{"id":77350,"date":"2025-08-18T11:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T11:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/77350\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T11:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T11:58:07","slug":"nasiah-wanganeen-milera-and-tom-de-koning-salaries-20-per-cent-of-st-kilda-saints-combined-salary-in-2026-on-the-couch-afl-360-reactions-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/77350\/","title":{"rendered":"Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera and Tom De Koning salaries, 20 per cent of St Kilda Saints combined salary in 2026, On The Couch, AFL 360, reactions, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

St Kilda\u2019s list management \u2014 as well as an entire fan base \u2014 has today breathed a huge sigh of relief, as the \u201cseismic\u201d signing of Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera<\/a> gives the club a new-found sense of hope after a mediocre season on-field.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old superstar\u2019s new contract at Moorabbin is worth $2 million a year across two seasons, and now allows the Saints to reset their focus on securing Carlton rival Tom De Koning and other players of their own still out of contract.<\/p>\n

Should De Koning head to Moorabbin at season\u2019s end, as is widely expected, it will leave the Saints with an eye-watering 20% of their salary cap tied up alongside only two players, as explained by Fox Footy reporter Jon Ralph to On The Couch.<\/p>\n

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\u201cA seismic day in the AFL landscape … $2m a season over the next two years until the end of 2027,\u201d Ralph said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as he decided he loved Ross Lyon and the potential flag window ahead, he told his manager today: \u2018I just couldn\u2019t leave my teammates, I couldn\u2019t depart them.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only will St Kilda have the highest-paid player in the game next year (but) they\u2019ll have the second-highest in Tom De Koning on an estimate of about $1.8m (per year).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be right on 20% of the salary cap, which will be $18.3m \u2014 so that\u2019s 50% on top of the highest-average salary this year for players like Christian Petracca. It is extraordinary money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saints re-sign star Wanganeen-Milera | 02:54<\/p>\n

Wanganeen-Milera\u2019s decision to stay put at St Kilda comes after almost an entire home-and-away season of speculation as to whether he would depart his club of four years in favour of monumental interest from Adelaide and Port Adelaide in his home state of South Australia.<\/p>\n

It comes after foxfooty.com.au\u2019s Will Faulkner reported<\/a> that only days before his eventual commitment to the Saints, the livewire was leaning towards an exit to Adelaide, however had not come to a conclusive decision.<\/p>\n

Reports from multiple outlets on Monday evening have since reiterated that Wanganeen-Milera came to a formal decision on his future the same morning his re-signing was announced by the club.<\/p>\n

Four-time premiership Hawk Jordan Lewis added to Ralph\u2019s commentary by noting that he sees the midfielder\u2019s signing as a \u201cpositive\u201d, but that the Saints were in a tough position, regardless of the outcome. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Because if he goes, you lose hope in the immediate future,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there has to come a period where \u2018at what cost\u2019 (is asked). We keep talking about premiership teams, teams that have been able to stay together for a long period of time \u2014 these aren\u2019t necessarily the signing that happen, they just aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

HIGHEST PLAYER SALARIES FOR THE 2026 SEASON<\/p>\n

Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera \u2014 $2m<\/p>\n

Tom De Koning (if at St Kilda) \u2014 $1.8m<\/p>\n

Chad Warner \u2014 $1.4m<\/p>\n

Marcus Bontempelli \u2014 $1.35m<\/p>\n

Christian Petracca \u2014 $1.3-1.4m<\/p>\n

Matt Rowell \u2014 $1.25m<\/p>\n

St Kilda\u2019s attention can now divert also to GWS defender Leek Aleer, who has also been heavily linked to the Saints on a notable price tag. <\/p>\n

Melbourne great Garry Lyon briefly spoke to the club\u2019s salary cap on AFL 360, and on face value, believes that the sheer percentage of money shared between Wanganeen-Milera and \u2018TDK\u2019 may not be entirely unprecedented.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTo be perfectly honest, I\u2019ve never dived into it \u2014 but I would imagine it\u2019s been done before,\u201d Lyon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSay you\u2019ve got a $10m salary cap, which it was not so long ago, that\u2019s $2m out of $10m … I think \u2018Gubby\u2019 (Graeme Allan) and \u2018SOS\u2019 would say: \u2018Let\u2019s get this thing done, and then we\u2019ll sort the back-end out.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll that matters is that you got it together. Windhager, the roommate stays hopefully, Callum Wilkie (has) committed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Kilda\u2019s list management \u2014 as well as an entire fan base \u2014 has today breathed a huge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63,689,19120,59293,16680,59291,59292,1127,10145,2105,17976,43,59297,27723,681,24309,12157,59289,7804,59294,59295,44,59296,677,6082,59288,3247,59290,7889,1124,1122,26889,41,39,42,40,660],"class_list":["post-77350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-christian-petracca","tag-extraordinary-money","tag-face-value","tag-flag-window","tag-formal-decision","tag-fox-footy","tag-garry-lyon","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-hawk-jordan-lewis","tag-headlines","tag-highest-average-salary","tag-home-and-away-season","tag-jon-ralph","tag-list-management","tag-matt-rowell","tag-mediocre-season-on-field","tag-melbourne-demons","tag-multiple-outlets","tag-nas-amp-tdk","tag-news","tag-notable-price-tag","tag-oceania","tag-port-adelaide","tag-premiership-teams","tag-robert-cianflone","tag-roommate-stays","tag-salary-cap","tag-south-australia","tag-st-kilda","tag-st-kilda-saints","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77350","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=77350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}