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Cornes and Healy commend Clarkson for his approach to Davies-Uniacke contract chatter
Sam Watson • February 14th, 2025 5:00 pm
Kane Cornes and Gerard Healy have praised North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson for his recent comments about the future of out-of-contract midfield star Luke Davies-Uniacke.
Speaking to Riley Beveridge for AFL.com.au, Clarkson said “If I was really confident that (Davies-Uniacke) was going to stay, he'd have signed by now. You can't be really confident until they sign on the dotted line.”
"We wanted to keep (Lance Franklin, at Hawthorn), but we also didn't want to subject ourselves to market forces to the point where the relativity of our salary cap would be that distorted that there would be an imbalance between the payment structure of those that are so important to the structure and fabric of your side, as opposed to just this one star player,” Clarkson said.
And it was Clarkson’s matter of fact approach to the situation that gained the tick of approval from Cornes.
“I really like what he’s got to say,” Cornes said on SEN’s Sportsday.
“They’d love to keep him, but they’re not going to pay an astronomical price at the expense of everyone else to make that happen.
“I think that’s the way it should be.”
And his co-host Gerard Healy said he agrees with Clarkson “100 per cent”.
“Clarko knows what it takes to win premierships and it’s not just about ability. It’s keeping the ability, but not just the bloke who’s out of contract, but the guy who’s going to be out of contract in two years’ time, and three years’ time, etc.”
“The great strength of Geelong (in their 2007-2011 run) … was that they were prepared to take less to keep all the guns.
“Clarko’s singing from a pretty fair hymn book.”
AFL.com.au’s Cal Twomey reported in January that North Melbourne had offered the 25-year-old a seven-year deal, but St Kilda was also prepared to offer him a hefty deal.
