Kane Cornes has thrown his support behind Essendon’s reported stance on Darcy Parish’s contract negotiations.
SEN’s Tom Morris revealed that the club and player remain significantly apart on key details of the negotiation as Parish enters restricted free agency this off-season.
Morris says that Parish wants a six-year deal, while the Bombers have only offered five. He also added that there is a $50-100,000 gap per year on what player and club want, while Essendon is also refusing to pass on any uplift in the next Collective Bargaining Agreement to signed contracts.
Cornes says he’d let Parish walk if he really wanted to depart for an extra year on slightly more money, and added that he hopes this would be a line in the sand for clubs taking some power back in contract talks.
“The opinion in me absolutely loves what Essendon have done here,” Cornes said on SEN Sportsday.
“Far too often clubs roll over and they add the ridiculous six or the seventh year as we've seen at Richmond. How dumb is it of Richmond to offer (Jacob) Hopper and (Tim) Taranto seven (year deals)?
“It just blows me away that clubs would go that far.
“I wonder if this is a line-in-the-sand moment for clubs to take some of the power back.
“If he's going to leave for an extra $50,000 (a year) and one extra year (on the length of his deal)… you pay tax on that $50,000, he's going to leave for $25,000 a year (in his pocket) and one extra season.
“If he wants to do that, then see you later.”
While Cornes considers the 2021 All-Australian a ‘nice’ player, he feels Essendon could use money freed up by Parish to target needs in other areas of the ground.
“He's a really nice player and I use that word nice, that’s what he looks like to me,” Cornes said.
“What I think Essendon need is some mongrel, some players that aren't nice and they need some competitors.
“I could pluck one player to put in Essendon line up it’d be Mitch Owens.
“Give me a competitor forward of the ball who wins contests, give me Isaac Heeney. He is actually willing to win a contest in the front half of the ground.
“They've got enough midfielders. (Ben) Hobbs is coming through and (Jye) Caldwell’s there and (Zach) Merrett does his thing and gets 30 nice possessions a week.”
One AFL list manager told Morris that he feels Parish is worth $750-800,000 per season.
If the 26-year-old were to depart on that kind of money, Essendon would receive a compensation pick immediately after their first-round selection this draft (currently pick 9).
Cornes feels the carrot of a selection towards the end of the top 10 leaves Essendon in a good place in terms of negotiations.
“I think they can afford to offer him a reasonable deal, which it sounds to me has been very reasonable,” Cornes said.
“Five years… it’s big money. He's had a significant soft tissue injury this year already.
“If he's not going to sign for that, let him go.
“Get a good draft pick and then turn that into a competitor in the front half of the ground or - and I know there's not a lot of them around - a key position defender or a forward.
“I just think Essendon is in a pretty good position and I wouldn't be going any higher than what you're telling me the offer is.”
According to Morris, many of the AFL’s best players have a clause in their contract that entitles them to a percentage pay rise coinciding with CBA uplift.
Geelong has previously shown interest in the former no. 5 draft pick and Morris believes more clubs will look at Parish the further talks drag on.