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
​

 

[Mstr Strokesman]

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

Mmmm .This is an unfortunate situation for Leek.Moreover, the look of the Saints to the comp, future players and player Managers.
Now this is areal difficult job to negotiate,no question,but looks really simliar to the Jy Caldwell Brad Crouch deal.
Heres a few examples from recent years we had players wanting to join us,but didn’t for various reasons.
Ivan Soldo.
Tristan Xerri.
Jy Caldwell.
Leek Alleer.
Mitch Brown,
Probably a couple more too.
Good teams just get it done ,if we want to be a destination club ,these trades get done .

 

[_Maximus_12]

What has been forgotten, is that if GWS had of accepted our offer earlier in the week wouldn’t be having this conversation.

rightly or wrongly, sos and gubby are moving fast to get things done and bring talent through the door.

 

[Moquo]

I don't give a shit about the media, other clubs, or player managers. I do hope the club treats all players with respect, because failing to do so will bite us on the arse pretty quickly. But I have no idea what has happened, and it's not over yet.
So I'm still enjoying the ride

 

[OxSaint]

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

Do you mean $600k? No one offered him that king of money

 

[westernsainter]

Pussies board all praising Mackie for ‘sticking it to STK’ by offering all there picks for Curnow (Which won’t get a deal done anyway ).

Worst case we keep Marshall.
Will be iconic if they don’t get either

They sure showed us…

I'm actually insulted on behalf of Carlton of all clubs that they have made that offer for Curnow. Miles off it.

 

[XhazzafootyX]

Trade radio today was at an all time bizarre

 

[DT_35]

Geelong board:

‘Here's the only trade I would do, involving SDK:


Geelong give up: SDK, OHenry

St Kilda give up: Marshall, Future 1st

Carlton give up: Curnow

Port give up: Butters, Future 2nd ('26)


--


Geelong Get: Marshall, Curnow, Butters

St Kilda Get: SDK

Carlton Get: OHenry, F1 (Geelong 26') , F2 (Port '26)

Port Get: Pick 18 (Geelong), F1 (St Kilda '26), F1 (Geelong '27)’



LOL holy ****

 

[Banger9798]

Who apart from BF has actually said ANYTHING about SDK?

You say that like that's not blue ribbon intel

 

[westernsainter]

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

Meeting salary floor requirements and bolstering our depth has nothing to do with what we value draft picks. The new CBA has completely divorced one from the other. Look at Essendon - Merrett is on less than 1m a year, should they take a late first rounder for him?

 

[BrutThough]

Certainly an F2 seems high but GWS asking for that with a week to go and us just walking away…

We could claim the deal couldnt get done if we kept negotiating until the end of the trade period but 7 days to go… hard to argue we tried

It's all guesswork but something must have happened between the parties to cause it to breakdown to this degree. I find it hard to believe it was as simple as us being unwilling to pay a F2. There has to be a bigger reason why we walked away all together.

 

[The_Steadier]

Yeah seems like an excuse.

Which begs the question what has changed?

It isn't necessarily that anything has changed in the last week.

We could well have planned it.

Ie our plan was (after landing jsos unexpectedly) entering trade period with a view that we would reluctantly sign aleer if gws didn't give us a half assed cover story.

But- if they gave us any ammunition (anything even half decent)- we'd use it to kill the aleer deal.

It could very well be the case that we went into trade period hoping gws wouldn't just hand him over for scraps.
And the second they did just that- we hit the abort button like we wanted to do all along.

No SDK or some other mystery- just us following our plan.

 

[_Maximus_12]

Geelong board:

‘Here's the only trade I would do, involving SDK:


Geelong give up: SDK, OHenry

St Kilda give up: Marshall, Future 1st

Carlton give up: Curnow

Port give up: Butters, Future 2nd ('26)


--


Geelong Get: Marshall, Curnow, Butters

St Kilda Get: SDK

Carlton Get: OHenry, F1 (Geelong 26') , F2 (Port '26)

Port Get: Pick 18 (Geelong), F1 (St Kilda '26), F1 (Geelong '27)’


LOL holy ****

I’m not pairing Marshall with a future first for SDK. You’re effectively valuing SDK at 2 firsts

 

[westernsainter]

Geelong board:

‘Here's the only trade I would do, involving SDK:


Geelong give up: SDK, OHenry

St Kilda give up: Marshall, Future 1st

Carlton give up: Curnow

Port give up: Butters, Future 2nd ('26)


--


Geelong Get: Marshall, Curnow, Butters

St Kilda Get: SDK

Carlton Get: OHenry, F1 (Geelong 26') , F2 (Port '26)

Port Get: Pick 18 (Geelong), F1 (St Kilda '26), F1 (Geelong '27)’


LOL holy ****

I've seen some bullshit but this is right up there. How can you possibly look at Carlton alone in that trade and think they would even entertain a discussion on this

 

[stavro#4]

This seems true but walking with a week to go is petulant

Just seems like aggressive posturing and probably gets done at the deadline for similar.

Unless of course a player has taken our attention and that’s the core issue.

 

[westernsainter]

This seems true but walking with a week to go is petulant

Agree with this. Would have been far smarter to just let this drag out and fall over at the deadline, bad PR for the club today even if it is super over the top.

 

[phantom13]

Just seems like aggressive posturing and probably gets done at the deadline for similar.

Unless of course a player has taken our attention and that’s the core issue.

Not sure about the first bit. The press release is scorched earth. I’d be stunned if Aleer had any interest coming back now

 

[austinnn]

“Whining”

Sounds like Dylan Smith is doing the Whining, leave the Saints boys to do the Wining.

 

[tomjoad]

Certainly an F2 seems high but GWS asking for that with a week to go and us just walking away…

We could claim the deal couldnt get done if we kept negotiating until the end of the trade period but 7 days to go… hard to argue we tried

What a trip hey!?
But agree with you 100% here. Surely we would've dragged out and faked our way through negotiations and claim "We tried" closer to the end of trade period, just for the optics... than just set the whole thing on fire right now.
Something has either been found out, or something is in the works.

 

[Mowman]

If I see another dickhead saying we should have offered more because of the contract value I'm going to lose it. Post new CBA the two issues are totally divorced from one another and managing the cap/floor has nothing to do with what players are valued pickwise. Genuinely zero IQ stuff from so many out there.

pull your head turbo lol

 

[BilboJackins]

Has the club confirmed we’re out of the race for Aleer or did GWS leak it?

 

[sainter7]

by my count, primary list spot changes look like this

in	out
TDK	Webster
Silvagni	Cordy
Flanders	Heath
Ryan	Jones (OOC)
ND1	Schoenmaker (OOC)
ND2 (Fincher?)	Byrnes (OOC)
ND3 (Caminiti upgrade)	Steele / Marshall / Butler / ...?

even without Aleer we still need to lose a contracted player to make it work

sounds like Steele is pretty adamant he wants to stay (as is his right) & has no suitors (yet). Butler to GC has only been mentioned on here as far as I'm aware

which leaves Marshall. knocking back Aleer was a strong signal we may actually intend to retain him, which was a very dubious proposition if Aleer was also to take up a spot

the Cats responded by leaking they have offered 3 firsts for Curnow and announced the re-signing of Stanley. which doesn't materially change anything, but signals they have also moved on and are not going to improve their offer

feels like everyone is playing games the moment & Aleer is a very unfortunate casualty

the pragmatic part of me thinks we'll flick Butler up to GC for a token future pick and that will be that

the chaotic part is wondering why we haven't announced Wilkie's two-year extension yet?

Believe Carroll is OOC too

 

[gringo2011]

Yes 100%

There are a lot of new players coming in, will need time to gel, and there is still plenty of development left in the younger talent.

We would need a fair bit to go right to go deep in finals.

Clubs like Geelong and Gold Coast had amazing luck with injury lists this year. Definitely helped with their season results as I don't think either club has amazing depth.

Adelaide too. They are pretty much a model for us. Bottom 4 to top of the ladder after topping up with mostly solid citizens. Then one of the better injury runs in years. Their developing KP forward turned elite too. That could easily be us in 12 months. Hopefully Higgo doesn’t turn homophobic.

 

[Pardon me]

Pussies board all praising Mackie for ‘sticking it to STK’ by offering all there picks for Curnow (Which won’t get a deal done anyway ).

Worst case we keep Marshall.
Will be iconic if they don’t get either

They sure showed us…

Carlton would be absolutely mental to accept 3 picks in the late 20's/early 30's for Curnow.
There's no way they accept that deal.

 

[_Maximus_12]

Has the club confirmed we’re out of the race for Aleer or did GWS leak it?

Clearly no Leeks at st kilda

 

[austinnn]

Didn’t Melbourne just back out of a deal ?.

Anyway Aleer has 3 years on the table at GWS so he’s not homeless.

I love the way this bloke expects for the situation to be the same TWO YEARS from the initial approach.

Mate, you have to be more flexible!