according to CODE Sports reporter Jon Ralph<\/a>, as a host of rival clubs attempt to lure him away from the Suns, who are \u201cdetermined\u201d to retain Walter. They\u2019ve put forward a \u201ccontract offer in excess of $750,000 a season\u201d.<\/p>\nJed Walter and Bailey Humphrey. Picture: Chris Hyde\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Ralph also reported Essendon, Carlton, Collingwood, Geelong and Adelaide had all shown interest in Walter, who was taken at Pick 3 in the 2023 draft.<\/p>\n
Hardwick said Walter \u2013 who\u2019s kicked 12 goals from six games so far this season, including consecutive hauls of three goals in his past two matches \u2013 had taken \u201cenormous strides\u201d in recent weeks and was \u201cstarting to look like a No.1 key forward, which we knew he would be\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things with Jed, there was always going to be one step back to go two steps forward \u2013 and now we\u2019re starting to see the player that we feel we\u2019ve always known,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be very, very frustrating as a player and we understand that. Obviously from opportunity, all the kid wants to do is play AFL senior footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe personally think the best place for Jed to be is up here. You look at our temperature today, beautiful. You know what it\u2019s like in Melbourne? Sh**house.<\/p>\n
\u201cStay here, Jed!\u201d<\/p>\n
The Suns on Saturday will look to atone for their horror second-half fadeout against North Melbourne when they face Brisbane at People First Stadium in the 31st Q-Clash.<\/p>\n
Despite the Lions\u2019 mid-season dip \u2013 they\u2019ve lost their past three straight games \u2013 Hardwick said his club wouldn\u2019t be underestimating their cross-town rivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is we\u2019re against a very, very good opponent that\u2019s won the last two premiership flags,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople sort of look at them on the decline, talk about it and all this sort of stuff. But we analyse the game to an inch of its death \u2013 and I reckon if you took the scoreboard out of it, I reckon Chris Fagan would be reasonably happy with what that game looked like.<\/p>\n
Jai Murray will make his AFL debut. Picture: Chris Hyde\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cWhilst people will say that they might be a football club on their knees, we as the coaching staff of the Gold Coast Suns know what a formidable opponent we\u2019re coming up against.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a very, very well-coached, well-drilled side \u2026 They\u2019ve got a couple of injuries obviously, but the fact of the matter is they\u2019re still going to be a really, really tough side to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hardwick said Will Graham would be available for selection and confirmed 2025 draftee Jai Murray \u2013 one of five Suns academy graduates from last year\u2019s draft class \u2013 would make his debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been one of these players that we\u2019ve been impressed with for a number of years. He\u2019s had some adversity through injury,\u201d Hardwick said of Murray.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came in as an under-ager, did a bit of a pre-season with us. We could see you could play the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a Lisfranc fracture \u2026 but he was in here every day of injury period, doing extras, watching tape and all that sort of stuff. You could see straight away this is a self-driven kid that wants to play footy for the Gold Coast Suns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re pumped to give him the opportunity and we can\u2019t wait to watch him play as a coaching staff, as a fanbase \u2013 and his teammates are very, very excited as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick has declared two of his contracted Suns stars will \u201cnot (be) going anywhere…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[167190,638,64,63,689,55,639,11295,3423,346839,52629,3237,3244,9124,346840,234183,19061,35347,12015,322119,14385,1119,2105,28450,2485,346844,9130,7492,346841,3470,12110,681,15631,647,677,81372,346843,701,2528,85,344832,11236,1133,346842,339759,660],"class_list":["post-714152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-academy-graduates","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-king","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-bold-trade-promise","tag-bounce-back","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-chris-fagan","tag-chris-hyde","tag-clubs-attempt","tag-clubs-looking","tag-coaching-staff","tag-conference-video","tag-contract-offer","tag-contracted-players","tag-damien-hardwick","tag-football-club","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-glenn-mcfarlane","tag-gold-coast","tag-gold-coast-coach","tag-gold-coast-suns","tag-hawthorn-hawks","tag-injury-period","tag-jai-murray","tag-joel-jeffrey","tag-jon-ralph","tag-lauren-wood","tag-melbourne","tag-oceania","tag-pay-rise","tag-premiership-flags","tag-queensland","tag-rival-clubs","tag-sports","tag-suns-brace","tag-trade-news","tag-trade-period","tag-trade-reports-focusing","tag-trade-verdict","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714152","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=714152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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