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
​

 

[KingJim]

We have been copping Flak in the media today, something about Money for nothing and Aleer for free.

 

[phantom13]

You are focused on “walking away”.

It’s not the issue at all. We did it with Soldo and Kemp just last year. Both publicly agreed to come.

The issue is us walking away is considered poor because Aleer nominated us and is going to lose a significant pay bump.

And as I’ve pointed out that you haven’t spoken to.

Geelong have done the exact same thing with Marshall. They are applauded. They offered what they thought was fair and not what we wanted.

Except that no one is reporting Geelong has walked away.

The issue is a perception one, I don’t see a single person saying we’ve made a mistake by not pursuing Aleer, it’s accepted we’ve made a (ruthless) decision in our best interest.

You’re just not even arguing the actual criticism of us here just saying “oh deals don’t get done all the time” it’s very rare that a deal is dead, for a player we’ve courted and offered a contract to for a year, with a week to run in the trade period. It’s even rarer for a manager to come out and ****ing smash a club for bailing on the deal.

None is this is normal, that doesn’t make it wrong for the club, but the criticism is about the process that we’ve bucked. You’re ignoring that entirely

 

[gringo2011]

Right, so it wasn't worth doing what literally happens every year and hold off to see if the other club is posturing or finding some middle ground in the final day?

Come on mate, I know you love the club and will go to any extreme to put a positive spin on every decision, but if you can't see that we have just got buyer remorse in this situation you are blind.

At the end of the day you need to separate the emotion. The Giants want a second round pick for a C grade player. Our board rightly said no. It sounds like we put up a really generous offer and they wouldn’t budge. We can’t spend weeks dicking around with an intransigent idiot.

I’m glad we didn’t stuff around for optics. It’s like us demanding a second rounder for Moose. If we did that you’d expect Melbourne to tell us to **** off too.

 

[saintmike65]

If it’s as reported (and obviously take all that shit with a barrel of salt) then we walked away from the Aleer deal and we’ve walked away from the Marshall deal.

Trying to claim that somehow those two things are the same is pretty silly.

To be clear I don’t really care but trying to make the cats look like they’ve done what we did is dumb.

Ro's a required player so the onus is on Geelong to make an offer that's hard to pass up on

 

[CanadianSaint]

I still think Curnow goes to Sydney and Marshall goes to Geelong

I dont think so, I bt Geelong get both, its just how... I think Currow doesnt want to leave melbourne, he wants to leave Carlton.

 

[StJimmy]

Bassat stated we’re not here to make friends and we all applauded.
Saints made a hard, unpopular call and will now own it as part of that mantra.
Business is hard and only the tough survive, I for one support all decisions that are best for the club, fu#k the media and the bed wetters

 

[Hayes4PM]

Narratives

Lowball your rival club for their contracted, 2 x Coleman medallist.

“I COMMEND GEELONG”.



Offer close to market value for an uncontracted, depth defender and walk away when knocked back.

“IT’S A DISGRACE. IT’S A BOMBSHELL.”

 

[Bob Butter]

Two things can be true. You can feel bad for Aleer for the handling of the situation, but at the same time Saints are within their rights to walk away from GWS’ ridiculous demands. How are they not copping any heat for demanding a future 2nd, nothing less, for a guy who probably wouldn’t even be worth a 2nd IF he was contracted. He is uncontracted therefore worth significantly less, a 3rd rd pick is more than fair. Teams should not have you over a barrel just because you’ve engaged in trade negotiations.

And people saying this is different to Geelong and Marshall because Geelong haven’t ‘officially’ pulled out of the trade. Show me where the Saints released a press statement announcing they have pulled out. This all came through Aleers manager and the media. The only difference with the Marshall situation is that Marshall’s manager hasn’t put out an angry statement. Geelong pursued Marshall, convinced him to request a trade, and then tried to bully the saints over what will likely be 1-4 picks (14-18 range next season compared to 17 this year) and then offered said picks to Carlton, which might as well be a statement that they are moving on. And now you have the media reporting Marshall will be at the saints and the deal has fallen through, as opposed to the narrative that Geelong has screwed Marshall.

 

[Half Back Pocket]

This whole narrative around “players agents will never look at us in the future” is absolute crap. They are only in it for themselves/their clients. If we are the best deal, they will sign.

Talking to a major player agent this morning who has nothing but praise for the way we handled the trade process earlier this week. Couldn’t be happier with dealing with us and the move for his client

 

[Dard Ball Get]

At the end of the day you need to separate the emotion. The Giants want a second round pick for a C grade player. Our board rightly said no. It sounds like we put up a really generous offer and they wouldn’t budge. We can’t spend weeks dicking around with an intransigent idiot.

I’m glad we didn’t stuff around for optics. It’s like us demanding a second rounder for Moose. If we did that you’d expect Melbourne to tell us to **** off too.

In rare form the last 24 hours. Love you dearly

 

[snails13]

I find it interesting, listening and reading some Trade news today that supposedly GWS will give Aleer a 3 year deal at $300 k.
How is that valued at a 2nd Rd pick

 

[Pardon me]

No point trying to defuse a bomb after it’s gone off.
Would love the club to say the asking price was too high and we walked away leaving the door ajar for further negotiation…until his manager stepped in.
Make it so this peanut is left with no clients, he clearly doesn’t have them in his best interests anyway.
Complete amateur.

 

[phantom13]

Ro's a required player so the onus is on Geelong to make an offer that's hard to pass up on

Sure, never said otherwise…

Not sure what relevance this has?

 

[Dard Ball Get]

This whole narrative around “players agents will never look at us in the future” is absolute crap. They are only in it for themselves/their clients. If we are the best deal, they will sign.

Talking to a major player agent this morning who has nothing but praise for the way we handled the trade process earlier this week. Couldn’t be happier with dealing with us and the move for his client

Real player agents will be laughing at megamind Dylan Smith. He’s 0/2 this TP

 

[bergholt]

It sounds harsh but de-listing a player with a commitment to relist is a pretty standard list management practice these days.

Players can nominate the terms so are prepared to accept so its not like they are left hanging. Clubs probably chuck in a sweetener for a player to agree to the arrangement.

The player doesn't need to agree to it tbh, if they're delisted then they're delisted. Doesn't mean they stop getting pay cheques though.

 

[unrelentingbelief]

Tony74 is starting to give time travelling super hero sent from the future to make sure a saints flag happens at just the right moment in history. Where was he 3 qtr time of the Melbourne game.

Tony74 being on the money again despite all industry experts claims is the real story here. He’s like Batman, shows up out of the blue, drops a bombshell and then just disappears.

 

[Anythings_sipposible]

Some guy on the Leek Aleer thread thinks that a third club should take Aleer, pay him 200k a year, and effectively sue St Kilda for 500k a year to make up the difference ithe wage it offers and the wage offered and then reneged on by the Saints. This is just some random Carlton guy, and I think it is the worst take I've ever seen on here.

The Saints are making people lose their minds this year. Like you can just see the cognitive dissonance melting the brains of opposition supporters (particularly of the Blues and Dogs) in real time. This has been the most bizarre trade period. You've got huge names like Petracca, Merrett, and Curnow on the board, but all anyone can seem to talk about is the Saints. And it is overwhelmingly negative, performative, and self-righteous. Just a whole bunch of trade Karen's getting up on the most bizarre of high horses.

Have we ever received this much attention, outside of some kind of off field scandal?

 

[aussierulesrules]

While it’s messy af the way it’s turned out, I’m so glad we’ve pulled the pin on this Aleer move.

Wasn’t keen on him before we entered the SOSOS discussion, but once we were locked in there it just made no sense whatsoever to me for us to go after him as well. Unless perhaps we could get him for SFA, for depth.

On what planet do we need more than Wilkie, Silvagni, Caminiti, Howard, Tauru, Barrat and even Keeler!?

All this is especially the case if Marshall stays, and Hammer remains down back. He’s already ahead of Aleer, despite being two years younger and having barely done a proper preseason yet.

 

[dudeintheswamp]

Long way to go...

 

[stavro#4]

Except that no one is reporting Geelong has walked away.

The issue is a perception one, I don’t see a single person saying we’ve made a mistake by not pursuing Aleer, it’s accepted we’ve made a (ruthless) decision in our best interest.

You’re just not even arguing the actual criticism of us here just saying “oh deals don’t get done all the time” it’s very rare that a deal is dead, for a player we’ve courted and offered a contract to for a year, with a week to run in the trade period. It’s even rarer for a manager to come out and ****ing smash a club for bailing on the deal.

None is this is normal, that doesn’t make it wrong for the club, but the criticism is about the process that we’ve bucked. You’re ignoring that entirely

Edmund literally says he doesn’t know if Geelong walked away and then pivoted to Curnow.



So there are a lot of “facts” that aren’t out in the open.

I’m aware of the process and our actions have aligned entirely and consistently with our behaviour the last few trade periods. Walking away from under deals and overpays.

GWS value Aleer as a second round pick. Which is there right. We value him as a third.

If the industry thinks a second round pick for Aleer is fair. I assume North or the Dogs or any other side needing a tall defender will swoop in.

 

[unrelentingbelief]

 

[Significant]

Walked away from Aleer because there are no suitors for Steele, Geelong know we need to shed players and are using it as leverage so won't pony up so we won't trade Marshall.

We need to move two players on before we can even contemplate Aleer, that's why we dropped out of negotiations.

It ain't happening, and I applaud the club.

 

[SK_MD_#7]

SK_MD_#7

I’m alive and stalking

 

[NAS THE GOAT]

We definitely changed our mind on Aleer if Jason McCartney

Jason Mccartney

Age

51

Ht

191cm

Wt

95kg

Pos.

D/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.7

3star

K

7.1

3star

HB

3.5

3star

M

3.6

4star

T

0.8

3star

No current season stats available

D

10.0

3star

K

5.8

3star

HB

4.2

4star

M

3.8

4star

T

0.6

3star

is to be believed

 

[stavro#4]