List Mgmt. 2025 List Management Discussion - Part 3

[Hubnester]

2025 List Management Discussion - Part 3

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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[TassieSaint]

Playing devils advocate (and I’d note I think most of this stuff about Wilkie is bullshit).
1- I think the suggestion is he and his management would raise this stuff, mostly false, to force the trade he apparently wants, not that it’s true.
2- again the suggestion seems to be that he’s filthy Aleer and Jsos would be getting paid what he is, not that he doesn’t want help or good players but that if they’re worth $700 he’s worth a million.
3- money over success seems to be the sticking point
4- totally agree, frankly I think people suggesting he’s gonna go nuclear to get to another club for the payrise are being pretty silly. Merett is one example, I can’t think of many (any?) others and even then Merett actually didn’t do that much of nuclear stuff, the media played that out and he just didn’t intervene.

On 1 (and 4) he just really does not seem like the type of player or person to let his management go nuclear.

On 2 and 3 there's a difference between using the new recruits salaries to try and leverage a pay rise through his management but can understand the bigger picture of how they help the club, and being so overcome with jealousy that lesser players are on the same/more coin that he's willing to force his way out of a club he's (by all verified reports to date) had nothing but love for and burn every bridge on the way out. The former I can believe and is arguably just smart business, the latter just seems unrealistic.

 

[gringo2011]

No one plays 100% game time as a mid. There were games when he played vast majority as a mid and absolutely dominated (Geelong from the top of my head.) Yes you want versatility and different groups running through the centre square but they ain’t going to be actively making moves to free NAS to go back to majority half back given what he just did in the second half of the season.

Any discussion about our midfield group going forward starts with NAS being the best and most important piece.

He can 100% be the most important piece and still not be a full time mid. Dusty was Richmond's most important piece without being a full time mid.

We'll see anyway. Having rotations makes us more able to afford him on ball full time and allows us to put him on ball without sacrificing the HB role.

Same with Hall, he's one of our best impact mids but losing him off HF loses our best kick inside 50 and a dangerous scoring threat. Ryan can play on ball in a similar way and play that high HF link up role.

 

[Saintscomemarchingin]

More.

Theyve got midfield depth, we cant cover Wilkie.

Richards and Friejah

Aleer, Barrat, Caminiti, Howard, JSoS, Tauru suggests we can cover Wilkie
Will have to in 3ish years time anyway.
We've been crying out for A grade & AA mid.
Richards at 26 y.o is it.
Would be wrong not to look at that.

 

[beside the seaside]

I'm pretty confident we are getting Flanders too. Been in the mix for him for quite a while. Just feel like we might have him sewn up already.

I've been thinking, our depth next year is going to be awesome. Hawks are another side that have this, very good AFL players in the VFL side. Tom Mitchell played VFL this year too. Don't think there's anything wrong with having very good players as depth.

 

[Joffaboy]

I'm not into positivity. 160 years of being shit would suggest anyone that does get too confident is an idiot, but we have given ourselves a decent chance this time.

Footy department rebuilt with pro staff, good recruiters, quality coaching, a rebuild that was hard and fast with what looks like a genuine young talent pool already here. Development systems on the improve including restructuring our VFL side, the best pool of older high end talent since Lyon was here last time, depth improved and a real shove of momentum building to kick start it all.

It doesn't guarantee anything but it at least puts us in the race this time. I was brutally critical of the Lethlean and Pelican builds because they did more wrong than right and looked like it was set up to fail with none of the necessary structures in place. This is at least in with a chance. The Wright brothers worked out that you needed wings this time.

Change your Platium Premium handle to Bedwetter, so we know which camp you are in. We love a factional brawl in here, but woe betide any oppo fan that wanders through with a drive by. We may bicker, but **** the rest, we are all Saints.

 

[phantom13]

Aleer, Barrat, Caminiti, Howard, JSoS, Tauru suggests we can cover Wilkie
Will have to in 3ish years time anyway.
We've been crying out for A grade & AA mid.
Richards at 26 y.o is it.
Would be wrong not to look at that.

None of them is fit to carry Wilkiesboots. We said this about battle and Wilkie is twice as good

 

[inntheno]

I'm pretty confident we are getting Flanders too. Been in the mix for him for quite a while. Just feel like we might have him sewn up already.

I've been thinking, our depth next year is going to be awesome. Hawks are another side that have this, very good AFL players in the VFL side. Tom Mitchell played VFL this year too. Don't think there's anything wrong with having very good players as depth.

Mitchell is at the Pies?

 

[gringo2011]

I think this Wilkie stuff is BS, but if it were to come about, the only thing I would be accepting for him is Richards. If their need is a defender, and they go after the best... Our need is a Midfielder, we want your best. And none of this "hes worth more than Wilkie" stuff, you need him, we need Richards, so how much do you need him...

We don't need to lose him if we don't want to. If they want to force him out they can pay with a lot more than that even. It potentially costs us finals over the next couple of seasons and reinforces our direct competition.

Richards and Croft/Busslinger and then we may think about it. Otherwise **** off and don't waste our time.

 

[Joffaboy]

None of them is fit to carry Wilkiesboots. We said this about battle and Wilkie is twice as good

Battle AA
Wilkie AA
and people think we can cover losing two AA backman still at the top of their game in consecutive years and can cover them?
Holy hell.

 

[gringo2011]

Theyre also really complimentary.

Atkins is the grunt, Holmes and Smith the run, Mullin and O'Connor the defensive types.

If you have that spread you can compete at every stoppage.

I cant remember which team said it but you wanna be really hard to play against, i reckon thats what were doing, even defensively our stock now makes us super adaptable and really difficult to find clear winners for oppo teams.

Yeah, you can't plan around what you can't identify. Ratts had a great simple game plan that held up for a fair amount of the season but as soon as we got close to finals, sides started to work us out and we had no back up plan.

 

[Saintscomemarchingin]

None of them is fit to carry Wilkiesboots. We said this about battle and Wilkie is twice as good

Keane, Murray & Worrell were very serviceable.
We need an A grade mid above all else

 

[gringo2011]

Aleer, Barrat, Caminiti, Howard, JSoS, Tauru suggests we can cover Wilkie
Will have to in 3ish years time anyway.
We've been crying out for A grade & AA mid.
Richards at 26 y.o is it.
Would be wrong not to look at that.

Jesus that's a depressing backline. JSOS has 3/4 of a season of playing A grade KPB as the third tall defender and he'd be required to be our general and number one defender. Howard is breaking down from a pretty average base. Hammer looks like a forward finding his feet, Aleer struggles one on one, Barrat looked out of his depth in the VFL and Tauru looks like he's 2 or 3 years off being a reliable defender.

You'd be back in the SANFL hoping that there is another Wilkie there at that point.

 

[Saintscomemarchingin]

Jesus that's a depressing backline. JSOS has 3/4 of a season of playing A grade KPB as the third tall defender and he'd be required to be our general and number one defender. Howard is breaking down from a pretty average base. Hammer looks like a forward finding his feet, Aleer struggles one on one, Barrat looked out of his depth in the VFL and Tauru looks like he's 2 or 3 years off being a reliable defender.

You'd be back in the SANFL hoping that there is another Wilkie there at that point.

Depressing, yeah right, until you start seeing Aleer, JSOS & Tauru jumping on heads, shoulders, anything they can hang on.

 

[gringo2011]

Depressing, yeah right, until you start seeing Aleer, JSOS & Tauru jumping on heads.

Looking exciting and stopping scoring are two very different things. Aleer and Tauru can definitely fly but neither are great stoppers. Wilkie on the other hand is absolutely elite at unbalancing his opponent and moving them under the ball. I rate him the best one on one defender in the league. We would be a few goals per week worse off with out him.

 

[mad-saint-guy]

Plenty were happy to let him go for the money he reportedly wanted. Plenty.

Yep. I recall someone saying over and over again that Windy had shown no ability to do anything except tag, so he wasn't worthy of any more money than what was offered. Which is funny, because he might actually be our most versatile mid. Has had some standout games playing inside, done great tagging roles, been solid at half back and finished the year in excellent form mostly playing wing.

 

[TassieSaint]

Keane, Murray & Worrell were very serviceable.
We need an A grade mid above all else

Until Gunston took them to the cleaners last week.

 

[phantom13]

Keane, Murray & Worrell were very serviceable.
We need an A grade mid above all else

What do Adelaide’s defenders have to do with us?

We have an a grade mid mate, not many teams have more than one and we’ve got some kids who could develop.

I’d argue Wilkie is our most important player. I wouldn’t trade him for Richards alone with a gun to my head especially after we saw what the loss of battle did.

 

[Riewoldt]

Wtf is going on on the main board - there are people talking like Wilkie to the dogs is a foregone conclusion

 

[botts]

Wtf is going on on the main board - there are people talking like Wilkie to the dogs is a foregone conclusion

People are ******ed

 

[bird_man]

Aleer, Barrat, Caminiti, Howard, JSoS, Tauru suggests we can cover Wilkie
Will have to in 3ish years time anyway.
We've been crying out for A grade & AA mid.
Richards at 26 y.o is it.
Would be wrong not to look at that.

None of those guys come close to Wilkie.

We'd be desperate for a quality key defender the second he walked out.

 

[bird_man]

Wtf is going on on the main board - there are people talking like Wilkie to the dogs is a foregone conclusion

Armoooo is doing some trolling

 

[Saintscomemarchingin]

People are ******ed

You idiots, fair dinkum
Whose saying its a foregone conclusion.

 

[SG34]

Anyone hear Grant Thomas on SEN today.
I was surprised.
Said he had never seen an era where players were so individualistic and single-minded about ‘getting a flag on their CV’.
Said that the onus was on clubs to prove to players they are going to win a flag soon …or else….

Said that 4-6 teams are serious. Implied that the rest are not, Brutal.

Cal Wilkie?

“SEN can reveal that Wilkie took a phone call from Beveridge, with the pair speaking about a potential future at the Whitten Oval.

Wilkie, 29, is contracted at the Saints until the end of 2027 and is still unlikely to leave Moorabbin, where he stands to inherit the captaincy next season.
But as reported on SEN.com.au last month, Wilkie has been disillusioned with the direction of the club for periods of 2025, particularly over its list management direction.

Now we call it click bait, and maybe so.

But I say it can be used as an excuse too.

And what is GT saying, that the other 14-16 clubs don’t deserve to have their contracts respected?

wow!

 

[Remboy]

Battle AA
Wilkie AA
and people think we can cover losing two AA backman still at the top of their game in consecutive years and can cover them?
Holy hell.

Once we got Bont and Richards the ball will never get down there so it won't matter.

 

[St Neil]

According to the Dogs, the Bailey Smith trade is a good precedent for Wilkie

Idiots yelling at passing clouds.