FIVE clubs are still considering whether to give cut Cat Daniel Menzel an AFL lifeline as a delisted free agent after his manager launched an impassioned defence of his client’s on-field ability.

Menzel was delisted by Geelong on Wednesday despite his sensational start to 2018 — he was second in Geelong’s best and fairest after Round 5 — and 104 goals to his name from his past 52 games.

The Age reported that Carlton, Brisbane and St Kilda had already ruled out recruiting Menzel as a free agent, with the Saints’ interest in the mid-sized forward diminishing after they originally considered offering him a two-year deal.

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However Menzel has been linked to several clubs in recent days, including the Western Bulldogs and Adelaide.

Menzel’s manager Adam Ramanauskas said there’d been good interest in his client, adding that his knee, which required four reconstructions, is “absolutely fine” and the groin issue that plagued him in 2018 was “completely fine”.

“I’ve had some good conversations with clubs for the last eight weeks about Dan and how that could potentially look,” Ramanauskas told RSN Breakfast Club on Thursday morning.

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Daniel Menzel has kicked 104 goals from his past 52 AFL games. Source: Getty Images

“There was a lot of hope he was going to St Kilda as a free agent but circumstances changed that and St Kilda’s direction changed that.

“But there’s still discussions with probably five clubs at the moment of potential of him going there.

“The kicker in all this is obviously Dan’s body and how that is … He’s been able to rest again, he’s been able to rehabilitate again. He’s completely fine.”

Despite his excellent goalkicking numbers since returning from his fourth knee reconstruction, Menzel’s lack of defensive pressure has been constantly scrutinised and criticised by pundits.

But Ramanauskas sensationally claimed on Thursday morning that Menzel never had the best opportunity to show off his defensive game at Geelong due to the role he was assigned.

“The problem is with Dan and this conversation is what it says in the stats and it’s there for all to see. But if you actually dig a bit deeper and look how he was told to play and perform in that forward line, initially I thought ‘hmm’. But when I dug deeper into it, you actually go ‘well he doesn’t have a lot of opportunities to apply that pressure that others are able to do’,” Ramanauskas said.

“He was always played as the deepest forward, he was always played on the fat side of the ground when there was a stoppage inside forward 50, he was told not to go into that contest to be able to apply pressure.”

Ramanauskas pointed out that Menzel in 2018 won 42.5 per cent of his one-on-one contests — the best result by a general forward, according to Champion Data, ahead of the likes of Richmond’s Josh Caddy, Collingwood’s Jordan De Goey and Melbourne’s Jake Melksham.

“Yeah he’s an offensive player, we all understand that and we all see that. But the defensive side of the game, if he was presented with an opportunity to do that, I think those numbers would be different,” Ramanauskas said.

While Ramanauskas was surprised Geelong couldn’t find spot on its 2019 list for Menzel, he could see the “writing on the wall” following the club’s recruitment of Luke Dahlhaus from the Western Bulldogs and Gary Rohan from Sydney.

“I had seen the writing on the wall for easily a couple of weeks and had really good discussions with Geelong about that too,” he said.

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Daniel Menzel has received interest from rival clubs. Source: AAP

“There was always full transparency with Geelong of the direction this was hedging and Daniel was well aware of that.

“If I was making a sales pitch to any club out there that’s looking for that type of player, you’d be saying: ‘Guys have a look at the first five rounds of the season when he was fully fit, able to get up and back in that forward line — that’s the player that you’re going to get with another full pre-season.’”