Strategy Trade and List Management Thread Part 8 (opposition supporters - READ posting rules before posting)

[_Mike_]

Opposition supporters coming to troll , you have been warned

 

[Distinctive_]

I think we need to bring in another mature stop gap. Short term we have Khamis and JOD who are still young enough and should still have development left, long term I'm pretty confident with Emmett and although not necessarily the style required we should add Marial come draft night who at 193cm looks like becoming an intercept defender.

Khamis has suddenly become an important signing. Surely his deal is upped to 3yrs.

Cal also said Butts will likely be an unrestricted free agent. We went for him last year so we’ll be a watch in this space

 

[iambrilliant]

Isn’t butts a free agent ? Surely that’s a no brainer

 

[Philthy1]

The more I think about it, it's going to be really difficult to get a deal done for Butters. Even if we offer up 3 first rounders, there's every chance the 2027 & 2028 picks will be in the 20's with the Tassie introduction. Port might come hard for someone like Sanders if he was actually open to the rumoured move to Adelaide and might be the bridging we need to sweeten the deal as he'd be worth a top 10ish pick.

The best option by far is Port being terrible, no changes in 2026 to FA compo and they accept a top 3 compo pick to get two picks ahead of Cochrane.

Article in the Age talks to that. But Geelong will be in the same boat.

Any club that can offer a decent deal to Port are probably not a choice for Butters.

 

[Philthy1]

Keane can be a great long term option. I’d genuinely rather get Keane than Butters

Why not both?

 

[RWnBluey]

Isn’t butts a free agent ? Surely that’s a no brainer

Would we make another play for him this year as an OOC RFA or wait until he’s an UFA?

 

[grassman75]

What would Busslinger be worth?

At the moment not even a litre of petrol.

 

[Bulldogs85]

This going to be a long year like of feel sorry for Port Adelaide fans we have all been through it in recent years.

 

[Norm De Guerre]

What an odd time to be alive.

Not only are we Premiership favourites in some quarters.

But we are red hot favourites to land the most in demand player likely to change clubs this year.

The bulldog supporter in me cant help but think it's all just a set up for a gigantic rug pull.

 

[Ash1337]

What an odd time to be alive.

Not only are we Premiership favourites in some quarters.

But we are red hot favourites to land the most in demand player likely to change clubs this year.

The bulldog supporter in me cant help but think it's all just a set up for a gigantic rug pull.

It's because other vic teams are going hard on Ben King and Zac Bailey.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

All we needed to get "fair(er) value" for Smith was for Richmond (pick 14) or GWS (pick 18) as examples to be credible threats to take Smith ahead of the Geelong pick 20 if he went to the draft. There was no way he would actually sit out the year and not play for Richmond, and then even if he still wanted to get to Geelong a year later they would have more than recovered that value in a trade. It seemed at the time that his management had quite successfully threatened other clubs that there would be future ramifications with other players if they pulled that trigger though.

Fair play to his team for pulling it off without getting into any trouble over it. They played in the grey zone and got the best outcome for their client. Sure it ****ed us over a bit but I wish the industry would operate on that basis more often. I find it ridiculous that clubs will invest million in high performance training programs for marginal gains, but won't use the pre-season draft as an existing tool to improve their teams.

I don't think anyone is criticising Geelong, Smith or his management for being ruthless operators that work in the best interests of themselves though - and agree, perhaps the industry could be a bit more ruthless. You can be antagonistic to other clubs, made bids in the draft earlier, hold them over a barrel a the negotiating table. That team you're friendly with in October negotiating trades could be the team that beats you in next September on Grand Final day.

The point I'm generally making though is the AFL's hand in all this. They exist to run a fair sporting competition, one with equalisation principles, while balancing player legal interests in their worker rights in minimising restraint on their trade. I think they failed in this balancing act though.

 

[Bulldogs85]

Club are in Talks with Sanders management about a contract extension

Saint's new deal, Tiger target before Tassie entry, Port rookie re-signs

Check out all the latest trade news from around the League

www.afl.com.au

 

[JohnnySteel]

Club are in Talks with Sanders management about a contract extension

Saint's new deal, Tiger target before Tassie entry, Port rookie re-signs

Check out all the latest trade news from around the League

www.afl.com.au

Nice and early. Three year extension would be great.

 

[Here we go dogs]

I remember murmurs about the dogs being into Bailey Fritsch last year?

I reckon he will have a huge year with the new Melbourne game plan. Our forward line is pretty good, but he could’ve added another dynamic.

 

[TheScriptorWL]

I struggle to care about Gettable and the outside math of it all. Because ultimately IT DOES NOT MATTER. If Butters is set on Geelong, Hawks, Us, whoever. He will get there. Port will play symbolic 'Hard Ball' like we did, for the majority of the trade season. And then when it comes down to crunch time will take the first semi viable pick trade.

We know this because we have lived it a Hundred times before. Port will get massive unders and the chosen club wins. That's the system. We won't need to trade anyone. Do their supporters seriously think Port will allow Butters to walk to the draft and be picked up by the Eagles for nothing? That is if he doesn't slide to his chosen club, on the old 'He won't play anywhere' tactic.

Feel for the Port fans because they seemingly have no idea how ****ed the system actually is for the clubs.

 

[stevieg1969]

They sort of do with what happened with Houston. But he was in contract and they still got relatively screwed.

 

[dergert]

Everyone seems to best mates with Zaccy B

 

[_Cerberus_]

The Bulldogs and Sanders have opened up talks about a new multi year contract.

 

[BigFloppa]

This going to be a long year like of feel sorry for Port Adelaide fans we have all been through it in recent years.

This is so ****ing cringe

 

[dergert]

This is so ****ing cringe

Collingwood because...... They're Collingwood!!!

 

[Dogsman16]

Hahaha kaneo had an absolute meltdown on Sen…

“Give us Freijah in return”.

Yeah nah champ.

 

[TiAn_]

I wouldn’t count our chickens with Butters. Too much water to go under the bridge before the trade period.

If we re-sign Sanders we’ll still be in good shape without Butters, as long as we recruit a good KPD with plenty of years left in the tank.

 

[Munnez]

Dogs vision board was shown on Gettable. Suggest everyone has a watch

Our list in 2-3 years time looks in great shape. Only question mark is who will replace Lobb as KPD

Emmett?

 

[House_of_Dahl]

Isn’t butts a free agent ? Surely that’s a no brainer

Unless Port bottom out. Rules are we'd have to trade one.
Edit - hang on, no that's if we we're losing one and don't want to lose the compo. Ignore this

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Expecting a free run at a top-10 pick for your club? Not so fast

A proposal to eliminate free agency compensation picks from the first 10 selections of the 2026 AFL national draft is in doubt.

www.theage.com.au

"Proposed changes to free agency compensation could be delayed".

AFLPA making the argument that the changes to top-end free agency compensation is something that needs to be factored in the CBA (that is, the AFL needs to pay the players collectively more money if they want to introduce this rule).

Which is fair enough, because although only limited to the few players that would get a top-10 draft pick compensation, it is a significant restraint on their trade - Port (or in last year's case, West Coast) are far more likely to enforce their restricted free agency rights if they don't get a good compensation pick.

In theory, the fact that the AFL introduced the concept of a player being 'restricted' at all is something that the players gave up in (previous) negotiations and that the AFL player base is being paid more for it as a collective in their CBA. They're now arguing that such a rule change further strengthens the concept of being restricted, and there's really not much disagreement from me.

All of this is to say: Welcome Zak Butters

9

Zak Butters

Age

25

Ht

181cm

Wt

77kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.3

4star

K

7.7

3star

HB

6.7

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.6

4star

CL

0.8

3star

D

14.7

4star

K

8.9

4star

HB

5.9

3star

M

3.9

4star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.1

3star

D

17.0

5star

K

9.0

4star

HB

8.0

5star

M

3.6

4star

T

1.6

4star

CL

0.6

3star

, enjoy pick 2 Port!

 

[_Cerberus_]

Emmett?

From what we have seen so far, he is more a loose man, athletic interceptor type. The type of defender we need to replace Lobb, is a strong honest one, who can play man on man with the gorillas of the league. To free up our other guys to do what they do best. I know JOD is inconsistent, but he is serviceable enough as the number two. Our defence is working in part, of the whole team structure, but also because we are playing our defenders in their best roles.

A few suggestions I've seen to replace Lobb, have all been interceptor type defenders. We have loads of those, we need a proper defensive type. Hard to find though. If we could only afford one of Butters, or a true defender, the smart choice would be the latter as the midfield bats deep.

We have a few young KPP's within, but the jury is still out to whether they fill out size wise, become strong physically, and have good on field positioning in one on one contests. Still a fair way to go in their development. But at this point they lean more towards playing as a key forward, or the loose man, athletic defender.