Big hint over major Pies shift; all eyes on Eagles as Rd 1 selection stunner looms<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve never been huge on really long-term contracts. I think it\u2019s dangerous for clubs, great for a player,\u201d the former Roos and Cats star told Foxfooty.com.au. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think you can put yourself in a (dangerous) position, as a club, particularly with a guy who has a history (with injury). <\/p>\n
\u201cBut if you\u2019re looking at somebody you want as a one-club player, touted as a captain, super human being \u2026 great person to have around your footy club, then you want him to be there until he retires. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, this is just Carlton\u2019s way of making sure that he is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lefau banned after drink driving charge | 00:53<\/p>\n
While it was foot and hamstring issues that were the cause for missed footy last year, Walsh had corrective surgery for a bulging disc in his back at the end of the 2022 season. <\/p>\n
Recovery and subsequent setbacks cost him games at the start of the 2023 and 2024 campaigns \u2014 and it doesn\u2019t need to be reiterated how important an uninterrupted start to the year is. <\/p>\n
\u201cHow much game time are you going to get out of him? Are you going to get eight years\u2019 worth of footy from a guy whose last three years have been plagued by injury? That\u2019s the only concern,\u201d Mooney continued. <\/p>\n
\u201cHim as an individual, him as a person you\u2019d want at your football club, that\u2019s a tick and a tick. I\u2019d love Sam Walsh at my football club, the way he trains, the way he prepares, all those types of things. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut eight years, it\u2019s a lot to put on a footy club if someone\u2019s not playing as much as they should be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cats confident of Cameron round 1 return | 00:51<\/p>\n
So, if the conversation is primarily around having the right characters leading the football club over a long period of time, the Blues might simply be willing to put up with Walsh\u2019s occasional unavailability. <\/p>\n
If the star onballer plays 60, 70 per cent of the next eight years of footy, do the Blues still do the deal?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think from a footy club point of view, they\u2019ve just wanted to say \u2018we want you here for life\u2019, and we don\u2019t know from the outside looking in what influence he has on that group, but I suspect he would be a very, very good (influence),\u201d Mooney said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when teams come calling for other players, Tassie comes in, it\u2019s fantastic to have someone there at the club that the boys want to play with and stay around. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I can see it from their point of view why they\u2019d want to do that. The big question is just going to be is 60-70 per cent game time over eight years going to be enough for that contract? (What) if it\u2019s 80 per cent? <\/p>\n
\u201cI guess that\u2019s the question they asked themselves, and they believe that with everything on paper, if his body\u2019s sound and he gets a full eight years out, it\u2019s a good contract. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut history just says over the last couple of years his body hasn\u2019t been able to handle pre-season after pre-season and home-and-away games after home-and-away games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Captains gather as AFL season draws near | 05:01<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Mooney believes that if Walsh can, on average, hit the 20-game mark over the next eight years, the re-signing will prove a success for the Blues. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s all it comes down to. Do I think Sam Walsh is going to be a star for the Carlton footy club if his body stays right? 100 per cent I do, and I think he\u2019d (have a chance at being) one of their greatest ever players \u2026 from a club point of view, if he can average 20-plus games a year for the next eight years, then of course you\u2019d give him that deal, 100 per cent,\u201d Mooney said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut if he doesn\u2019t give you 20-plus games a year \u2026 I remember (two-time premiership coach) Denis Pagan always used to say \u2018you live and die by the sword\u2019, and if he can give them 20-plus games a year for eight years, then they win the deal. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf he can\u2019t, that\u2019ll put a bit of pressure on them.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday night, the Blues play the Cats in the clubs\u2019 final dress rehearsal before the home-and-away season, which for Carlton starts in Opening Round against Charlie Curnow\u2019s Swans on March 5. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blues are going to \u201clive and die by the sword\u201d with Sam Walsh\u2019s giant contract extension. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[233553,638,252580,252584,64,63,689,55,639,37351,3239,251394,1129,252585,11241,252581,252575,252582,252222,1119,667,71057,12099,13659,2105,252586,9130,3245,27723,94364,3231,6179,252576,126299,18578,647,3257,252577,252578,677,18395,39209,244612,99733,668,28008,1138,208931,252583,85,252579,1117,85776,660],"class_list":{"0":"post-502408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-aami-community-series-live","9":"tag-afl","10":"tag-agency-eligibility","11":"tag-annual-value","12":"tag-au","13":"tag-australia","14":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","15":"tag-australian-football-league","16":"tag-australianfootballleague","17":"tag-cameron-mooney","18":"tag-carlton-blues","19":"tag-cats-confident","20":"tag-charlie-curnow","21":"tag-club-point","22":"tag-contract-extension","23":"tag-corrective-surgery","24":"tag-denis-pagan","25":"tag-despite-uncertainty","26":"tag-final-dress-rehearsal","27":"tag-football-club","28":"tag-footy-club","29":"tag-game-suspension","30":"tag-game-time","31":"tag-geelong-cats","32":"tag-getty-images-inc","33":"tag-giant-contract-extension","34":"tag-gold-coast-suns","35":"tag-home-and-away-games","36":"tag-home-and-away-season","37":"tag-injury-cloud","38":"tag-jack-jovanovski","39":"tag-jack-silvagni","40":"tag-long-term-contract-bullet","41":"tag-mega-contract-extension","42":"tag-mega-deal","43":"tag-melbourne","44":"tag-michael-voss","45":"tag-million-plus-contract","46":"tag-monster-eight-year-recommitment","47":"tag-oceania","48":"tag-one-club-player","49":"tag-patrick-dangerfield","50":"tag-pre-season-match-sims","51":"tag-premiership-drought","52":"tag-press-conference","53":"tag-quinn-rooney","54":"tag-sam-walsh","55":"tag-selection-stunner","56":"tag-series-blowtorch","57":"tag-sports","58":"tag-three-time-premiership-spearhead","59":"tag-tom-de-koning","60":"tag-two-time-premiership-coach","61":"tag-victoria"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502408","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=502408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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