TOM LYNCH won't be rushed on his free agency decision, saying he has no timeframe on deciding where his future lies beyond 2018.
The Gold Coast co-captain is set to be the biggest fish in the free agency pool next season, but gave little away when speaking to the media on Tuesday afternoon.
"I haven't set any time on that," Lynch said.
"I just want to, every day, improve the footy club and see where we're going.
"I want to see Gold Coast succeed, that's my first priority, my only priority to be honest."
Lynch said free agency was part of the game "we all need to get used to".
Last season it was his fellow co-captain Steven May who copped the scrutiny, before signing a two-year extension to tie him to the Suns until the end of 2019.
May said Lynch had every right to take his time and any prolonged negotiations would not be a distraction to either the player or club.
"We're 20 days into the last year of his contract, so he's got plenty of time," the skipper said.
"I certainly took my time, I've got different reasons to Tom.
"Tom might have some other reasons, but the one that stands out is team success.
"I'm committed to showing him we're going in the right direction and he's 100 per cent in.
"It's not going to be a distraction, it's going to be in the media a bit because he's such a high-profile player, but he's a professional and that's not going to change the way he goes about it."
New coach Stuart Dew said Lynch was "invested" and that's all he needed to know.
"I've spent a fair bit of time with him in the past six weeks in both trying to recruit players and then meeting new players," Dew said.
"That tells me what type of character he is and where his mindset is at the moment."
Dew said the Suns' leadership group would be finalised before Christmas.
He said he was a "fan" of the co-captaincy model introduced at Gold Coast last season.
"Absolutely. I've come from Sydney and they've done it for a number of years and this year they stepped away from that.
"I think it's a really big positive and part of that has to be the relationship between the two captains themselves and myself.
"I'm certainly a fan of it.
"It's a brutal season, it's hard to be up every day of the week, so to have someone to share the load, that's important."
Lynch missed the final three games of 2017 with a knee injury but trained strongly on Monday.