Why St Kilda’s $1.5m per year Weitering offer is the “minimum” to get star Blue to consider leaving

Former GWS captain Phil Davis isn’t shocked by the reported contract tabled to Carlton’s Jacob Weitering by St Kilda.

According to The Age, the Saints informally put an offer of $12 million over eight years to the star Blue, equating to $1.5 million a season.

Davis thinks that the importance of key defenders is being recognised by clubs and puts Weitering amongst the backs that could earn top dollar up alongside GWS’ Sam Taylor.

“We (the key defenders union) are very much going through a nice little period at the moment,” Davis told SEN Mornings.

“It's funny because there is actually a real lull at the moment of key backs, there's probably 12 good ones and some very good ones, but we're probably not as deep as we once were.

“Taylor and Weitering are doing both parts of the game incredibly well and so is Steven May, but he’s just a bit older.

“They're defending and winning the ball back. That's as vital as it's ever been.”

Davis thinks that the $1.5 million offer sounds right and even puts it as the minimum that clubs will have to offer to get a player of his calibre to move, particularly with the current Collective Bargaining Agreement ending in 2027.

“I would have thought St Kilda's offer for eight years, $12 million sounds about right to me,” Davis said.

“I think we've all got to remember where the salary cap is going in 2027 and the CBA, they’ll renegotiate for 2028.

“Listening to what's happening over in America and the NBA, you would think that the TV rights deal is going to go up again.

“There's a bit of that going on as well and the teams are trying to predict.

“But $1.5 million will sort of be the minimum number you’d have to offer Sam Taylor and Jacob Weitering to get them out of their clubs, I would have thought.”

The report also suggested that Weitering was unlikely to move despite the monster offer.