His manager Nigel Carmody from ESP told Gillette AFL Trade Radio that Rivers would have to wait and see what transpired from meetings held between AFL clubs this week before he knew what his options might be, but he emphasised that Rivers was no guarantee to depart Melbourne.
"By no stretch is he definitely leaving Melbourne," Carmody said.
"We're not in a position for him to be able to assess his future properly at the moment because we simply don't have all the facts."
Gillette Trade Period hub
Rivers has played 150 games for the Demons and finished 5th in the club best and fairest in 2012 following on from his second placing in 2011. He was in contention to win the award when playing in defence in the first half of the season before injury to Mitch Clark and the emergence of Tom McDonald forced Melbourne to play him forward.
Geelong has confirmed its interest in considering Rivers as a possible replacement for the retiring Matthew Scarlett but no deal has been done.
Melbourne remains hopeful Rivers will stay but respect his right to assess his options as a free agent and have been happy with the way he has managed the process.
"He's been really good about it, informing the club about his thoughts," Harrington said.
"The coach and the player and the club have been very open with where it all sits."
The Demons found themselves in an ideal position in the NAB AFL Draft on Monday morning after Greater Western Sydney and the Gold Coast Suns did not use their first picks to bid for Melbourne's father-son nominee Jack Viney.
Port Adelaide put in a bid for Viney at pick No. 7 - a reflection of his worth in the draft - meaning the Demons had to use pick No. 26 for Viney.
Trade Machine
The Demons therefore retained picks No. 3, 4 and 13 to trade or use in the national draft, a position that left them in a strong position to deal with other clubs.
"Him going out to 26 means that we have the ability to use our other picks to get other deals done so that is what we will work on right now from here on in," Harrington said.
Melbourne is in a strong position to snare the second pick in the mini-draft with pick No. 3 if it can come to an agreement with GWS.
With the Suns seizing pick No. 1 in the mini-draft (which it has indicated it will use to pick Jack Martin) for trading pick No. 2 to GWS, the Demons would be able to choose either Jesse Hogan or Josh Kelly if it traded one of its early picks to GWS.
It has also indicated it is willing to trade pick No. 4 but is unlikely to snare the Suns' Josh Caddy with the pick. Caddy is to move back to Melbourne and has met with several Victorian based clubs, however he did not meet the Demons.
Melbourne remain optimistic it can create a trade with Collingwood that will land Collingwood's premiership forward Chris Dawes.
Dawes is contracted to the Magpies but indicated last week he was considering his options after Collingwood secured Quinten Lynch via free agency.
Meanwhile talks are believed to be progressing well with another unrestricted agent at Melbourne, Lynden Dunn.
Dunn had a strong finish to the season and finished 10th in the club's best and fairest and the Demons are keen to retain him.
The 25-year-old has played 99 games with the Demons and seemed to have found a niche in defence at the end of the season.
