Free agent Swan will only move to contenders as $800k price tag emerges

Sydney forward Will Hayward is set to receive some big offers to leave the Harbour City.

The restricted free agent kicked four big goals in Saturday’s win over GWS at the SCG and Kane Cornes thinks a club will pay him $800,000 a year to leave the club he’s played 145 games for.

Cornes spoke about Hayward’s decision with Channel Nine’s Tom Morris on SEN Breakfast where they discussed what the Swan could receive if he leaves compared to re-signing with Sydney.

Morris added that Hayward, provided he were to leave the Swans, will only move to a club that’s in the premiership window and named four potential destinations for him to pick from.

Cornes: “It’s  good time for Will Hayward to kick four, what’s his price?”

Morris: “What do you think he is worth Kane?”

Cornes: “I’m a big fan. He's probably a $550,000 player at Sydney, but someone will pay him $800,000 to go.”

Morris: “I think that's about right and one thing I can tell you is he's not going to a club that's not in the premiership window.

“If he does leave the Sydney Swans and it's still an if, I doubt that it will be a club down the bottom of the ladder.

“The clubs that we know are interested are both Adelaide clubs – he is from South Australia … you put Port maybe ahead of Adelaide in the premiership race although maybe your mind has changed.

“Carlton is very keen on him and then there'll be a couple of other Melbourne clubs as well that'll be interested, including Melbourne.”

Morris also doesn’t expect Hayward to make a decision soon as the demand for his services continues to heat up.

“He's not re-signing anytime soon,” Morris said.

“Sometimes you can get on radio like with Max Holmes a few weeks ago and say, ‘This will take a while to play out’, then he re-signs the next day because it moves quickly.

“But I'd be surprised if this moves quickly at all. I think this is going to go deep in the season.

“I reckon a club is willing to pay him $800,000 but I doubt the Swans are.

“As a result, it's very much up in the air, but he kicked four goals on the weekend, three in the third quarter and he's very much a wanted man around the AFL competition at the moment to.”

The 25-year-old has kicked 15 goals from eight games in 2024 and has booted 174 majors across his Sydney career in total.