WITH Brian Lake yet to sign a new deal and Andrejs Everitt starved of opportunities rival clubs are circling the Western Bulldogs, but football manager James Fantasia is confident both players will remain at Whitten Oval next year.

Lake, 27, and his management put off contract talks until the end of the 2009 season which saw him rewarded with All-Australian honours.

With trade week approaching, the impasse between the two parties on the lucrative new deal is generating trade speculation but Fantasia was quick to pour cold water on such talk at the NAB AFL Draft Camp in Canberra on Wednesday.

"There's never been issues with him going to another club," he said.

"It's simply been a bit of a stand-off with some detail within the package that's been put before him, but I'm confident it will take shape.

"I'm confident that we can resolve any problem that might be there."

With several AFL players already putting their desire for a fresh start on the public record, the coming trade period promises to be a busy one. Fantasia, however, was confident Lake will not become part of the exchange period action.

"Not at all because for a deal to be done we have to actively involved," he said.

"We've said it very, very firmly - I'm happy to say it again … Brian Lake is an untouchable player.

"We have a window of opportunity before us as a footy club and we see Brian as an integral part of that. There's never been - even from his camp - anything about going to another club; it's never been about that."

Fantasia spoke with Lake's management on Tuesday, but further progress is unlikely this week with Lake heading off on holidays with a group of teammates before Saturday night's Charlie Sutton Medal count.

Up to four clubs have shown interest in Everitt after he managed just seven games in his third year at the club since being taken eleventh overall in the 2006 NAB AFL Draft.

The 20-year-old impressed in a back-up role to lead ruckman Will Minson in the round-22 win over Collingwood, but did not play in any of the Dogs' three finals.

"He's a required player. It's as simple as that," Fantasia said.

"I know it's a difficult time because you do get players who might be a little bit unsettled because they haven’t played a lot of footy or been given the opportunity.

"I'd be surprised if Andrejs didn't get the interest that he's had because he's a quality kid, but he's a required player.

"You never say never in this business, I understand that, but that's simply how we're looking at it."

Fantasia admitted there was a touch of 'Border Patrol' about his efforts to repel unwanted advances from rival clubs, but he said the Dogs wouldn't be afraid to launch a few raiding parties of their own during trade week if suitable scenarios presented themselves.

"We're certainly still in the market for some talls … We want to continue to build that part of our list and we've got other issues that we need to address as well with other player types like small forward which would be another type we'd like to attract," he said.

"We're going to go into trade week aggressive, but without being silly about it. One thing we won't do is we won't be doing a trade for the sake of doing a trade.

"We've got a very good list; a very good development list. What we've got to do is review some of the older players on our list and see how that stacks up, but outside of that we're pretty comfortable with how we're tracking."

Decisions on the playing futures of veterans Jason Akermanis and Nathan Eagleton won't be made until after the trading period according to Fantasia.