Footy podcast 2023: Clubs need multiple extended contracts to plan future list strategy

Locking players away on long term deals is not without risk, but, as Jon Ralph tells the Footy Podcast, the certainty gives clubs the ability to plan their future list moves.

Sydney's Nick Blakey breaks out of defence during the Marn Grook match between the Sydney Swans and Carlton Blues for the AFL Sir Doug Nicholls Round on May 26, 2023. Photo by Phil Hillyard (Image Supplied for Editorial Use only – **NO ON SALES** – ©Phil Hillyard )

Clubs are looking at three to four long term contracts to help them plan for other moves on their list, News Corp journalist Jon Ralph says.

Sydney have locked away dashing defender Nick Blakey until 2031, the longest deal in the AFL, after he signed a seven-year contract with the Swans.

The merits of signing players to long term contracts has been debated at length in the AFL, but on the Footy Podcast, Ralph said it was a deal the Swans were very comfortable doing.

Nick Blakey now holds the AFL’s longest contract. Photo by Phil Hillyard

“Is there a risk? Of course there is but the reason why Sydney would do that deal is that he is 23 he is not a free agent coming out of 27 and he gives them massive stability of long term deals,” he said.

“So for (Isaac) Heeney and (Callum) Mills they know how much they can allocate to those deals and the salary cap is going to go up, it might go up twice over the lifetime of that contract.

“Let’s say he is on $650,000 for 2025, the CBA might go 10 per cent next year, all of a sudden it goes to $720,000 then three per cent, three per cent, three per cent and pretty quickly they are paying him the equivalent of $800,000.

“But if the maximum they pay him over the contract is $800,000 that is scandalously cheap. The alternative is for him to sign a two year deal to take him to free agency and then he signs a deal worth $900,000 a year because that will be the market price.

“Either way you cut it even though the CBA goes up a couple of times it is a bargain for Sydney and gives him all the stability he wants and allows them to plan around all the other signings they want.

“Having those significant pieces of their list locked away it gives them more clarity about how much they can throw at others, when Heeney comes out again, when Ollie Florent and when Tom McCartin and others on their list come out.

“You don’t want lots of your list on those long term deals but it does give you some clarity if four or five are on those deals.”

Also on this week’s Podcast Ralph talks about who the Swans could look at once Lance Franklin calls time on his career, while Sam Landsberger discusses the impact the crackdown on dangerous tackles is having on the Brownlow Medal race.