THE BIGGEST AFL SIGNATURES UP FOR GRABS NEXT YEAR

Giant headache looms as Victorian clubs eye quartet of stars

GREATER Western Sydney faces a $3 million juggling act as it attempts to safeguard some of its biggest names from cashed-up Victorian rivals.

The Giants are set for another nervous year as superstar midfielders Josh Kelly and Stephen Coniglio, and gun defenders Nick Haynes and Adam Tomlinson, weighup hometown interest.

Free agent Coniglio is set for a payday in the vicinity of $900,000 a year, while Kelly’s next contract is certain to make him one of the game’s highest-paid players.

Brilliant Western Bulldog Marcus Bontempelli is also set to sign a fresh seven-figure deal as the No.4 draft pick prepares to enter his sixth season.

And Geelong’s Tim Kelly will receive a hefty pay rise at the end of the year when he again attempts to move back to Western Australia, after his failed trade move last month.

Clubs including St Kilda and Hawthorn are also expected to come hard for Gold Coast tall Peter Wright as the Suns vow to end the overspending on contracts which remarkably left the club with a salary-cap squeeze this year.

Together, Coniglio, Kelly, Haynes and Tomlinson will cost the Giants about $3 million to keep beyond next season, or roughly a quarter of the Giants’ salary cap.

North Melbourne is again preparing a godfather $1.5 million-a-year offer to Kelly after missing out on his and Dustin Martin’s signature a year ago, as well as West Coast ball magnet Andrew Gaff.

Martin and Gaff both turned down mega seven-year offers from the Kangaroos.

The Giants believe they are in a strong position to keep their two out-of-contract ball winners after clearing more than $2m million in last month’s trade period.

GWS let go Dylan Shiel (Essendon) and Tom Scully (Hawthorn) but have prioritised Kelly and Coniglio, and will try to get the jump on a new deal for Lachie Whitfield beyond 2020.

List manager Jason McCartney will ramp up talks with the quartet’s management in coming months, after locking away matchwinner Toby Greene on a lucrative six-year deal in March.

Bulldogs chief executive Ameet Bains said last week the club was confident of locking away Bontempelli by the end of the year.

“I think we are getting very close to getting something done,” he said. “We would be hopeful of getting that one done in the coming weeks.”