If I was advising Cerra I would suggest waiting until next year before signing a contract. The only personal benefit to agreeing an extension early is that it guarantees a salary for the coming years, and it is one less thing to deal with or have to talk about. There are many other benefits: it makes your teammates happy, it makes your club happy, it makes the fans happy, but as long as you’re playing good footy those people will be happy enough anyway.
I just can’t see any risk for Cerra in waiting. Even if he had a significant injury, he’s done enough in this first year to ensure he’ll get a long deal from Freo or another club if he wants it.
He’s only been in Perth and at the club 8-9 months. If I was advising a teenager living away from home for the first time, I’d suggest giving it a bit more time before committing to stay or deciding to go home. It’s a pretty weighty decision, and likely one of the first big life decisions he’ll have to make.
Plus, no-one is really sure how Freo are going to look next season; halfway through next season we could be looking like a finals contender, or we could be terrible with a coach about to be sacked. Wouldn’t you want to see how things are playing out early next year before making the call?
So, if he doesn’t sign, and he doesn’t ask to leave, what do you do if you are Freo this offseason? I wouldn’t trade him now. I’d back Freo to turn it around next season, I’d treat him like he’s going to be a 200 game player for Freo, and if at the end of next year he wanted to go home I’d do everything I could to get him to the club he wanted to go to, so long as Freo got something approaching fair value. Sure, you take a small risk of losing some market value next year (I don’t think the leverage changes much between this and next offseason), but I have to believe that when clubs deal openly, honestly and in good faith with players, and other clubs, eventually that plays in your favour.
Given WA players are overrepresented relative to the number of AFL teams, Freo stands to benefit more than most from players wanting to come home. I also think that AFL clubs owe a duty to be good citizens when the league requires that young kids are sent far-and-wide across the country as soon as they are out of high school.