Kane Cornes will surely slam the Sam Walsh 8 year extension after 2026 as the worst player contract in AFL history.

Effectively a 9 year contract including this season.

Stand by.

It’s not a good contract, but the AFL player movement system is so broken it makes clubs choose between a bunch of bad outcomes when they have high profile free agents.

If Walsh was to leave they’d get a compo pick which would likely fall after pick 10 once you factor in father sons and academies. One of which is Andrew Walker’s kid who Carlton have picks to match already, so they’d be trading that pick in to future years ie. the Tassie compromised draft.

Or if they matched the deal and traded him it’s probably to Geelong for a platter of late firsts that aren’t better than the compo pick.

Not to mention Carlton wont be in a strong position to bring in experienced talent. There’s only so much available in each trade period and good players won’t be lining up to join Carlton without Walsh.

So they pay the market rate. And stretch the deal for 8 years to get a discount on the per year basis so they can afford more talent if they can attract it.

Of course I don’t expect Cornes to outlay any of this nuance when he’s doing his usual shtick.

Absolutely nuts. Back injuries are the worst

I suspect there'll be a few officials and board members at other clubs feeling slightly relieved they don't have to authorise a market rate bumper 8 year offer to Walsh given his history of back related soft tissue injuries. If he can play consistently at his best then the risk will work for the Blues. If his back issues persist it'll turn into a bad contract pretty quickly.

Umm no. Not for someone so injury prone.

What's the cost?

1.2 mill a season.

That's Kozzie money and he ain't even half the player Kozzie is.

Has overtaken the Balta contract as the worst in the league

AFL needs to help clubs save themselves. This is all upside for Walsh. He has big ? On his durability. Just need to look at what happened to Simmonds in the NBA following his back injury.

23 minutes ago, Purple77 said:

Has overtaken the Balta contract as the worst in the league

Clarrie says hello

6 minutes ago, Demonland said:

guaranteed $$ and certainty for Walsh - makes plenty of sense for him

baggers were damned if they did, damned if they didn’t - as one of their better players to lose him as a free agent and get a pick probably circa 10-18 would have been worthless, particularly with Andrew Walker’s son set to be a top end pick at this year’s draft when they already hold two first round picks to help them match the points that will be required to select him

Melbourne supporters are the last people on the planet who should be criticising contracts given that we are currently paying Oliver, Brayshaw and May to not be at the club.

I certainly wouldn't have offered this deal to Walsh given his recent history, but then I'm also not convinced that Pickett will get through more than half of his deal before changing his mind again.

i don't like contracts greater than 5 years. Too much can go wrong as we know only too well.

1 hour ago, joeboy said:

Clarrie says hello

I'd argue this is a much bigger gamble than Clarry.

Clarry was the best player in the competition when he signed on.

We knew about his poor history and had managed it up until that point.

He had rarely been injured...

Contrast this with Walsh. Started off beautifully in a very poor team.

Has a checkered injury history and allegedly a crook back. Sure, Carlton should know whether that back poses a chronic problem, but a deal like this seems very sketchy given Walsh isn't even the best midfielder at Carlton.

10 minutes ago, BDA said:

i don't like contracts greater than 5 years. Too much can go wrong as we know only too well.

Agree fully.

If AFL had any brains they would ban contracts longer than 5 years.

31 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

Agree fully.

If AFL had any brains they would ban contracts longer than 5 years.

Restriction of trade it will never happen. What they should change is this nonsense of players changing clubs and keeping the existing contract. You change clubs you should have to negotiate a new contract with the new club or stay with the existing club on your contract.

Overated player even when fit. Crazy.

Edited 9 hours ago9 hr by lorn

With his past history of injuries i cant see how he will justify the length of the contract.

Massive risk.

2 hours ago, joeboy said:

Clarrie says hello

Carlton supporters are super easy to troll on talkback so lookforward to a couple of hours of that.

16 minutes ago, lorn said:

Overated player even when fit. Crazy.

MAJORLY OVERATED, WHAT ARE CARLTANK DOING??

Sam Walsh beat us in the 2023 semi final with 34 touches and 2 goals on his way to a Gary Ayres medal for player of the finals series.

I'd look at others if you're going with the overrated, mediocre, or half as good as Kozzy tags.

Edited 8 hours ago8 hr by Bring-Back-Powell

Carlton are a poor team so have to pay overs to keep him. not too dissimilar to us with kozzy.

that said kozzy is younger and doesn't have a poor injury record so much bigger risk to sign up Walsh long term