AFL news: Mac Andrew in $12 million contract bombshell after Garry Lyon rips ‘disgraceful’ farce

Gold Coast swingman Mac Andrew has re-signed with the Suns in a staggering new deal that could become the richest in AFL history. The 20-year-old’s bumper new contract runs until the end of the 2030 season but could take him to the end of 2034 and be worth a a staggering $12 million, if various performance-based clauses are met.

According to Nine’s Tom Morris, if Andrew plays 60 games by 2030 then it will automatically trigger the remaining four years on his lucrative deal. Andrew was already contracted until 2025 and the initial five-year extension means he is now the longest contracted player at the Suns.

The potential $12 million agreement would surpass the $10 million over nine years that the Sydney Swans paid retired champion, Lance Franklin. A key defender by trade, Andrew made a huge impact late in the season when he was swung forward. The 20-year-old kicked three goals against West Coast in round 21 and then four against Essendon a week later, including the match-winner after the final siren.

Hawthorn and Collingwood were reportedly among the clubs keen to lure Andrew away from the Gold Coast but the third-season star ultimately decided to remain with the Suns, and is intent on winning a premiership with Damien Hardwick’s side. “I love everything about this place. I’ve made a home for myself up here and have a great support base here,” Andrew said in a statement.

“I’m really keen to be a part of the first team that wins a Premiership on the Coast. “To be the first to do that would be pretty special and something I really want to be a part of. It’s pretty evident we are heading in the right direction and I just want to play my role in what will be something great.”

Essendon great Tim Watson warned the “head-spinning money” the Suns are offering Andrew could be a concern for a young player who is not even 21 yet. “Like, you’ve got to be satisfied from a club perspective that he’s got the professionalism, the attitude and the diligence,” Watson told SEN.

“If you’re putting that type of a contract in front of a young player, you’re believing as a club that he is going to develop into a leader and he’s going to drive the club where you want him to be. You can never pay too much money for greatness. He’s not there yet. You’re paying on your projection of what he’s going to become and you can often get that part of it wrong.”

Garry Lyon filthy Demons missed out on their academy star

In 2021, Andrew became the first player of South Sudanese heritage to be selected in the top five of the national draft after being taken by the Suns with pick No.5. He was a graduate of the Melbourne academy but a controversial rule that was introduced and later reversed saw the Demons miss out on the prodigious youngster, much to the anger of club legend Garry Lyon.

In 2020, the Bulldogs landed Jamarra Ugle-Hagan as the next generation academy player. However, the AFL changed the rules to make sure clubs could not bid on their own players in the top 40 draft. This backfired on Melbourne who watched Andrew leave the club in 2021 as their best next generation academy player, before the AFL changed the rule back this year.

Lyon shared his disgust with AFL for backflipping on the rule, which saw the Demons miss out on the future superstar that they had developed since the age of 13. “If Melbourne put all the data of the last two years of results into a machine and looked at where their deficiencies are, what they need most, the fact that they need more size with Max Gawn coming towards the end and getting rid of Brodie Grundy,” Lyon said on SEN Radio last month.

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“If they put in all that data about the Dees over the last few years it would spit out one name of the player that they needed – Mac Andrew. And they had him as an Academy player. It would be like Jamarra Ugle-Hagan just ripped off them and just saying ‘no, I know he’s you’re player, but you’re not having him’.

“And then you know what would be worse? Saying two years later ‘listen, we’re changing the rules back’. So if you think I’m bitter about it, 100 per cent I am…that is disgraceful.

with AAP