CARLTON has made a seven-year offer to keep Tom De Koning, as the Blues free agent prepares to make the biggest decision of his career.
AFL.com.au can reveal the Blues have tabled the seven-year offer to De Koning, that would run through to the end of 2032, as they attempt to ward off rivals.
The deal would be one of the richest in Carlton's history if the exciting ruckman/forward was to accept it, as he attracts significant interest from St Kilda.
The offer from the Blues is expected to worth between $7-8million, with St Kilda willing to offer a more lucrative deal of upwards of $1.5 million a season.
Only six players in the competition are signed through to 2032 or longer, with Sam Taylor (Greater Western Sydney), Connor Rozee (Port Adelaide), Noah Balta (Richmond), Max King (St Kilda) and Aaron Naughton (Western Bulldogs) penning deals to the end of that season and Fremantle's Hayden Young signed to the end of 2033.
North Melbourne has also tabled a seven-year offer to its in-demand free agent, Luke Davies-Uniacke, as revealed by AFL.com.au last month.
The Blues have signed their key players to similar length deals, with Harry McKay (seven years), Charlie Curnow, Patrick Cripps and Jacob Weitering (all six years) extending on long-term contracts in their most recent deal.
The Saints, Geelong and Sydney were among the clubs keen to lure De Koning in 2023, when he was last out of contract, before the talented big man re-signed for two years to get through to free agency.
De Koning will qualify as a restricted free agent once the AFL releases its restricted and unrestricted bandings to clubs in coming weeks. He has played 78 games for the club since being drafted in 2017.
With the Blues' offer on the table, De Koning faces a call between his loyalty to the Blues and a financial sacrifice given the weight of deals being thrown his way.
Carlton coach Michael Voss last week told AFL.com.au he was confident De Koning would resist overtures to remain at the club.
"I am (confident)," Voss said.
"What our job is to do is to provide the best environment we possibly can for any player. You back it in. What I've seen, particularly over the last 12 months, is that Tom has really come on as a player.
"Before that – and I've had these conversations with him – he was pretty inconsistent. He was good sometimes and not good at others. He's been able to build that durability that you need, that resilience to be able to play ruck. It's not as simple as being able to roll out there week after week and be involved in 90 contests. He's been able to develop that over a period of time.
"But when you can look at a player and they look happy and they like where they are, I reckon it tells you a lot. He looks like that. He looks like a player playing with great energy, he looks like he's playing really free.
"When the time comes where we need to have that conversation, we'll have it. But I've been really impressed with his pre-season. He's doubled down on a lot of areas he needed to work on in his game and he's raring to go."
