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Geelong and West Coast were still negotiating over Tim Kelly only minutes before the AFL trade period ended.

Geelong have a fight on their hands to keep Tim Kelly beyond next season after his bid for a trade to AFL premiers West Coast failed.

The Cats and Eagles were still negotiating with minutes left in the trade period on Wednesday night, but the midfielder was always at long odds to switch clubs.

The mature-age revelation had an outstanding debut season with the Cats and finished equal-second in their best and fairest.

But the WA native has a young family and sought a trade home for personal reasons.

While the Eagles were willing to involved future picks in the Kelly deal, ultimately they could not budge Geelong.

Kelly is off contract at the end of next season and Cats recruiting manager Stephen Wells was asked about their chances of securing him on a new deal.

"We're not sure about that ... we 'll be happy to talk to him and his manager about extending his contract if we can, but that will be a little bit in their hands," he said.

But Wells is adamant that Kelly will commit fully to the Cats, despite his wish to go home not being granted.

"To our great delight, Tim is very keen to get back to Geelong and play good footy next year," Wells said.

"If we weren't confident of that, we may have been a little bit more inclined to do the deal."

The Cats spoke to Kelly and his management about trying to strike a deal with Fremantle, but the onballer was adamant he wanted to join West Coast.

"Out of respect to Tim, we thought we should explore the option," Wells said.

"We all knew along the line that it was a long shot, that it would happen, and that's the way it's turned out.

"We were still talking at 8.20 tonight, so it did get close."

West Coast list manager Brady Rawlings said the Eagles felt they put a strong offer to Geelong.

"The problem is Geelong rate him just as highly as we do," he said.

Rawlings added they would monitor Kelly's situation over the coming months, but said they had no frustration with Geelong.