WESTERN Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade was partly resigned to losing Jarrod Harbrow to Gold Coast last year, but he has more hope Callan Ward will stay at the club, despite talk that Greater Western Sydney is circling.

A report in The Australian on Wednesday said the Bulldogs were concerned that the Giants had approached Ward and offered him a hefty five-year deal.

But Eade said he was confident the Dogs would keep their talented 21-year-old midfielder.

"I think being a local boy and how he's viewed around the club as a future leader... we're more than hopeful he'll stay," Eade said on Thursday.

"He's an extremely valuable player and we're doing everything in our power.

"We liken him to our Joel Selwood; he's courageous, he's tough, he's young, and we see him as a future leader of the club."

Harbrow left the club after a season of speculation that linked him to the new Queensland club.

However, Harbrow's circumstances were remarkably different to Ward's with his family from Cairns and his partner living in the Sunshine State at the time.

Eade said he didn't believe the speculation over Ward's future would affect him on the field.

"I think his season has been quite good, actually. He had a down couple of weeks about three or four weeks ago but his form in the last few weeks has been very good.

"Certainly from our point if view, he knows he's got a lot of support from the players, he's very well regarded, very well respected, and that's from the coaching group as well.

"It will be the powers-that-be that talk to him about those other issues but from our point of view, it's work as normal.

"We're not going to put any extra pressure on him."

Eade said his understanding was the Giants and Suns could approach players mid-season but not actually sign them to a contract.

"I don't think we're angered. It's just the system we live in, people know that, so there's no anger as such," he said.

"We know that players are going to get approached and there are players at other clubs as well.

"He's admitted he was spoken to and he's the first player who has, and I suppose it was new for our industry, and the AFL have said they're allowed to talk to them but they can't sign them and that's fine, no dramas.

"We weren't angry last year with Harbrow; we were disappointed, but that's the system for at least the next couple of years so you have to live with that but certainly from our point of view, we're going as hard as we can with Callan."

AFL rules state players can't come to an agreement with another club before their last match of the season in a contract period.

There is a window of opportunity to sign players between the end of the season and the NAB AFL Draft, which is held in November, but contracts cannot be confirmed with other clubs outside of that period. 

Meanwhile, suspended midfielder Justin Sherman didn't train with the side on Thursday but was present at the club three days after he was handed a four-match sanction from the AFL for racially vilifying a Gold Coast player.

Eade said the club had been shocked by his actions on the weekend, and admitted his teammates had initially been disappointed with what was said.

However, he said they would support him through his suspension.

"He knows he's done the wrong thing and he should be ashamed of that, and I think he's done a bad thing but he's not a bad person, which is the main message we've given him," he said.

"We're here to support him all the way through, and he's got a sanction and a penalty, and he'll do some work and some counselling and community work but I think it's just a matter of getting him through now and focused on the job he's got to do."

"Like everyone else, they were a bit shocked initially and us as a club, we're very multicultural with a lot of programs.

"I think for anyone in the AFL it was a bit of a shock and the players were a bit disappointed to start with, but as I mentioned before, we're going to work through that now."