Racing
League
Rugby
Cricket
Golf
Motorsport
Combat Sports
Football
Netball
Basketball
Other Sports
Sport Nation
With the big contract, comes a big responsibility - and you better be ‘the guy’
Gerard Whateley • February 4th, 2025 3:26 pm
Sam Edmund reported this morning that St Kilda would be prepared to offer Carlton ruckman Tom De Koning a seven-year contract worth close to $12 million.
Nothing epitomises the modern footy community more than this story.
Remember Phil Davis last year flagged that we would have to get our heads around a different monetary cycle? In a footy context, $1 million isn’t $1 million like it used to be.
So, find the player you want and blast them out. It’s bold and it’s aggressive and you take big swings.
The note of caution is you have to choose the right player, and you’ve got to be right.
There’s no conceivable way that Carlton could get anywhere near $1.7 million a season for Tom De Koning if it came to that, and that comes into the St Kilda strategy. Get to a number that they can’t compete against.
And then the primary consideration - Is Tom De Koning this player?
There is a threshold here. To live up to this style of contract Tom De Koning must be the next best ruckman in the competition as Max Gawn reaches the twilight.
Gawn has stood apart pretty well, but once he drifts away it would have to be De Koning. Multiple All-Australians and routinely be rated amongst the 10 best players in the competition, and that’s a high bar for a ruckman.
How you spend your money and whether you spend on ruckman is a debate.
Team success isn’t within the individual player’s control, but if you take this cheque you must be the driver of whatever success this team drives for.
You’ve got to be the guy.
This is what strikes me about the long-term contracts that have been demanded and accepted in recent memory. Lance Franklin was the guy in Sydney on every front. He held up his end of the bargain.
Gary Ablett was the guy at the Suns. They enjoyed no team success, but he met the markers that were required.
Brodie Grundy was not the guy at Collingwood. In fact, the moment he signed that contract there was a level of resentment and his papers were stamped and now he’s (at Sydney).
Nor has a player like Clayton Oliver. He hasn’t been the guy. He hasn’t lived up to his end of the contract at this portion in Melbourne.
So, is Tom De Koning the guy? For me, Harley Reid is the guy. I would spend the $1.7 million and make him the centrepiece of that.
Is that what the ruck position still is? St Kilda might think so if this runs to its full fruition.
I love the idea of taking big swings – but you’d better be right. And if the player accepts the contract, he’d better become the guy.
No nine-year contracts for guys who become a lighting rod for dead money. That’s the scourge of any team in a salary cap league.
Find the guy you want, blast them out and take big swings – but you better be right. And the modern day question as to whether that’s the ruck position, I find that as fascinating as any.
Tom De Koning in that finals series in 2023, he looked every inch that possibility. If you take a contract like this long-term elsewhere, you’d better be the driver of success.
Is this St Kilda’s best strategy? Should he command that money?
