Collingwood remains confident it can keep Brodie Grundy, who Leigh Matthews believes should be the highest paid player in the game
While rival clubs prepare monster offices for Brodie Grundy, Collingwood remains confident he will stay. But with Leigh Matthews believing the star ruckman should be the highest paid player in the game, the Magpies will have to pay up.
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Collingwood CEO Mark Anderson believes the club’s fun factor will play a key role in keeping Brodie Grundy in the black-and-white stripes beyond next year.
Anderson said the Magpies had the salary cap space to retain the star ruckman and a number of teammates who were coming out of contract.
Grundy becomes a free agent at the end of 2020 and has admitted there is a lure of returning home to Adelaide.
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He would attract offers of more than $1 million a season for seven years by rivals.
Further complicating the matter is that 16 players on the Magpies list are coming out of contract this year, followed next year by stars such as Grundy, Jordan De Goey, Darcy Moore and veteran Scott Pendlebury.
But Anderson is bullish about Collingwood’s ability to keep the list together.
“We are in pretty good shape (cap-wise), he said.
“Clearly we plan not just year on year, we are planning for the mid and long-term future and Ned Guy has done a lot of great work with the whole list management committee.
“We have got a great group of players and talent and they are playing great footy but they are having a lot of fun as well and having a great time.
“As a collective it’s working well, but we want to retain our talent and Brodie, stating the bleeding obvious, is a key part of that.
“The beauty with some of our key players is they are under contract until 2020 so we don’t need to rush that but we are very mindful of making sure we get the balance right.
“Pay what we should to our talent but we have got the whole group to consider as well.”
WHY GRUNDY IS A MODERN-DAY MASTER
Dean Cox will be in Sydney’s coaching box rather than the centre square on Friday night, but Brodie Grundy will still be taking on the ruck great’s legacy.
Grundy is in touching distance of averaging the most disposals per game of any ruckman in the past 25 years.
Fresh from a 24-possession, 49-hitout performance against St Kilda on Saturday, Grundy is averaging 21.4 possessions a game as he and Max Gawn push for back-to-back All Australian ruck slots.
Not only is his ruck work solid, he is mixing those numbers with eight games in a row over 100 ranking points and elite numbers in possessions, clearances and contested possessions.
Remarkably, Geelong’s Polly Farmer amassed 509 possessions in 1967 at an average of 24 possessions a year.
Jimmy Stynes reached new highs in 1991 with his 614-possession, 15-goal season in 1991 — but averaged just over 10 hit-outs a season that year.
Since Champion Data started keeping the statistic in 2003, only Stef Martin and West Coast’s Cox have averaged more possessions per game.
Lions ruckman Martin averaged 22.5 possessions in 2014, ahead of Cox in 2008 (22.1 disposals), Cox in 2009 (21.8) and Martin again in 2015 (21.6).
Grundy would need to go on to average less than a possession more than his current rate to overhaul Martin’s modern-day best.
Hawthorn great Leigh Matthews said last week Grundy was becoming the league’s most valuable player.
“I’ve never before thought of a ruckman as possibly the most valuable player in the sport,” he said.
“He gets plenty of the ball — he had 25 disposals last week — apart from the hit-out part of the equation, and taking marks and the second efforts at ground level. He should just about be now the most valuable player, the most highly paid player in the game because, at 25, that’s about the age most ruckmen start being at their best.
“So he should have a terrific next five, six, seven years.”
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Grundy has helped Collingwood retain its dominance, but Gawn’s season has been just as impressive despite Melbourne’s struggles.
Lachie Neale leads the competition averaging 132 ranking points ahead of Patrick Cripps (127 points), with Grundy third (126) and Gawn fourth (122).
No wonder Adelaide would be prepared to make him their $8 million man for a player only just entering his peak.
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