Hawthorn champion Jordan Lewis does not believe GWS can return to being a contending side if Josh Kelly takes the eye-watering contract agreed to a few years ago.
Back in 2019, Kelly signed a two-year deal to remain with the Giants, a contract that had a trigger for a further eight seasons.
The 26-year-old had a down year in 2020 and has not been the high disposal winner of previous years in 2021, but still has the power to sign the mammoth deal, as Sam Edmund explained.
“Josh Kelly is in a very unique situation. That trigger he’s put in his contract, similar to Andrew Gaff at West Coast, they’re committed to paying him a contract worth close to $8 million over eight seasons,” Edmund told SEN Breakfast.
“It was obviously agreed to pre-pandemic. If he leaves he’s clearly not going to command that sort of money, but it’s about weighing up whether he wants to stay.”
Lewis believes that contract would be a ball and chain that would restrict the Giants until the end of 2029 when it expires.
“If he stays and he signs for that money, GWS cannot be a threat,” Lewis said.
“They just can’t. We see it too many times when you pay one player far and above what they can afford to do in terms of spreading the money elsewhere.
“He’s certainly not as valuable at other sides. I think his form has significantly dropped off.
“If he was to stay I think they would have to renegotiate that contract to try and get him to take less money, which is impossible.”
David King cannot see a world where Kelly turns down the money and contract security, however.
“Has his form dropped off? He was pretty significant two weeks ago against Sydney,” King said.
“If you’re talking $8 million over eight years, I don’t know what that player needs to deliver. It’s tough isn’t it.
“You couldn’t walk away from that contract though. How do you walk away from that? It’s a business at the end.
“How many players in the AFL system would walk from that money?”
Kelly will be nearly 35 when the contract expires in 2029.
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