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\u201cThe Gold Coast Suns have officially shown Jed Walter the money. They have offered him a deal around $5 million across five years, in the last 48 hours,\u201d Ralph said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is in direct response to the fact that there is uncertainty around Ben King, and the massive interest in Walter himself from Victorian clubs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a deal of around two years, $750,000 (a year) on the table \u2014 they have recently upped that one. <\/p>\n
\u201cThose (other) clubs like Collingwood are prepared to offer him as much as $1.1 million, the other clubs were Essendon, who just met him, Carlton and Adelaide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ralph added on social media the Pies were \u201cvery keen\u201d on Walter and held interest in his teammate Charlie Ballard, who has been squeezed out of the Suns\u2019 back six.<\/p>\n
The update comes at a fascinating point in the free agency timeline of King, who has long been reported as all but signed on under head coach Damien Hardwick until the end of 2028.<\/p>\n
‘Sh******! Stay here Jed!’ | 00:47<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old, who hails from Melbourne alongside his long-term partner, has had interest from Collingwood, Geelong and more recently, Hawthorn in the instance he did depart Carrara.<\/p>\n
With a mid-season bye in Round 12, the Suns were hopeful of removing all doubt over King\u2019s future during the mini-break. But as Ralph reports, they are now officially \u201cworried\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBen King had told the club, his management and family: \u2018I am prepared to stay\u2019 on a two-year deal around $2.6 million \u2014 he just wasn\u2019t prepared to sign the paperwork,\u201d Ralph said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat deal has lingered, and now that we are through the bye, Gold Coast is officially worried.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis partner has been with him on the coast for some years, they\u2019ve been relatively happy as a couple (there). She\u2019s been working in various capacities and is now studying on the Gold Coast. But certainly, she has shown some willingness to potentially move.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means that the fifth two-year deal that he would\u2019ve signed is in jeopardy right now. <\/p>\n
Dons’ secret meeting revealed | 01:12<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Suns must sign at least one of Walter or Ben King, or they\u2019re back to the bad old days where they lost their co-captains in Steven May and Tom Lynch at the end of 2018 \u2014 that ripped the heart of his football club out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walter has played 37 matches at the top level since the start of the 2024 season, and has kicked 43 goals alongside the likes of fellow key forwards King, Ethan Read and Jamarra Ugle-Hagan \u2014 as well as Jack Lukosius briefly before his move to Port Adelaide.<\/p>\n
In response to Ralph\u2019s report, three-time Richmond premiership player Jack Riewoldt was astounded at the Suns\u2019 new offer for the 21-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201c$5 million for five years, that\u2019s massive overs \u2014 I nearly did (fall off my chair)!\u201d Riewoldt said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives me the sense that maybe they\u2019ve given up on Ben King \u2026why would you up your offer from two years at $750k, to five years and $5 million. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s an astronomical figure, for a player who is yet to prove to us that he can play key forward at the level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four-time Hawthorn flag winner Jordan Lewis added: \u201cThey\u2019re (key forwards) hard to get, I understand that. He\u2019s a great athlete \u2026 you can\u2019t lose them both.\u201d<\/p>\n
Should King depart the Suns it\u2019s likely to have major flow-on effects for the rest of the trade market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gold Coast has launched a stunning bid to secure its long-term future in attack, significantly upping its offer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,350304,64,63,689,55,639,11295,696,350305,14385,51851,2485,9130,1823,19125,681,19080,647,677,6082,8016,701,55885,1124,85,8018,350302,12120,350303,11236,36719,660,29646],"class_list":["post-723090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-agency-mayhem","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-king","tag-brad-scott","tag-contract-young-guns","tag-damien-hardwick","tag-flag-winner","tag-gold-coast","tag-gold-coast-suns","tag-jack-riewoldt","tag-jay-clark","tag-jon-ralph","tag-jordan-lewis","tag-melbourne","tag-oceania","tag-port-adelaide","tag-premiership-player","tag-queensland","tag-secret-meeting","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-steven-may","tag-stunning-bid","tag-tom-lynch","tag-top-three-draft-pick","tag-trade-news","tag-two-year-deal","tag-victoria","tag-young-stars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723090","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=723090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}