Chris McDermott: Adelaide Crows must set limit of $600,000 for Josh Jenkins

THE Crows need to sign Josh Jenkins, but not at any cost, writes Chris McDermott.

Josh Jenkins celebrates one of his seven goals on Sunday. Picture: Tom Huntley

Josh Jenkins continues to break new ground.

At 27 years of age he looks set to break the 50-goal barrier for the first time. In fact, he could smash it.

The Crows game style suits him well.

There is no denying he gets gifted some goals but there is also no denying he earns plenty of them on his own and gives away just as many.

He is developing into a great story — a story I didn’t believe could happen.

But his signature at the Crows for next season and beyond cannot continue at any cost.

The Crows must set the bar for Jenkins at $600,000 and not blink. Not once.

The beauty for the Crows is a young man called Mitch McGovern.

We saw a glimpse of his brilliance against St Kilda on Sunday.

He is a natural footballer like all the McGoverns. And he’s only 21.

Josh Jenkins has options but so do the Crows.

It may be a matter of who blinks first.

It must never be the club.

In a bygone era, the Crows’ decision about re-signing Jenkins would have been simple: If he has set his price at $800,000 (as rumoured), then he can go.

In that era, the thinking would have been: If he can get a contract of that size good luck to him — but it won’t be here at West Lakes.

But times are changing and the Crows have lost too many players over their 26-year history to allow another to depart without making 100 per cent sure he will not stay on the club’s terms.

That is the challenge for the Crows’ list-management committee.

Get out the blackboard and list the “fors “ and “againsts” and make a clear, informed, unemotional decision.

It is very easy from afar but far more complex from inside the four-walls of the AFC.

Emotions, friendships and the premiership window all come in to play.

Courage is needed.

Get it right and you're a genius.

Get it wrong and you’re most likely looking for another job — and most likely another state to do it in.

It is calls like this on which premierships are built.

The biggest question to answer is: Is Josh Jenkins part of the Crows’ next premiership team?

If that answer is yes, find a way to reach agreement on his contract.

If that answer is no, find a club where he will get what he wants but not hurt you in the process.

Send him to a bottom six club — a have-not club like Essendon, Brisbane, Gold Coast or perhaps Melbourne and Fremantle. Even Collingwood.

Opinions from experts in the game is divided. Some say let him go.

Others say keep him. But at what price?

One player must never dictate the future of others by the salary he demands.

The Crows once had a rule that no-one got paid over $600,000.

Not Ricciuto, not McLeod. No one.

Those days are long gone but so is their last premiership.

It’s loyalty v money.

Jim Webster wrote Rugby Union great Simon Poidevin’s biography and called it: “For love, not money”.

There are few better ways to be remembered.