Luke Hodge believes Jacob Weitering should stick with Carlton and turn down the reported monster offer from St Kilda.
The Age reported on Tuesday night that the Saints are willing to offer the key defender $12 million over eight years.
Weitering comes out of contract at the end of 2025, with the unrestricted free agent likely to remain at the Blues.
Hodge says Carlton’s leaders will come together to ensure the star pillar remains, particularly given all the hardship they’ve been through to get to this point.
“If I’m Patrick Cripps, I’m sitting here going ‘is someone going to get paid more than me even if I’m the number one player in the club? Well, I’ve played a long time and earned a lot of money, this is a key pillar of the club and I want to have premiership success’,” Hodge told SEN’s Whateley.
“I know exactly what Patrick Cripps would say – he’s there to win a premiership. He’s done everything you could as a player. He wants a premiership.
“If they lose Weitering, that is a massive hole. We’ve already spoken about how at times their defence can be unstable. He is the pillar down there. They will not let him go.
“You look after the teams that could offer him that money, St Kilda, North Melbourne, West Coast, Hawthorn and Adelaide, but if I was Weitering I would be taking a little bit less, he’s still going to be on $1 million a year if not more, but I’d be sticking with that group given the last 18 months.
“The first 10 years of his career they were so down, they’ve finally got something going. I wouldn’t be giving up on it for a bit of extra money.”
Hodge also ranked Carlton’s five stars from most to least important to their success:
1. Patrick Cripps
2. Charlie Curnow
3. Jacob Weitering
4. Sam Walsh
5. Harry McKay