Jon Ralph examines how Carlton will sign up its out-of-contract stars in 2025, including Tom De Koning

Tom De Koning is on track to become one of footy’s highest-paid players – it’s just a matter of whether it’s at Carlton or elsewhere. JON RALPH has the latest on the ruckman’s future.

Carlton believes it can nail the considerable challenge of keeping its star-studded list together with as many as 10 priority targets out of contract next year in an already “top-heavy” list structure.

The Blues have done an exceptional job under list boss Nick Austin and football boss Brad Lloyd to retain the club’s exciting young talent in recent years.

Star fullback Jacob Weitering has just signed a new six-year deal to hand over his free agency rights and is locked in to 2021.

Harry McKay is signed to 2030, Charlie Curnow to 2029 and Patrick Cripps to 2027, with Sam Walsh has a deal to the end of 2026 that will hopefully be extended next year.

But the club’s decision to trade into the No. 3 draft pick instead of handing big money to Dan Houston, while also allowing Matt Kennedy to move to the Dogs, will prove canny in the coming 12 months.

Tom De Koning is set to hit free agency after previously turning down interest from St Kilda.

Tom De Koning hits free agency next year after rebuffing St Kilda’s interest in 2023 to stay on a deal of up to $800,000. But rivals are already coming from the clouds for the restricted free agent, who will have to sacrifice a considerable amount of money to stay at the Blues.

De Koning has already shown his loyalty to Carlton but is not yet in a hurry to sign, with the expectation clubs will offer deals of seven seasons and up to $1.6 million a year with a total value of up $10 million.

Early bragging rights go to Tom in the battle of the De Koning's!#AFLBluesCatspic.twitter.com/Lu8sB4ikA4

— AFL (@AFL) June 21, 2024

Industry sources believe St Kilda will again throw huge money at free agents coming out of contract at the end of 2025 after missing out this year.

The Blues also have a list of players coming out of contract who all took solid deals to come to Carlton but not absolute top-dollar.

Adam Saad, George Hewett and Adam Cerra all joined the Blues on responsible deals that could see them wanting pay rises by the end of next season.

Saad is one of footy’s best small defenders but came across on about $650,000 while George Hewett (fifth in the best and fairest) crossed on a four-year free-agency deal of about $1.8 million.

Carlton is hoping to secure Adam Cerra’s future before the 2025 season.

It was reported when he arrived at Carlton that Adam Cerra agreed to a deal of less than $600,000-a-season instead of accepting the $700,000-a-year on offer to stay at the Dockers.

Carlton is on track to sign-up Cerra before round 1 and is also optimistic it will be able to secure multiple players before round next year, potentially including Hewett and Saad.

Nic Newman, second in this year’s B & F, also comes out of contract along with Mitch McGovern and Jesse Motlop.

Also out of contract are tagger Alex Cincotta, second defender Brodie Kemp and free agent Jack Silvagni.

The club has two more seasons of Zac Williams’ $900,000-per-season deal left, while McGovern was on a lucrative deal when he arrived but signed a new deal at the end of 2023.

Clubs will be able to absorb as many as five million-dollar players on their lists by 2027 in the last year of a CBA deal but Cripps, McKay, Curnow, Walsh and Weitering would all be on deal of around that size.

Chief executive Brian Cook admitted that the club did have a “top-heavy” payment structure given the collection of stars that includes All-Australians, Brownlow medallists and two Coleman medallists, but said the club was keen to retain them and go back to the draft.

Austin and chief executive-in-waiting Graham Wright will need to work through that list of priority signings in due course. But in the club’s favour is the extraordinary loyal of the playing group under coach Michael Voss, with Wright having worked through Collingwood’s tight cap when he arrived at the Pies.