David King believes Jake Stringer is worth $700,000 a season as the club continues contract negotiations.
Stringer was best afield against Hawthorn in Launceston on Sunday, collecting 29 touches and booting four goals in Essendon’s 13-point win.
The 27-year-old remains out of contract and King said Stringer’s match-winning traits means he’s easily worth a sizeable sum, even if he’s not as consistent as some would like.
“Players like (Jake Stringer) win you games of football,” he said on SEN’s Whateley.
“They don’t perform every week because it’s impossible to play like that every week. The discussion about him being inconsistent, you can’t be consistently like that and we’ve never seen a player like that.
“They don’t win that game without him, and he probably does that three times a year, so the question is what’s that worth to you. When he lights up like that, everything else work.
“He’s Dustin Martin for the Bombers at the moment, Essendon sets the game up for Jake to be his best in all of his strength areas and then he tries to deliver for them.
“When he does, it works big and when it fails, it doesn’t really fail big. I do think he’s a $700,000 a year player, because he’s going to individually win you three games a year and to me that has a worth.
“He may take less to stay and for a longer contract and all of those things are factored in, but what is a win worth? When you work out the investment week in, week out in footy, I think you arrive at the same point.”
Essendon faces a daunting fortnight, with matches against Melbourne at the MCG and Geelong at GMHBA Stadium to come.