Brisbane Lions CEO Greg Swann says "you don't have to be a rocket scientist" to work out that star youngster James Aish will leave the club at the end of the year.
Aish was selected with pick No.7 in the 2013 draft and had a very impressive debut season last year, averaging 17.6 disposals in 21 games.
However, the star youngster, who has been strongly linked to a move a back to his hometown Adelaide, has put off re-signing with the Lions and Swann admitted that was not a good sign.
"There's no real reason for him not to sign I don't think. He likes being in Brisbane, he likes the boys, he has been drafted with a group of players that have all committed," Swann told Triple M on Sunday.
"So you don't have to be a rocket scientist to work it out. We're not overly confident at this stage.
"But as (Aish's manager) Liam (Pickering) said yesterday, he hasn't told Liam he wants to leave, but our view is if he doesn't want to leave then re-sign and let's get on with it.
"That's something we're trying to resolve and we'll hopefully get to that ... in the next month or so."
Pickering has developed a reputation for facilitating multi-year big-money moves to different clubs for many of his clients in recent years – most notably Gary Ablett, Lance Franklin and Tom Boyd.
And Swann admitted it would be hard to keep Aish if Pickering managed to orchestrate a similar deal for him back to an Adelaide club.
Two years ago the Lions lost a host of talented youngsters such as Jared Polec (Port Adelaide), Elliot Yeo (West Coast), Sam Docherty (Carlton) and Billy Longer (St Kilda) via trades and Swann said his club simply could not afford to lose Aish on top of that.
"He's a really good kid, James, and we hope he does stay but it's the modern way," Swann said.
"We got a couple of players last year (Dayne Beams and Allen Christensen) from other clubs and it seems to me now there is certainly more prevalence of people moving and I suppose that's probably what the AFL wants.
"But in light of the five we lost a couple of years ago, we just can't keep losing our young talent.
"Without making excuses but if you had Yeo and Docherty and Polec and Billy Longer playing for us, our stocks would be a bit healthier.
"It just puts you back years when you invest time in (and) off they go.
"You might get a draft pick but then you've got to start again so it's a bit difficult from that perspective but it is what it is and we'll move on."
The Lions have made a disastrous start to the season, losing all three of their games by an average of 58 points, and are rooted to the bottom of the ladder.
After being dropped in round two, Aish returned on Saturday night and collected 21 touches during his side's 79-point loss to Richmond.
