been revealed<\/a> that King was one of 58 players to earn $1 million-plus last year with his front-ended contract. <\/p>\nThe Saints host Collingwood in Round 1 at the MCG on March 8. <\/p>\n
Smith loses license in latest drama | 00:25<\/p>\n
\u2018INTERESTING\u2019 DETAIL IN SHOCK MERRETT TALKS<\/p>\n
Shock talks over a Zach Merrett Essendon extension began in December, and after ramping up in February, the Dons are \u201cnow in considerations\u201d over what a new deal could look like. <\/p>\n
AFL Media\u2019s Cal Twomey reported late last week that Merrett was \u201copen\u201d to signing a new Bombers deal despite his previous discontent with the club. <\/p>\n
The star midfielder\u2019s current deal – a six-year contract – runs through the 2027 season, and despite seeking an exit last October, he clearly hasn\u2019t ruled out remaining a Bomber long term. <\/p>\n
Merrett changed managers after his move to Hawthorn fell flat on trade deadline day, leaving Tom Petroro to link back up with Nick Gieschen. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s preliminary talks that have gone on between (Essendon and Merrett\u2019s camp) – and this is the interesting point – these preliminary talks actually started in December, and then again as recently as this month,\u201d Twomey told SEN Breakfast on Monday. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd across that period, pre-Christmas and post-Christmas, he\u2019s had two different management groups. He made that management switch back to his original manager, Nick Gieschen, in January. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a reasonable starting point that there\u2019s an interest to see what Essendon would be willing to do, and Essendon\u2019s now in considerations about what that potential contract extension could look like. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s still many steps to go before he signs on and is a Bomber for life, but it\u2019s certainly a starting point in terms of being able to assimilate back into the footy club.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the most durable and consistent high-performers in the competition, five-time Crichton medallist Merrett averaged 27.8 disposals across 22 games last year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A star Saint\u2019s long-awaited return has been delayed once more. Plus, the \u201cinteresting\u201d detail in Zach Merrett\u2019s reported…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,11241,33069,667,19972,239012,239013,224060,217704,151619,239011,42262,3502,26508,677,232595,239014,33195,239015,85,1122,127055,92572,660],"class_list":["post-467456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-contract-extension","tag-deadline-day","tag-footy-club","tag-injury-update","tag-interesting-detail","tag-interesting-point","tag-knee-troubles","tag-lenny-hayes","tag-long-awaited-return","tag-low-grade-calf-injury","tag-management-groups","tag-max-king","tag-nick-gieschen","tag-oceania","tag-preliminary-talks","tag-reasonable-starting-point","tag-season-opener","tag-spearhead-goalkicker","tag-sports","tag-st-kilda","tag-starting-point","tag-tom-petroro","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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