MELBOURNE has all but conceded All Australian defender James Frawley will leave the club through free agency, with CEO Peter Jackson saying "he probably would have made a decision to stay by now if he was going to".
Frawley, who could have played his last game for the Demons in Saturday night's loss to North Melbourne, has been linked to Geelong, Hawthorn and Gold Coast and can move to the club of his choice as an unrestricted free agent.
Asked on Sunday if Frawley, 25, had played his last game for the club, Jackson said: "I think that's possibly a fair conclusion".
"He's had an offer on the table for some time, quite a few weeks," Jackson told Channel Nine.
"So if that was acceptable to him I assume he would have accepted it by now.
"You can draw your own conclusions I guess. He says he hasn't made up his mind and that might be genuine.
"I hope it is genuine, I hope he stays, but you would have thought he might have made up his mind by now."
Frawley, who was taken with pick No.12 in the 2006 NAB AFL Draft, was named All Australian as a 21-year-old in 2010, but his form since has been inconsistent for the battling Demons.
Jackson said the club's offer was "not unreasonable compared to other offers he might have" and the defender might have other reasons to leave Melbourne, where he has played in just 34 wins from 139 games.
"He wouldn't be going, I don't think, for significantly more money," Jackson said.
"I don't know what his reasons are because he hasn't said that he's going yet. We'll see when he makes a decision.
"From the club's point of view we've met every side of the bargain this year.
"The culture is better and the psychological environment is a hell of a lot better than it was."
Jackson said he hoped Frawley would attend the Demons' best and fairest count on Thursday night.
On his own future, the CEO said he was committed to staying with the Demons in the short-to-medium term.
"I'm in discussions at the moment with the chair and the board. I expect we'll go on and I expect that'll be announced soon," he said.
"It won't necessarily be a defined term (but) this was going to be a lot more than 18 months, it was going to be a long fix and we knew that.
"I'm not here for the very long term and I've never said so.
"When it gets to the crowning glory there'll be someone else I think sitting in my spot."
Jackson said the Demons continued to speak with potential successors to coach Paul Roos and they would be in a position to speak formally once more clubs had finished their seasons.
