No more Ben King ….

[Saintmatt]

… re-signed at Gold Coast as per SEN …

[The_Dud]

Good. Would have been a bad move for us.

There will be a lot of egg on the faces of the many who basically said him coming to us was a done deal.

[Ghost Like]

If we build it he will come. RFA or FA was always going to be the time. I wish him a strong recovery and the best of luck and good health for the remaining years of his apprenticeship up North.

[Impatient Sainter]

I feel Ben will stay up there for some time now, perhaps until he is a free agent similiar to Lynch.

It would have been nice to get him to the Saints but our midfield is a more immediate need. Its time to target a potential A grade midfielder eg Taranto, Bailey Smith, Dunkley, Rowell, Anderson or similiar.

[IluvHarvey]

Thank God!
We now all can move on and stop dealing with "what ifs" and people who claim they are in the know.
Would have been great to get him but we didn't. Let's concentrate on the group we have this year.

[MC Gusto]

Excellent, now we target the likes of Anderson or similar. Need A class kids!

[saynta]

Was never a chance IMHO.

[CQ SAINT]

Please don't recruit ANY more injured players.

[Gershwin]

Good result for us.

Two year contract at GC. Recovers from his injury this year and finds some form and fitness next year. He just won’t sign with them for an extended period will he?

[Vortex]

Good result for us.

Two year contract at GC. Recovers from his injury this year and finds some form and fitness next year. He just won’t sign with them for an extended period will he?

Was never coming to us, a point we'll known but for some reason the fan forums perpetuated the myth.

There's a big chance he will become a premiership player at the GC, dare I say it, a bigger chance than at our club so don't expect he'll be looking to leave anytime soon.

[Sanctorum]

Good result for us.

Two year contract at GC. Recovers from his injury this year and finds some form and fitness next year. He just won’t sign with them for an extended period will he?

Good point Gershwin, signing on for just 2 more years suggests that he wants to keep his options open beyond 2024 - if the GC Suns fail to contend for finals he is certain to want to move to a club with better prospects.

[saynta]

https://www.afl.com.au/news/717125/stil ... coast-deal

[shanegrambeau]

It’s sad.
Progress for Gold Coast …always comes at the expense of Melb, WB, St Kilda, North, NT and Tassie.
I feel the relief (and so understandably St Kilda) when we say, ‘Good, that’s settled then.’
I think we are scared of the responsibility of getting him sometimes.

[evertonfc]

We still have to chase this guy extremely hard at the end of 2023.

As mentioned by others, he'll be on $1m to sit on the couch this year - that's money we don't have (call it Hannebery money). And he'll be on $1m next year to get himself up to speed.

Frankly, we'll be in a better position to assess at that point, but for now, we have to suck it up, and we have to balance our books so that there's $1.2m per season free in our cap from 2023 onwards to hand to him. It's a lot of money but I'm not sure we have the ability to attract players of a similar calibre from elsewhere given where we are a footy club.

Due to our absolutely diabolical performances last year, and being unlikely to contend this year, we should be able to rectify our list by that point if we're serious about contending again for a flag in the coming years.

[older saint]

Not surprised and as have been saying here for 12 months , doesn't fit our needs . If he said he wanted to come yes of course, but we need specific things and he isn't that player.
We need SILK and match winners who are explosive. Players like - Taranto, Petracca (Thanks Elshaugh), etc .

Target specific needs as they come out of contract

[Sainternist]

Well, I’m glad that pipedream is over.

Obviously Ben King wants his career to remain in obscurity lol

[Vortex]

We still have to chase this guy extremely hard at the end of 2023.

As mentioned by others, he'll be on $1m to sit on the couch this year - that's money we don't have (call it Hannebery money). And he'll be on $1m next year to get himself up to speed.

Frankly, we'll be in a better position to assess at that point, but for now, we have to suck it up, and we have to balance our books so that there's $1.2m per season free in our cap from 2023 onwards to hand to him. It's a lot of money but I'm not sure we have the ability to attract players of a similar calibre from elsewhere given where we are a footy club.

Due to our absolutely diabolical performances last year, and being unlikely to contend this year, we should be able to rectify our list by that point if we're serious about contending again for a flag in the coming years.

We can chase as hard as we like, he's embedded at the Suns. Loves the place. More chance of Max playing for the GC.

[CQ SAINT]

Pffft. Why would he want to leave. If I was him I'd have written in a clause that I stay at home with the family this season, recover at Moorabbin in a more professional football environment and I'd buys a corporate box at Marvel to watch the Saints all year. They'd have probably said yes.

[Vortex]

Pffft. Why would he want to leave. If I was him I'd have written in a clause that I stay at home with the family this season, recover at Moorabbin in a more professional football environment and I'd buys a corporate box at Marvel to watch the Saints all year. They'd have probably said yes.

The GC facilities and resources are possibly up there with the best in the league. A request to stay at home with family probably would have bought into question his understanding of how 'team' works.

[CQ SAINT]

Pffft. Why would he want to leave. If I was him I'd have written in a clause that I stay at home with the family this season, recover at Moorabbin in a more professional football environment and I'd buys a corporate box at Marvel to watch the Saints all year. They'd have probably said yes.

The GC facilities and resources are possibly up there with the best in the league. A request to stay at home with family probably would have bought into question his understanding of how 'team' works.

Yes their facilities are magnificent. Its just the environment that sucks. The teenage superstars are running the show, until they mature and wake up to themselves, that is. Gary Ablett Jnr loved the place and almost all of their leaders of any significant note don't even stay.

[saynta]

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/kin ... p5a3dp.htm

1.5 million over two years.

[Devilhead]

So restricted FA comes into play after 8 years and you have to be inside top 25% player payments at the club you are at - if you aren't in the top 25% then you are automatically considered an unrestricted FA and you can move as you please - safe to say Bing will be a RFA after 8 years at GC

As an RFA your current club can match any offers another club makes .... if they do match and player doesn't want to stay then a trade needs to be done or player goes into draft again ..... so King won't be RFA until after 2026 season (he will be 26 then) or he becomes Unrestricted FA after 10 years and he can move as he likes .... so after 2028 season and he will be 28 then

So with this in mind his new 2 year contract takes to him to end of 2024 - that would be 6 years with GC ...... so he would have to do another 2 years with GC just to make it to RFA

Maybe come mid 2024 and GC are still struggling he may consider a trade again but if they do end up keeping this current young team together they could well improve

[sainterinsydney]

Very happy we won't be giving up two first round draft picks plus for Ben King. We need star midfielders and another key defender.

[Ghost Like]

So restricted FA comes into play after 8 years and you have to be inside top 25% player payments at the club you are at - if you aren't in the top 25% then you are automatically considered an unrestricted FA and you can move as you please - safe to say Bing will be a RFA after 8 years at GC

As an RFA your current club can match any offers another club makes .... if they do match and player doesn't want to stay then a trade needs to be done or player goes into draft again ..... so King won't be RFA until after 2026 season (he will be 26 then) or he becomes Unrestricted FA after 10 years and he can move as he likes .... so after 2028 season and he will be 28 then

So with this in mind his new 2 year contract takes to him to end of 2024 - that would be 6 years with GC ...... so he would have to do another 2 years with GC just to make it to RFA

Maybe come mid 2024 and GC are still struggling he may consider a trade again but if they do end up keeping this current young team together they could well improve

I suspect or hope that we will be negotiating with the Tassie Suns by those dates

[kosifantutti]

We would have paid a King’s ransom to get Ben and he’d be worth it too for any club if they didn’t already have a very similar player.

Our resources would be better spent on another midfielder.