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Live sport on SN this weekend“They're not going to die wondering”: Unpacking St Kilda's seven multi-million dollar plays for rival stars
Nic Negrepontis • February 24th, 2025 12:02 pm
GWS midfielder Finn Callaghan is the latest player to reject St Kilda’s war chest and opt to re-sign with his club, signing a four-year extension.
Channel Nine’s Tom Morris reported on Sunday that the Saints offered Callaghan as much as $17 million over 10 years to lure the Bayside local home.
However, he is not the first player St Kilda and list boss Stephen Silvagni have thrown the cheque book at. The Saints have been incredibly proactive in this space over the last 18 months. And these are just the seven we know about, including Callaghan.
They reportedly made bold bids for Carlton key defender Jacob Weitering ($12 million over eight years) and Essendon captain Zach Merrett in 2024, though both felt long odds to make a move.
Mac Andrew was another they reportedly had a big dip at. He signed what was then the richest deal in AFL history to remain at the Suns, worth as much as $14 million.
7AFL’s Ryan Daniels reported in October that Fremantle star Andrew Brayshaw also received a significant offer from the Saints, and he looks likely to be the next to turn his back on those advances.
Brayshaw told SEN in February that he is a certainty to remain a Docker.
St Kilda has been linked to Carlton’s Tom De Koning and North Melbourne’s Luke Davies-Uniacke, with similar money and deals on the table and both have big decisions to make this year.
Morris outlined the situation with Callaghan and St Kilda’s continued ambition to land a big fish.
“There’s a pattern here isn’t there. The offer to Merrett last year, which was about $1.5 million per year, people almost spat out their cornflakes at that as well. What we’ve seen with Tom De Koning at a little bit more than $1.7 million per year, this is in line with that pattern – and then there’s others like Andrew Brayshaw and Luke Davies-Uniacke which have played out behind the scenes as well,” Morris told SEN Breakfast.
“So the Saints are having a swing and they’re having a crack and they’re doing it in a way that isn’t putting a sheet of paper on the table and saying ‘we’re going to pay you this, what do you think’, but there are conversations being had that if that ‘if player X wants to come to the club, we are willing to offer this length of deal’, and in this case Callaghan decided to stay at the Giants.
“It’s not like he’s staying at the Giants for bad money either. Other clubs reckon he’s going to be paid $1 million or maybe a bit more than that at the Giants across four years.
“But it is eye-watering stuff, more than $17 million across 10 or maybe even 11 years. It would’ve been the biggest deal in AFL history had he signed, but he didn’t even look at it that much.
“The Saints are unashamedly ambitious. It doesn’t mean they’re short sighted, they want to improve their list, they want to bring in talent, Callaghan fits that bill because he’s from Bayside, he’s durable, they liked him from the moment he was drafted.
“Where they go next is anyone’s guess, but they’re not going to die wondering. If you’ve got the money to spend, then that’s what you need to do to pry players out of clubs.”
David King wonders whether players rejecting such enormous offers suggests we might already be at the point where star players expect as much as $2 million per season to move clubs.
“What it does say is that $1.7 million per year is not getting it done. There’s a new benchmark. If you can’t get a player for $17 million over 10 years, what are we looking at? Are we at that $2 million mark already? I wonder whether we’re at this point.”
Morris added: “The first $2 million player is probably not far away. This is the new normal and something we need to get used to. There were 25 million-dollar players in the AFL last year, that will double in the coming years.”
