FREMANTLE Dockers stalwart Shaun McManus has slammed stories saying he'd retired as "complete rubbish and lies".
McManus is behind only Shane Parker on the list of games played for Fremantle, with 220 appearances for his beloved Dockers, and the veteran was fuming about the rumours when he faced the media on Monday afternoon. McManus said he'd asked for the opportunity to set the record straight.
"I guess there's been a bit of innuendo about my position at the team over the last 24 hours, and it was easier for me to come out and say I'm not retiring, and the stuff that people would have heard is complete rubbish and lies," he said.
"It's disappointing to hear rumours about yourself, and I'm sure if people in the general community had things untrue said about them then they'd get disappointed, but that's the way it is.
"I've been here for 14 years and I think I've given great service to the Fremantle footy club, and I've given great service to WA football, in my opinion.
"I'm disappointed, and I believe I've given enough time to football in general to have some respect in the game, which I know I've got at this footy club, and I'm respected by a lot of other AFL players and AFL people.
"I thought it was a bit unwarranted for people to start that stuff."
Fremantle ran the premiers to within a goal on Friday night, but after leading by 39 points, the Dockers twice let the Cats back into the game, and McManus said the club needed to step up further.
"We put up a pretty brave effort, and a good effort, but we're looking for higher standards than that. And whether it was Geelong, or Melbourne this weekend, or Essendon or whoever, it may be, our standards need to be higher, and instead of losing by one point, we could have won by a goal.
"I thought our last half against Adelaide was really positive, and that's what we took moving forward into Friday night's game, and I'm sure most people were entertained by the way we played.
"We weren't quite good enough, but we're certainly heading in that direction.”
