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Tigers keen to keep Blackwell, Seaby

Claremont will double their efforts to convince prime movers Luke Blackwell and Mark Seaby to play on next year while bidding to regain premiership players Beau Maister and Lewis Stevenson from AFL clubs.

Claremont's resurgence in the past month and the rapid development of their brigade of promising youngsters has convinced club chiefs that the Tigers could challenge for the premiership next season.

But the Tigers want to top up their list with several more A-grade players and are eager to retain their most valuable duo.

Blackwell, 27, and Seaby, 30, are out of contract at the end of the season and unsure of their plans for next year.

Blackwell laughed off suggestions that he intended to venture to Melbourne where he played 23 games for Carlton in two seasons.

"I've had that for two or three years that I'm going back to Melbourne but why would I," he asked.

"I am out of contract at the end of the year and will weigh up things then and see how the body is feeling.

"It is a good time to be at Claremont, though. There is a core group of young players who are coming through together and when you have a good core in your team, they demand more from other people and you start to be a really good side."

Blackwell is displaying the impact that helped him win the 2011 Sandover Medal while Seaby, who won flags at West Perth and West Coast, is producing the best form of his two years at the Tigers.

Claremont are confident that Maister, who, as Beau Wilkes, won the Simpson Medal in the 2011 grand final victory, will return to the club if his three-year stint at St Kilda comes to an end this year.

Stevenson could win a fourth consecutive flag this season after winning two at Claremont, adding one at Norwood last season after being traded by West Coast to Port Adelaide and being part of the Port Magpies team that is on top of the SANFL ladder.

The running defender is out of contract at Port Adelaide at the end of the season.

State regular Ian Richardson is likely to return next season after a year off to go travelling.

One player who has fallen off Claremont's radar is high-flying forward Tom Lee, who will not return to WA after agreeing to a two-year extension with St Kilda.

Lee continues to have trouble with his right shoulder but that has not put the Saints off.