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
​

 

[Yawkey way]

We didn't really. Geelong knew about Bowes being a massive salary dump the previous season through one of their administrators who came from the AFL. They spent the next year working on him before news of GC needing to ditch him came to light and no one was going to get a sniff by that point.

The most surprising thing in all of this is Bowes has gone on to play some decent football and become a regular.

 

[Circus]

I base my viewpoints on data.

"Men lie, women lie, numbers don't"

Perfectly happy admitting I don't watch a huge amount of games not involving St Kilda.

The key data points on Flanders are:

• 24 years old
• 89 career games and 57 career coaches votes
• One top 10 B&F finish.

I don't need to watch him play 20 games to hold the view that trading a pick 10 or 11 (even in a "weak draft") isn't a good idea in this instance.

You most certainly do, that's precisely why posters get so pissed off with you! Your "opinions" are not based on any evidence, instead views you hold views regardless of any objective, unarguable facts.

 

[saintmike65]

He only got one chance unfortunately and it was against reilly o'brien in round 1 at adelaide oval, so tough. But watching the VFL, he put in some decent performances and its a smart pickup for ruck depth. He did win the SANFL best and fairest in 2024 so not that long ago

198cm ruck that can't jump..

 

[Nutsngum]

The most surprising thing in all of this is Bowes has gone on to play some decent football and become a regular.

To be fair I dont think Geelong would have gone for him had he been a spud but their interest was 100% based on GC willing to part with a pick as well. Otherwise just Bowes alone for a token pick 90 or something would have made sense.

 

[austinnn]

I'm heading down to the Sam Flan disco right now!

Didn't "Disco" use to be the nickname of Lenny Hayes

Lenny Hayes

Age

45

Ht

186cm

Wt

85kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

22.5

5star

K

11.5

4star

HB

11.0

5star

M

3.7

4star

T

5.0

5star

CL

5.2

5star

No current season stats available

D

9.2

3star

K

5.0

2star

HB

4.2

4star

M

1.6

2star

T

0.4

3star

originally? Time to revive it, I think.

 

[saintmike65]

What about Fincher?

Aleer and Ryan will be future picks...49 could get us Fincher with the NGA discount in play.
If not we go into slight points deficit next year

 

[St Neil]

More like ‘son, I’ll get you out of that steaming heap at Carlton if you do all of my interviews for me’.

SOS was there as well.

 

[CrossRiverSaint]

Robert Harvey.

Or Winmar?

 

[mad-saint-guy]

Jesus Christ almighty COFFIELD 5TH JONES 6TH... embarassing

That group led us to our only winning final since 2010. Most successful saints team of the past 15 years. Unfortunately that success was a short lived sugar hit on the back of a massive haul of mature recruits in 2019...

 

[True Believer]

Have they touched on Iron Maiden yet ?.

Seventh son of the seventh son is one of their great tracks.

The entire album is awesome......

 

[PJays]

For heaven’s sake - AB, RTB, the LM team and many people on here have given you the explanation.

Once more for good measure…

The plan was:

* 3/4 years of draft picks.
( the most players drafted by any club over the past 4 years)

* Hit free agency hard.
TDK
JSOS

* Fill in list gaps both positional AND age profile-wise
Aleer . Position and age
Ryan . Position
Flanders Position and age

ONE year not taking a first round draft pick in what is considered an extremely weak draft is seriously not an issue.

If you think this has not been thought through and considered extremely throughly, ( and you obviously doubt the main players in this are professional) well then I don’t know what more we can tell you.

**The ONLY caveat being that if NAS had not signed on, we would have continued on a different path - which has also been explained by Gubby etc.

The question I was referring to was why Flanders only got 53 centre bounce attendances in 2025

Either he was playing injured, or he was deemed a terrible fit alongside Rowell/Anderson for some reason, or he's not as good as everyone thinks

Presumably the explanation would be one of those.

 

[bird_man]

The question I was referring to was why Flanders only got 53 centre bounce attendances in 2025

Either he was playing injured, or he was deemed a terrible fit alongside Rowell/Anderson for some reason, or he's not as good as everyone thinks

Presumably the explanation would be one of those.

Been common knowledge that he was dealing with back issues through the year. Dimma even commented on it late in the year and said he probably should have not been playing at times.

 

[Sully111]

Flanders has shown he is capable of playing some very very good football. I'm chuffed he chose us over multiple offers from other clubs. Speaks volumes about our progression.

We need good ball users and decision makers. He very much appears to be that.

He was contracted. If we wanted him, we had to pay up.

Bring on next season.

 

[TheJackal]

If he was so dominant in 2024 why was he not played in the centre square much in 2025?

He had 53 attendances- less than Read (76) Humphrey (242) Davies (149)

Was this merely a case of Flanders being deemed a terrible fit alongside Rowell and Anderson?

Had something like less than 10 in the second half of the year, possibly after he met with us?

Davies took his CBAs for some reason but yeah, his back had issues apparently and was played out of position thanks to Rioli etc.

 

[saintmike65]

Is there still that rule where you need to pick up a minimum of 3 kids on draft night?

We can elevate 2 rookies onto the primary list

 

[PJays]

Been common knowledge that he was dealing with back issues through the year. Dimma even commented on it late in the year and said he probably should have not been playing at times.

So we're taking a 24 year old who wasn't capable of playing midfield because of a back issue- and everyone's convinced he'll be the next star mid for St Kilda?

Sounds optimistic but OK.

Sounds like high risk, high reward. A 2024 Flanders would certainly be worth it, if he can play at that level for 7 or 8 years.

 

[True Believer]

If he was so dominant in 2024 why was he not played in the centre square much in 2025?

He had 53 attendances- less than Read (76) Humphrey (242) Davies (149)

Was this merely a case of Flanders being deemed a terrible fit alongside Rowell and Anderson?

Bugger me....


He was injured you pratt!!!!

 

[bird_man]

So we're taking a 24 year old who wasn't capable of playing midfield because of a back issue- and everyone's convinced he'll be the next star mid for St Kilda?

Sounds optimistic but OK.

Sounds like high risk, high reward. A 2024 Flanders would certainly be worth it, if he can play at that level for 7 or 8 years.

More convinced than the guy we would have taken at 13 or wherever the pick ends up.

Time will tell though. It's always a risk as is the draft.

 

[OPsaints]

I'm heading down to the Sam Flan disco right now!

Didn't "Disco" use to be the nickname of Lenny Hayes originally? Time to revive it, I think.

No. It was Michael Roach's nickname from memory

 

[CrossRiverSaint]

So you add Archer May. Which of our contracted players are you delisting this offseason to make way for him? Or which of our recruits are you not pursuing?

I wouldn't be pursuing Liam Ryan. He doesn't seem to fill anything on the list

 

[TheJackal]

We can elevate 2 rookies onto the primary list

Yep, one must be Hammer as he has outstayed his AFL allowed welcome on the rookie list.

 

[dougiemac]

If your grandmother had wheels, she would have been a bike

Easy. My sister is a bike.

 

[Kildonan]

What do you think we might get for him, a third rounder or something?

I think they've planned to allow him to fall to Melbourne as a DFA

 

[gubby88]

Easy. My sister is a bike.

spent my entire teenage years calling my older sister "mongoose" she had no idea why until she had kids and started buying bikes

 

[phantom13]

If he was so dominant in 2024 why was he not played in the centre square much in 2025?

He had 53 attendances- less than Read (76) Humphrey (242) Davies (149)

Was this merely a case of Flanders being deemed a terrible fit alongside Rowell and Anderson?

So we're taking a 24 year old who wasn't capable of playing midfield because of a back issue- and everyone's convinced he'll be the next star mid for St Kilda?

Sounds optimistic but OK.

Sounds like high risk, high reward. A 2024 Flanders would certainly be worth it, if he can play at that level for 7 or 8 years.

If you’ll remember there was a bloke named tom Mitchell who couldn’t break into a regular midfield spot at the swans because of the guys he was behind too.

GC has argurably the best 1-2 midfield combo in the comp and Flanders was behind that, then to your point as a fit he probably wasn’t complimentary to others given his similarities to Rowell plus he was still pretty effective as a half forward.

Honestly though mate, you clearly know all this and still don’t rate the trade. That’s fine but hiding behind the position of “asking questions” is a bit tiresome at this point.