, nine at the Western Bulldogs and the last five at the Kangaroos and was a member of the Virgin Australia AFL All Australian team last year.
The 31-year-old was in excellent touch in 2019, averaging 28 disposals from his 17 matches and booting 10 goals.
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Higgins said talk of him leaving or demanding a longer term were off the mark.
"It's difficult times when there's speculation outside and 've tried to be as open and honest through the whole process as possible," he told North Media.
"It just had to run its course. Obviously a difficult situation and circumstances at the football club with senior management and the like throughout the second half of the year, so we need that to settle down to pick up talks post season which I've tried to explain the whole way along and get to this point which is great
"The club also put it on hold just so they could get the right people in charge and go through the process of getting a coach which I completely understood at the time. So, we had constant dialogue, we were open and honest through the whole time of the negotiations, we picked it up post season and glad we could get it done.
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"I just feel like I'm invested here and I don’t think people understand the amount of work that goes in to play, particularly senior players at a football club both on and off the ground.
"The club’s been great to me, a really core group of guys here at the football club that I’ve loved playing with over the five years that I’ve been here and I wanted that to continue but I also wanted to do what was right for the footy club.
"If they saw that it was best fit to re-build and move on senior players then I was open to helping them under those circumstances, so that’s how the conversation started. If that wasn’t the case then I’m here to commit and I want to commit long term so all those boxes were ticked and we’re here today.
"In the end, we’ve agreed on a one-year extension which I think is great for both parties and shows that it was never about holding out for two or three extra years like some media has reported.
"Unfortunately there was a lot of misinformation being put out there and it’s good to be able to clear it all up and set the record straight by announcing this new deal."
