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
​

 

[Diehard Saint]

You want two kings in the one side ?
Cant you just see the ball rebounding out of our backline

Happy with the two Kings we already have -
Max ( hopefully injury free) and Tom.

We have our Ace - Nas

Our Jacks - Higgins, Steele etc…

and I’m staying right away from the Queens…

 

[Diehard Saint]

You can’t rely on a good fixture to get in the finals because you’ll just be out of it again the year after.

Not necessarily true.
Winning breeds confidence. Also the team is a year older experience-wise.

 

[PoppedCorn]

Pencil Case should be called Duplo Crayon

 

[Saintbloke]

We had real issues marking the contested ball coming out of the back half, and just general contested marking around the ground and probably need build up the strength of some of our mid sized players. There is still work needed in our system of play, but that's a coaching issue more than players. Hopefully we will see improvement, and having a TDK style of player will help in the contested plays- hopefully Dodson can contribute.

 

[unrelentingbelief]

Not sure if anyone listened to sen breakfast today. Questions without notice. Tim Watson was VERY adamant to say Wilkie will be at the saints next year. Went as far as to stake a chartered flight to turkey full of sen listeners that want hair transplants and that he’d pay for everything if he was at the bulldogs next year. Obviously he’s having a laugh but just deadset shutdown the possibility of anything else.
You know what, I’m starting to think this whole exodus thing was made up from the beginning, who coulda seen that coming..
well done saints well bloody done

 

[beside the seaside]

Not sure if anyone listened to sen breakfast today. Questions without notice. He was VERY adamant to say Wilkie will be at the saints next year. Went as far as to stake a chartered flight to turkey full of sen listeners that want hair transplants and that he’d pay for everything if he was at the bulldogs next year. Obviously he’s having a laugh but just deadset shutdown the possibility of anything else.
You know what, I’m starting to think this whole exodus thing was made up from the beginning, who coulda seen that coming..
well done saints well bloody done

Who was it saying that?

 

[unrelentingbelief]

Not sure if anyone listened to sen breakfast today. Questions without notice. He was VERY adamant to say Wilkie will be at the saints next year. Went as far as to stake a chartered flight to turkey full of sen listeners that want hair transplants and that he’d pay for everything if he was at the bulldogs next year. Obviously he’s having a laugh but just deadset shutdown the possibility of anything else.
You know what, I’m starting to think this whole exodus thing was made up from the beginning, who coulda seen that coming..
well done saints well bloody done

Just listen to the questions without notice segment from 16:30
He just tripled down, it’s makes for good listening

 

[unrelentingbelief]

Who was it saying that?

Tim Watson apologies

 

[beside the seaside]

Just on Marshall. Watching the Cats in the prelim and Neale was plonked at full forward for large parts of the game. Can't see why Marshall couldn't be as effective as him in that position. Takes pressure off King aswell.

 

[stavro#4]

 

[SaintsofSteel]

You can’t rely on a good fixture to get in the finals because you’ll just be out of it again the year after.

It’s all on Ross next year to come up with a gameplan that stacks up IMO. I look at Hawthorn and while we probably don’t have a Newcombe you’ll never convince me that they have so much more to work with than us, they’re just an extremely well coached team that’s full of belief and not told in every second press conference they’re not good enough. Our midfield is still a work in progress but the Hawks almost made the grand final without one.

Injuries to key players and the loss of Battle played a huge part in our season decline. Take Gunston, Battle and Barrass out of the Hawthorn side and how would they go for the season. They lost Day for large chunks but their list depth was ridiculous, on the back of years of a well run Box Hill team. Mitchell cant take the credit for the list he inherited apart from the recent trades.

Regardless of what new players we add next season it will take time for them to gell with their team mates and learn our systems. Given where our list was at and the lack of depth after injuries I would suggest that Lyon had a good season in the coaches box and is as good as any coach in the game. I dont buy the hype over Mitchell being any better than other coaches other than being a 'good salesman'.

If you cant see the disparity in lists and the club resources well no one is going to change that.

 

[CanadianSaint]

https://share.google/d7uvS1ATVZKANkycD

Miss that band... The Aussie bands everyone knows here are:

• Inxs
• Midnight Oil (old Cunucks)

And The Little River Band was very popular.

 

[ScrappyDo]

Just can't see us going after Ben King

Me either, but it's 2-3-4 years away so we really don't know how the landscape will look by then.

 

[hayes]

Injuries to key players and the loss of Battle played a huge part in our season decline. Take Gunston, Battle and Barrass out of the Hawthorn side and how would they go for the season. They lost Day for large chunks but their list depth was ridiculous, on the back of years of a well run Box Hill team. Mitchell cant take the credit for the list he inherited apart from the recent trades.

Regardless of what new players we add next season it will take time for them to gell with their team mates and learn our systems. Given where our list was at and the lack of depth after injuries I would suggest that Lyon had a good season in the coaches box and is as good as any coach in the game. I dont buy the hype over Mitchell being any better than other coaches other than a 'good salesman'.

If you cant see the disparity in lists and the club resources well no one is going to change that.

They made the second week of finals last year without Battle and Barrass and Gunston was subbed out. That’s the beauty of Mitchell’s system, it works regardless of who’s in there. I’ll concede there’s an experience gap and they probably didn’t play as many single digit game players but you can’t go after multiple 28 year olds and then come up with excuses. It’s on him and like I said I’m sure he’ll come up with something.

 

[stavro#4]

GETTABLE

• leek Aleer might be the 4th or 5th priority (but he will get to the saints)
• Pick 7 on the table for Sam Flanders
• Marshall, Pick purchasing in another form (700k for a FRP)
• Expecting Wilkie stays. But he hasn’t said an outright no to the Dogs. But Wilkie won’t push it.

They throw out a Hypothetical trade for Wilkie.
Pick 10 + F1 - they could try package pick 10 and 28 and move up to pick 6 for us etc

 

[ronnysnodgrass]

this makes the most sense to me for JUH tbh. Get somewhere out of the limelight.

 

[Dr Spaceman]

Bernard Tomic as his mentor? #WhatCouldGoWrong

 

[ScrappyDo]

We had real issues marking the contested ball coming out of the back half, and just general contested marking around the ground and probably need build up the strength of some of our mid sized players. There is still work needed in our system of play, but that's a coaching issue more than players. Hopefully we will see improvement, and having a TDK style of player will help in the contested plays- hopefully Dodson can contribute.

If we get the players we're after we'll have a spine of:
King/Hammer
Marshall
TDK
Jsos/Wilkie
Aleer/Howard/Hammer

Compare that to this season:
Chito
Sharman
Marshall
Wilkie
Hammer

It's a major upgrade in both quality and depth and you only need look at it to see why we had contested marking issues. I reckon RTB was firced into coping mechanisms due to lack of height on all lines and we probably haven't seen what the real system looks like yet.

 

[Saints43]

Just on Marshall. Watching the Cats in the prelim and Neale was plonked at full forward for large parts of the game. Can't see why Marshall couldn't be as effective as him in that position. Takes pressure off King aswell.

Marshall could start forward and then float back to play a kick behind the ball.
I reckon we're mad if we let him go.
He could be a high quality utility for us depending on the need during the game.
He and TDK could really help trap the ball in the front half while we play with 5 forwards, which happens pretty often with us.

 

[Moorabbin Ghost]

this makes the most sense to me for JUH tbh. Get somewhere out of the limelight.

Yeah perfect for him to be on Cavill Ave on a Saturday night.

 

[NAS THE GOAT]

Real two faced sort of character.

Bunch of players at Collingwood don’t like him… mainly anyone under 25

Funny, but I actually heard these exact words from a player who he has coached there in last few years

 

[Geezington]

this makes the most sense to me for JUH tbh. Get somewhere out of the limelight.

Having just lived on the Gold Coast for the past year I know he would go absolutely mental up there

 

[Joffaboy]

Edmund loves to put Mayo on a story.

Breathlessly announces Saints haven't put forward an improved contract to Wilkie and Bulldogs think they can pull off a 'coup'.
Offhandedly says Wilkie is contracted to end 2027 and likely to be captain and unlikely to move. His management wants to see a new contract. I bet they do.
Why do they have to renew a player who is contracted to end 2027 now?

Geez they make absolute shit up.

 

[Rogue Warrior]

Funny, but I actually heard these exact words from a player who he has coached there in last few years

I saw him speak at a Melbourne United Basketball season launch function. He came off as incredibly smug, super intense, but trying to project he’s all zen. And he was really preaching the moral high ground. I came away liking him even less than I did previously. Seems like an absolute douche

 

[Joffaboy]

Funny, but I actually heard these exact words from a player who he has coached there in last few years

Everyone was saying the same thing about Lyon V 1.0 at the Saints