It is/will be down to blue and white and we want him stitched up nice and tightly and for the money he's worth.
A million bucks will likely be 5-6% of the salary cap in 2023, and I expect a 28 year old Kelly to be worth every piece of 5-6% of the cap. It will be a steal. What club wouldn't take a 28 year old Kelly for that?! Good times!
I reckon you're absolutely dreaming if you think you're getting him for a mil a year. Pure fantasy.
He's already worth more than that now, at just 22yo, so imagine what he could be worth in the latter part of the next 9 years, if salary caps continue to go up and he continues to improve and has maybe won a Brownlow or two and made multiple AA teams?
I'd happily offer him $1.3mil PA for 6 years (and I'd expect St Kilda have or will do just that) which would be $7.8mil in total, and when he's due to come OOC at the end of that time (and probably eligible for FA), he'd be every chance to sign for $1.5mil PA or more, for the following 3 years, which could take him up to $12.7mil for the 9 years you're talking about.
Almost $4mil more over that time than the quaint $9mil offer you're talking about!
If you guys are going to have any chance to get him, you'll likely need to up your offer (if you haven't already) to around the $12mil that it was reported to have gone up to on Monday night.