Sam Walsh’s new deal is a risk for the Blues. This is why they had to take it

Sam Walsh was the centrepiece of Carlton’s last painstaking rebuild. His decision to stay has spared the Blues another period in the doldrums.

The importance of Walsh’s commitment to Carlton cannot be overstated. The doomsday scenario at Ikon Park would have included Walsh, their best middle-aged midfielder, joining close mates Charlie Curnow and Tom De Koning and former favourite son Jack Silvagni out the door.

The length of the term, until the end of 2034 when Walsh will be 34, is a risk for the club, as the player himself acknowledged, but this was the price of doing business. Either stump up – in this case in terms of tenure – or leave yourself open to a rival whisking him away on a lengthy deal.

The trend towards long-term contracts to star players is recognition that the cost of keeping them exceeds that of letting them go. When things go pear-shaped, as they did with Curnow and at Melbourne with Christian Petracca, the club is at least better placed to negotiate an advantageous trade.

If Curnow’s exit signalled a “reset” at Carlton, as Blues chief Graham Wright said this week, Walsh’s departure would have heralded another rebuild.

Key defender Jacob Weitering aside, Walsh is just about the most important player on the Blues’ list. At 25, Walsh should be entering his prime years. With his running capacity, he is arguably the only established Blues midfielder equipped physically to deal with the aerobic demands of the game as it is expected to be played in 2026.

A Carlton without Walsh would have slammed the door shut on a list build that promised so much but delivered no more than half a season of joy in 2023.

By staying, there is a runway for the likes of Weitering and key forward Harry McKay to have a crack at a drought-breaking premiership late in their careers.

By then, the core of the Blues’ team will be built around a next-generation midfield of Walsh, Jagga Smith and father-son prospect Cody Walker, key defenders Harry Dean and Harry O’Farrell and the suite of first-round picks acquired through Curnow’s departure.

The retention of Walsh on its own will not keep coach Michael Voss (in the last year of his contract) at the helm, but it does not hurt. Ultimately, the win-loss column will determine Voss’ fate, though his capacity to modernise the team’s play away from the over-reliance on the crash and bash contest style will also be a key factor.

In the final year of his contract, Voss can at least concentrate on his job without a repeat of the “will he stay or will he go” free agency distraction that accompanied De Koning in 2025.

The Carlton that Voss is overseeing this year is in marked contrast to that of 12 months ago when there was a heaviness at the club. Dramas such as the Luke Sayers lewd photo scandal, season-ending knee injuries to Nic Newman and Smith, Curnow’s slew of surgeries and the off-field struggles of McKay and Elijah Hollands to name a few did not lighten the mood. Then came the disaster of round one against Richmond, from which the Blues did not recover.

That Walsh has stayed – and he said never entertained the idea of leaving – is an endorsement of the environment Wright, new football boss Chris Davies and Voss have created since the darkness of last winter.

Walsh, too, has played a part in what he described late last year as in the “no bullshit” mentality the club has adopted.

With his injury history, it would have been understandable if he had sat out last year with his foot injury instead of coming back to play two dead rubbers. His approach was notably different to that taken by Curnow and Silvagni, who finished the year in the stands and at new clubs.

Walsh arrived at Carlton when the club was at the bottom, and has recommitted while the Blues are again at a low ebb after a brief period in contention.

“I think we’ve delved in deep to the identity of a team we want to be this year, and kept it about us, not about what other people think or what other teams are doing,” Walsh said. “So that gave me a strong, strong belief that we’ll end up being the team we want to be, if we can stick at that.”

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