North Melbourne defender Charlie Comben has penned a monster six-year contract extension, locking him to the club until the end of 2033.
The signature, which was formalised in the last 48 hours, takes him out of the Tasmania Devils equation.
The AFL’s 19th team had earmarked the 25-year-old as a potential target, but will now look elsewhere for key defensive stocks.
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Comben was already contracted until the end of 2027, when he was due to become a restricted free agent.
Two industry sources who work closely in the player movement space believe the six-year extension would be worth approximately $5 million in total.
Comben came off the ground late in North’s loss to St Kilda on Sunday with blood coming from his mouth following a heavy collision.
He went to hospital as a precaution and the club has listed him as a ‘test’ for this week.
Drafted with Pick 31 in 2019, Comben didn’t establish himself in the club’s best team until 2024, when he finished seventh in North’s best and fairest.
He has played 66 senior matches for North, including 18 of a possible 19 in 2026.
But he has struggled with multiple injuries over the journey, revealing a couple of years ago that he had broken a whopping 23 or 24 bones.
The injuries include a broken back which wiped him out for the entire 2020 season, his first year in the AFL.
He then broke his collarbone in 2021 after his return from the broken back, and in 2022 he had more issues after a screw inserted into his leg to help with a stress fracture caused a patella problem.
Even before AFL, Comben was in the wars breaking his wrist and collarbone when he was 15 and breaking two parts of his inner cheekbone when he was 16.
When he was 17 he also did serious damage to his leg in a basketball game when he broke his tibia and fractured a kneecap.
Comben’s signature follows Harry Sheezel’s two-year extension (2032) and Finn O’Sullivan’s fresh deal (2029) in recent weeks.
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