Think about Brock McLean for a minute. Anyone who saw him play this year would know he was very good. He'd struggled in his two years at Carlton prior to that but he was very good when he came into the side this year. He's just got a 1 year deal & he'll get another year after that if he plays a certain amount of games. If that was us, we would have given him 3 years. That's a bloody good offer from Carlton. He obviously had a good year but there's no guarantee that he will be able to continue that form, so they offered him a performance based deal. And there won't be any clubs lining up to get him which means they don't need to offer him more than he's worth.
Why do we give good contracts to blokes who haven't earned them? Gus was good in 2010 but that form didn't warrant a 3 year deal on plenty of $. McGuane shouldn't have received a 3 year deal at the bargain price of 450k per season. Jake King should not have received a 2 year contract after a horrible 2008 etc etc etc etc.
Point being, STOP SIGNING AVERAGE AT BEST PLAYERS TO GOOD CONTRACTS. Who signs off on these deals