List Mgmt. 2025 List Management Discussion - Part IV

[Hubnester]

2025 List Management Discussion - Part 4

Now that our season is over, and news is starting to break - it's time for a fresh thread.

This thread is to discuss all things list management - trades, draft, free agency, delistings and more.
As we are now officially in our off-season, we'll be wanting to keep this thread more strictly on-topic than the previous iterations.
Be respectful. You are allowed to disagree with someone - but play the ball, not the man. Repeat offenders will have their posting rights revoked.

Thanks to Lore once again for this incredibly useful spreadsheet.

2025 KEY DATES
Free Agency Period: Friday, October 3rd - Friday, October 10th
Trade Period: Monday, October 6th - Wednesday, October 15th
AFL Draft: Wednesday, November 19th - Thursday, November 20th

See Also:
2025 Year in Review Rumours & Confirmed Movements 2025 Draft Discussion
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[akaifu]

People need to stop claiming the recruitment of Silvagni had anything to do with this.

He committed to us prior to the trade period. If it impacted Aleer, we had time to tell him.

100%

Aleer's manager literally said that the proposal to Aleer included playing alongside Jack Silvagni for the next 4 years

 

[Diehard Saint]

Crazy that no one on any of these shows talking about Aleer hasn’t even considered the

“… are we sure Aleer is worth a F2? He is out of contract and hasn’t set the world on fire, could this just be a bargaining position from the saints due to the Giants asking for too much?”

Please, you’re surely not expecting logic, or just been a teeny bit of intuition from these talking heads, are you?

 

[stavro#4]

Ya kidding yourself if you think landing SOS has nothing to do with this call whatsoever.

Might be other reasons tied in but we wouldn't have thrown the towell in 6 days out otherwise after chasing him for two years.

You understand that JSOS nominated us over a month ago (3/9/25).

Aleer was still to play a final at this point.

Plenty of time to walk away if we no longer wanted him

 

[Tommy Wigs]

I'm surprised he was still keen on us after two years of whining.

It's probably just club bias, but I actually really like this move. If players can say stuff like 'I want to go home to W.A. - but only to Freo!' then clubs can walk back offers if a deal can't be done. Ross leading again, showing that clubs can be difficult too if they want to be.

I regret listening to Maher and Gaze this afternoon while driving, they reckon we should be paying his salary difference (and thought he was a free agent).

Paying the difference, wtf? Hey, I’ve just said above I don’t like it, but it’s not clear to me that he won’t get the same offers from other clubs now as he would have without us being involved at all. That’s why I avoid the radio and these numpties, apart from perhaps Cal and not many others.

 

[MrFoster]

Nor were they the ones that needed him to put relationships on the line for the promise of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Blaming GWS for trying to get value for their player is insane.

What do you want us to say? "Sorry, Leek and player manager, SDK just nominated us an hour ago and he is a much better player and is demanding less money too. So we're going with SDK, good luck at the giants. Oh and sorry about the 300k a year pay raise and 100k commission to your play agent, you'll have to improve a lot to get that kind of money."

 

[Sully111]

I feel for Aleer... but he'll be fine.

Maybe we f*cked up and decided to fix it... who knows...but I really don't care what we did.

My mate Gubby and his mate SOS have enough runs on the board right now. Let's back them in.

 

[Armoooo]

No but they cant' have been that reasonable to deal with for a trade to blow to this degree in such a short amount of time.

We may have been the ones to shoot Bambi but GWS was sitting there helping to load the gun.

I dont think a future 2nd is unreasonable. But sure, let's say it is overs.

Maybe GWS were willing to accept a 3rd in a few days time, or maybe they would have been willing to add a 3rd for our 4th.

If GWS were asking for a first round pick and refused to listen to anything else, maybe you'd have a point.

Your only possible backing that GWS share responsibility is because you don't want to accept your team might have dogged Aleer.

 

[akaifu]

Ya kidding yourself if you think landing SOS has nothing to do with this call whatsoever.

Might be other reasons tied in but we wouldn't have thrown the towell in 6 days out otherwise after chasing him for two years.

Straight from his manager's mouth mate

 

[Sainter88]

Damo crying on radio saying we have shattered Aleers dreams and ruined his chances at the club he loves.

Bruh if the giants love him so much they can just keep him

Damo needs to get back to his cuck chair and just stfu.

 

[stavro#4]

I dont think a future 2nd is unreasonable. But sure, let's say it is overs.

Maybe GWS were willing to accept a 3rd in a few days time, or maybe they would have been willing to add a 3rd for our 4th.

If GWS were asking for a first round pick and refused to listen to anything else, maybe you'd have a point.

Your only possible backing that GWS share responsibility is because you don't want to accept your team might have dogged Aleer.

So if Geelong don’t get Marshall, have they dogged him?

 

[Pardon me]

Aleers manager has Derkson plus one other on his books.
Still time for him to get the triple strikeout.
If the deal was on life support after our actions it’s dead on arrival with these comments.
First thing I’d be saying to Leek upon his return from Europe would be find a new manager.

 

[Moquo]

Aleer’s manager with a Trump-like tweet.

“Clubs have rung me and said ‘it’s a disgrace, what have they done?’. They’re all saying it “it’s a disgrace”. This has to be the worst back out of a deal in the history of deals!”

Send him some Saints merch and he'll be fine.

How about one of these...

 

[austinnn]

The club the whole world is talking about RN

 

[Anythings_sipposible]

The Aleer thing is not all that complicated though is it. We had a value that we set on him (it seems the club is all in on some metric that balanced cost and potential). GWS demanded an F2. That was above the value we set on Aleer. We walked away.

 

[Armoooo]

What do you want us to say? "Sorry, Leek and player manager, SDK just nominated us an hour ago and he is a much better player and is demanding less money too. So we're going with SDK, good luck at the giants. Oh and sorry about the 300k a year pay raise and 100k commission to your play agent, you'll have to improve a lot to get that kind of money."

Honestly, yes.

If SDK comes to us for Marshall. Aleer is collateral damage.

You'd thank him for his desire to join the club and apologise that you were not able to deliver upon your agreed outcome. The player and agent would be pissed off, but it would be understandable.

If it is a case that GWS wanted to much, it would be the same scenario, you would explain that you still want him at the club, but can't facilitate a trade and let him know that you'd pick him up in the PSD if that is how he wishes to proceed, obviously meaning we couldn't guarantee another club doesn't pick him first.

Just withdrawing all interest over the difference between a 2nd and a 3rd round future pick with 5 days left to negotiate is extremely unusual. There would have to be something else happening that we don't see yet, but either way, we have done wrong by Aleer and should express remorse.

 

[SainterinSydney]

Pity Damo’s dad didn’t.

Purple has no parents--he entered through an interdimensional split in the space time continuum. It was a hellish place where St Kilda won the premiership every year.

 

[Molly29]

I’m a little tempered on the Aleer thing.

I really can’t understand blind defense of it, presumably we did our due diligence and imo if you court a player and get them to nominate you you kinda have to get the deal done (unless the incumbent club is being completely unreasonable). There is no way to imply that in the current player market this is a good look.

Having said that, we clearly don’t think he’s gonna be the right player for us moving forward, so I’d rather we back out than do it just cause we’re suppose to.

We probably just should have managed the comms better

I'm not over the moon to be honest with how the club has handled this - it is very rare that a player nominates the club that he wants to go to and then be later turned down by that club (Soldo was apparently due to injury concerns).

Will jeopardise future dealings with players if we get a reputation for doing this sort of thing.

 

[Linton Street Saint]

The club the whole world is talking about RN

View attachment 2451176

Eeeerrrrrrr .....

 

[BilboJackins]

Straight from his manager's mouth mate

View attachment 2451168

Anyone who names their company Centimetre Perfect Global cannot be a serious operator…

 

[BrutThough]

I dont think a future 2nd is unreasonable. But sure, let's say it is overs.

Maybe GWS were willing to accept a 3rd in a few days time, or maybe they would have been willing to add a 3rd for our 4th.

If GWS were asking for a first round pick and refused to listen to anything else, maybe you'd have a point.

Your only possible backing that GWS share responsibility is because you don't want to accept your team might have dogged Aleer.

I think everyone has acknowledged this is a shitty situation for Aleer. But acknowledging that doesnt mean there isnt a curiosity about how two parties tank a deal in such a short amount of time.

And until this news was reported, I dont think any media outlet was expecting it to be an F2 to get the deal down. Twomney was talking a late pick or PSD. So while you seem to rate him extremely highly based off your posting today, you are also likely in the minority with that opinion.

 

[Molly29]

Honestly, yes.

If SDK comes to us for Marshall. Aleer is collateral damage.

You'd thank him for his desire to join the club and apologise that you were not able to deliver upon your agreed outcome. The player and agent would be pissed off, but it would be understandable.

If it is a case that GWS wanted to much, it would be the same scenario, you would explain that you still want him at the club, but can't facilitate a trade and let him know that you'd pick him up in the PSD if that is how he wishes to proceed, obviously meaning we couldn't guarantee another club doesn't pick him first.

Just withdrawing all interest over the difference between a 2nd and a 3rd round future pick with 5 days left to negotiate is extremely unusual. There would have to be something else happening that we don't see yet, but either way, we have done wrong by Aleer and should express remorse.

Agreed, we need to own it - Aleer deserved better.

 

[Tommy Wigs]

The rumoured deal was a second rounder for a third rounder.

That really doesn’t value Aleer highly. But it does make the machinations of a trade difficult if we don’t have a second rounder and at this point all we have left is a 2027 pick

Eek, that makes it worse. Anyone can rustle that up for a player they have targeted.

Something has happened. The announcement from the media (have we said anything) is way too hard and fast and doesn’t sound like a ploy to me.

Maybe someone had effed up their Excel formulae? “Yeah, we have $6m to spend, let’s go nuts”. “Oh wait, sir. Shit, how do I say this. It’s $60k left not $6m. That’s what we have left for Flanders. And some back pay for Nas. And looks like ****ing Wilkie will have to join the Dogs too”.

 

[Toppa]

Agreed.

If you chase someone for 2 years, he then nominates you, and then you walk it back, it’s not a good look.

If it was another club who had done this, we would be saying poor effort!

I think it’s right call, just sits a bit uneasy with me.

Something has occurred for saints to put themselves in a position of a bit of backlash

Cats have basically done the exact same thing (assuming sdk isn't traded) and there hasn't been a word about it.
Couldn't give a stuff what others think. Great move by the club. Things change and I for one am stoked we didn't continue with him, waste a pick and cash when he isnt needed just to 'save face'.
Clubs need more power over players and this is a step in the right direction.

 

[stavro#4]

I'm not over the moon to be honest with how the club has handled this - it is very rare that a player nominates the club that he wants to go to and then be later turned down by that club (Soldo was apparently due to injury concerns).

Will jeopardise future dealings with players if we get a reputation for doing this sort of thing.

It’s also only one side of the story.

There is still ours and still the truth to the come out

 

[Mowman]

Crazy that no one on any of these shows talking about Aleer hasn’t even considered the

“… are we sure Aleer is worth a F2? He is out of contract and hasn’t set the world on fire, could this just be a bargaining position from the saints due to the Giants asking for too much?”

If we don't think he worth a future 2nd should we be offering 800K a year for 4 years then ?