GEELONG’S premiership captain Tom Harley says the club’s administration faces “a massive challenge” to keep the playing group together in the face of salary cap considerations.

The Cats received some great news this week when it emerged premiership midfielders Jimmy Bartel and Cameron Ling had put pen to paper and signed new contracts to stay on with the Cats, but other key players remain unsigned.

Harley described the re-signing of a Brownlow medallist and a club best and fairest winner as “a pretty good place to start I reckon”.

He said he didn’t expect many players to be asked to take pay cuts to remain at Geelong.

“It’s just they probably all deserve massive pay rises but there’s just not the scope to do that,” Harley said.

“As far as cuts go, I don’t reckon there’ll be too much of that going on … it’s a massive challenge for the administration.”

Harley is one also yet to re-sign, but he played down his own importance.

“I’ve sort of swept under the radar a bit and I’ll leave the stars to do all their work first and hopefully there’s a little bit left for me at the end,” he said.

Asked if he was willing to take a pay cut to stay at the club, he replied: “Yeah, I think it’s probably on the cards, to be honest.

“My negotiations are irrelevant compared to some of the others.”