{"id":814555,"date":"2026-07-21T14:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/814555\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T14:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:51:15","slug":"afl-news-2026-finn-osullivan-rejects-tasmania-devils-north-melbourne-kangaroos-contract-steven-king-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/814555\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL news 2026 | Finn O\u2019Sullivan rejects Tasmania Devils; North Melbourne Kangaroos contract; Steven King comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ken Hinkley<\/a> is only days into his job as Tasmania<\/a> coach but has already copped a blow with North Melbourne<\/a>\u2019s Finn O\u2019Sullivan knocking back a monster offer. <\/p>\n

AFL.com.au\u2019s Cal Twomey reported on Nine\u2019s Footy Classified that O\u2019Sullivan will re-sign with the Kangaroos for two years despite a $15 million eight-year offer from the Devils. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Finn O\u2019Sullivan.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old is only 36 matches into his career after being selected at pick two in the 2024 draft. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe hasn\u2019t been interested in it (the Tasmania deal) and hasn\u2019t even been interested in meeting with the Devils,\u201d Twomey said of O\u2019Sullivan. <\/p>\n

Tigers young gun and 2024 No.1 pick Sam Lalor was reportedly offered a similar deal. <\/p>\n

The Devils will enter the AFL in 2028 with players able to commit but not officially sign until their current contracts are over. <\/p>\n

Melbourne Demons coach Steven King was on Footy Classified and admitted despite O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s decision, the industry is prepared for raids from the new franchise. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a list point of view we\u2019re looking strategically at locking away young talent,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re ensuring even in this draft, the last of the uncompromised drafts, that we have a few picks in there as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re all resigned to the fact of losing one or two good people, whether that\u2019s a player or staff, to Tassie, and unfortunately we probably won\u2019t be able to compete financially with some of the offers that will get thrown around.\u201d<\/p>\n

The offer to O\u2019Sullivan continues a trend of long-term big-money contracts being thrown around to players in the AFL and King predicts there\u2019ll be more \u201ceye-watering\u201d deals in the future. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think as a senior coach when you hear some of the offers young men are getting to play this game, it\u2019s a credit to them and the industry we work in with how good they are and the product we produce,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s certainly going to be a lot of eye-watering offers out there, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Melbourne coach Steven King during a quarter break of the Demons\u2019 clash with the Crows in Adelaide.\u00a0AFL Photos<\/p>\n

It was also revealed on Footy Classified that Nigel Lappin is on the radar for the Devils in an assistant coach role. <\/p>\n

Lappin and King previously worked together at Geelong, and the latter was full of praise for the in-demand assistant. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a genuine person, teaches the game really well and I think he\u2019s experienced every role in footy around coaching and development. He comes from a very good environment and has links with Kenny,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he may or may not have a place down in Tassie he frequents a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ken Hinkley is only days into his job as Tasmania coach but has already copped a blow with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-814555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814555","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=814555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}