{"id":327674,"date":"2023-09-01T07:24:17","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T07:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=327674"},"modified":"2023-09-01T11:01:08","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T11:01:08","slug":"great-slams-ridiculous-deal-for-in-demand-cat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=327674","title":{"rendered":"Great slams 'ridiculous' deal for in-demand Cat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Port Adelaide champion Kane Cornes<\/a> has expressed his shock at Hawthorn<\/a>'s "ridiculous" $5 million deal reportedly offered to Geelong<\/a> big man Esava Ratugolea\ufeff.<\/p>\n

The key defender was linked to a move to Port Adelaide in 2022 with a year remaining on his contract which he turned down, but has yet to sign on with the Cats at the end of 2023.<\/p>\n

Cornes\ufeff explained his disbelief when he first heard of the deal, which would see Ratugolea head to the Hawks for seven years to help bolster their defence.<\/p>\n

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"I nearly fell off the treadmill … when I heard from (SEN journalist) Sam Edmond … this morning about Hawthorn's offer for Esava Ratugolea," Cornes said on SEN.<\/p>\n

"Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous."<\/p>\n

Cornes broke down the deal, which would reward the 25-year-old around $715,000 a year, likening Ratugolea's current form to the \ufeffearly days of Port Adelaide's Aliir Aliir.<\/p>\n

"Could he do what Aliir Aliir has done for Port Adelaide?" Cornes asked.<\/p>\n

\"Esava<\/p>\n

"I thought Aliir used to make a lot of mistakes when he played for Sydney, but he doesn't really make those brain fade-type mistakes now."<\/p>\n

Despite Cornes believing the key big man could grow into a stronger footballer at Hawthorn\ufeff, he urged the Cat to understand the move would be a challenging one.<\/p>\n

"He's not going to be in as good a side as what he is at Geelong if he goes to Hawthorn. He's going to be under the pump," Cornes said.<\/p>\n

"Do Hawks fans want (Sam) Frost and Ratugolea in the same backline? I'm not sure.<\/p>\n

\"Esava<\/p>\n

"Certainly not at, I don't know, $850k a year for seven years."<\/p>\n

Ratugolea was drafted to Geelong at pick 43 in 2016, spending the first part of his career plying his trade in the forward line.<\/p>\n

After suffering a broken leg\ufeff in during a match in 2018 when he was just 19-years-old<\/a>, he struggled to regain his spot at the senior level in a ruck-forward role.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Ratugolea notched up 16 games after a move to the backline, with an average of 8.9 disposals and 2.8 intercept marks, coming second behind premiership defender and five-time All-Australian Tom Stewart. \ufeff<\/p>\n

The AFL Trade period begins on Monday October 9 and closes on\ufeff Wednesday October 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Port Adelaide champion Kane Cornes has expressed his shock at Hawthorn's "ridiculous" $5 million deal reportedly offered to Geelong big man Esava Ratugolea\ufeff. The key […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":327676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=327674"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327679,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327674\/revisions\/327679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/327676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=327674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=327674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=327674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}