SYDNEY list manager Chris Keane says any club looking to pry Nick Blakey out of the Swans faces a "significantly challenging" task, despite the All-Australian defender meeting with rival clubs on Thursday.

As reported by AFL.com.au on Thursday morning, Blakey met with Gold Coast officials, including coach Damien Hardwick, in Melbourne on Thursday morning.

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North Melbourne – where Blakey's father John played 224 games including the 1996 and 1999 premierships – has also put a massive financial offer to the Swans defender.

Blakey has also had interest in exploring a move to Geelong, while St Kilda and Essendon have expressed a level of interest in luring him.

Blakey is contracted for another five years at Sydney.

Keane said the club was not aware the 26-year-old was going to meet with rival clubs before it heard about it in the media.

The Swans list boss also said there had been no trade request from Blakey, despite him speaking to or preparing to speak to five rival clubs.

"I think we do understand the current landscape in regards to players exploring opportunities and how that's probably shifted over the last few years in particular," Keane told Continental Tyres AFL Trade Radio on Thursday.

"But ultimately (Nick is) contracted for five more years at our footy club for a reason.

"And we saw last year that when that's the case, ultimately the clubs have the final say."

Keane said he had been in talks with Blakey's manager, Robbie D'Orazio, and said no proposed deals had been discussed.

He said Blakey would be welcomed back to the Swans for pre-season training in November if no deal was agreed.

"It's certainly not something we've actively pursued and we feel confident that he could walk back into our footy club," Keane said.

"But given the calibre of player that he is and the fact that he is contracted for five more years, we feel like making any deal happen would be significantly challenging."

Asked if the Swans expected Blakey to be at the club in 2027, Keane replied: "Well, that's our preference. And our expectation on that one hasn't changed since the start of the week. And I'd say it's the most likely scenario given his contract status and how challenging a trade would be, given how highly we rate him."

The flurry of activity comes as AFL.com.au's Cal Twomey detailed the "tension" between Blakey and the Swans amid the fallout from the Pullman Hotel incident after Sydney's round 23 win over Essendon at the MCG.

Blakey was one of five players, including Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Riley Bice and James Jordon, who were suspended for the rest of the season for breaching the club's behavioural standards after the late-night incident, which sparked an ongoing Victoria Police investigation.

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While Heeney, Warner, Bice and Jordon have expressed a willingness to return to Sydney next year, Blakey appears determined to be traded to another club in the next six days.

Twomey said the relationship between the Blakey family and the club has deteriorated.

"The tension from the Blakey family with the Swans is real, particularly their administration I would say," Twomey said on Continental Tyres AFL Trade Radio.

"It has been since the event and that's been well known and well recorded over the past few weeks.

"Even looking at the day the five players returned to the club a couple of weeks ago and spoke to everyone inside. The Swans made them go through the front door; there is a back way to get in there but the waiting media was there at the front, they made them go through there.

"And they all wanted them to leave that way as well and four of them did, Nick Blakey didn't. He refused to go that way, took the back exit via a teammate's help.

"There's a build of this tension over recent weeks. He wants a trade."

Twomey said the Kangaroos, where Blakey had spent several years as a junior involved in the club's father-son development program, was on the front foot in its pursuit of the Swan.

"I believe North is in this significantly from a financial point of view," Twomey said.

"The offer is real, it is big and they want him."