PORT Adelaide veteran Brett Ebert says loyalty to the club, his teammates and a possible love interest will see Travis Boak remain at the Power.
Ebert was supremely confident Boak would choose to stick with the club, despite months of soul searching and discussions with his mother and two sisters about a return to Victoria.
Ebert's comments came a day after Geelong's Chris Scott, Jimmy Bartel and Joel Selwood were seen arriving at Adelaide Airport.
The Cats contingent didn't say whether they were in town to speak with the out-of-contract midfielder but, regardless of the visit, Ebert said he thought Boak would stay.
"Trav's got family over in Geelong and he's got a few ties over there but he's, I think, our most important player so we really want him here," Ebert said.
"He's got some great mates here and everyone loves him at the club, guys like Robbie Gray and Paul Stewart, his housemates, they're really close with him.
"He actually met a girl here as well, he's sort of been seeing her for a bit.
"I'm not really sure (if she's officially his 'girlfriend'), he keeps it pretty close to his chest but he loves Adelaide … I think he's going to stay, definitely."
Ebert said he had no qualms with Geelong's possible mid-season meeting with Boak, suggesting that it was simply the way the game was heading.
[ Related: Alberton Crunch ]
He said players shouldn't be ostracised for trying to look after themselves given the length of a player's career.
"The whole game's changed, I've only been around 10 years and just the amount of different things that have changed around the club and in the AFL is amazing," Ebert said.
"Everyone's in it for themselves at the moment with the way the game's going and all the free agency and all the stuff like that, you see it a lot in the NRL.
"The career of an AFL player's not long compared to a normal job on the outside, so you want to do as well as you can for yourself.
"That's what players look to do; sign for as many years as possible and hopefully for a fair bit of money."
But Ebert maintained there was still room for loyalty in the modern game and pointed to the Power's recent signings as proof.
Dom Cassisi, Jackson Trengove, Hamish Hartlett, Robbie Gray and Alipate Carlile have all re-signed with the Power since August last year.
"I still think there's loyalty to the club and we've seen that with a lot of our players signing on last year and mid-year this year," Ebert said.
Harry Thring covers Port Adelaide news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry
