List Mgmt. 2025 List Management Discussion - Part V

[Hubnester]

2025 List Management Discussion - Part 5

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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[Saintscomemarchingin]

Zero Hangar- Essendon fc. best 23
Gresham not named in it.

 

[goodie23]

Zero Hangar- Essendon fc. best 23
Gresham not named in it.

Fair amount of buyer's regret there. No disrespect to Gresh - but it was an unlikely, one might say desperate, recruiting choice.

 

[dudeintheswamp]

Is my memory correct in that we used the Gresham pick on Collard?

 

[ScrappyDo]

Is my memory correct in that we used the Gresham pick on Collard?

Yep

 

[dudeintheswamp]

Yep

Whatdya reckon Scrappy, how will Collard's contracted next two years pan out? Seems to have all the moves...

 

[Sarcoidevo]

Collard will be a gun .... and will be an absolute handful for opposition BPs down the track but we need to be patient ..... just let him fill out, strengthen and build his stamina and develop whilst learning from the experienced Ryan who has similar dynamic traits

 

[saintmike65]

Zero Hangar- Essendon fc. best 23
Gresham not named in it.

Quite right...selfish little t**d

 

[Mav3rick]

Here’s a fun piece of trivia for everybody, or not so fun depending on your POV. The saints do not have a single player on the list who we took in the national draft and has lasted 10 years. Our closest are Hunter Clark

11

Hunter Clark

Age

26

Ht

186cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

17.5

4star

K

9.5

4star

HB

8.0

5star

M

3.6

4star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.3

3star

D

16.0

4star

K

9.6

4star

HB

6.4

4star

M

3.1

3star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.9

4star

D

13.2

4star

K

6.6

3star

HB

6.6

4star

M

2.2

3star

T

2.0

4star

CL

0.0

1star

(9th year) and Max King (8th year) who have had their careers derailed by injuries.

We must be the only team in the entire league who weren’t able to draft and retain ANY good talent during the 2010s. The silver lining of this failure is that it forced us to unearth and develop talent like Sinclair, Wilkie, Marshall, Sharman, etc from nowhere, as well as reset and go hard at the draft this decade, which appears to have turned our fortunes around.

Also has meant we didn’t have to pay anyone significant money to resign since they weren’t any good, and that money has been put to good use now. Are we now a benefactor of our own past incompetence? The next few years will tell.

 

[The Punter]

Here’s a fun piece of trivia for everybody, or not so fun depending on your POV. The saints do not have a single player on the list who we took in the national draft and has lasted 10 years. Our closest are Hunter Clark (9th year) and Max King (8th year) who have had their careers derailed by injuries.

We must be the only team in the entire league who weren’t able to draft and retain ANY good talent during the 2010s. The silver lining of this failure is that it forced us to unearth and develop talent like Sinclair, Wilkie, Marshall, Sharman, etc from nowhere, as well as reset and go hard at the draft this decade, which appears to have turned our fortunes around.

Also has meant we didn’t have to pay anyone significant money to resign since they weren’t any good, and that money has been put to good use now. Are we now a benefactor of our own past incompetence? The next few years will tell.

Also means if we can keep the 2020s group together, fun stuff will happen. Not many elder statesmen to transition out, now that Steele has gone.

Although I reckon Wood and Hill having contracts for 2027 will seem odd at times in the next 20 months.

 

[SainterinSydney]

Collard will be a gun .... and will be an absolute handful for opposition BPs down the track but we need to be patient ..... just let him fill out, strengthen and build his stamina and develop whilst learning from the experienced Ryan who has similar dynamic traits

This. We need to be patient with Lancey Boy!

 

[goodie23]

Also means if we can keep the 2020s group together, fun stuff will happen. Not many elder statesmen to transition out, now that Steele has gone.

Although I reckon Wood and Hill having contracts for 2027 will seem odd at times in the next 20 months.

Not in the slightest - I see that as strong long-term planning. They're two blokes we absolutely want to hang onto as staff. Either decides at the end of this year to hang up the boots, we move roles around and use them as mentors and coaches and have the contracts in place to block another club from snaking them.

 

[The Punter]

Not in the slightest - I see that as strong long-term planning. They're two blokes we absolutely want to hang onto as staff. Either decides at the end of this year to hang up the boots, we move roles around and use them as mentors and coaches and have the contracts in place to block another club from snaking them.

I was measured in my statement: odd at times. I have no issue with the contracts overall, and I suspect Wood will play in the ones less and less, but there will be times where someone else ends up on the outer, or Hill gets caught deep in defence, and we will have moment for pause.

I'd love to see them stay at the club once they're done playing.

 

[ScrappyDo]

Whatdya reckon Scrappy, how will Collard's contracted next two years pan out? Seems to have all the moves...

I think it's been said from the start that he has all the talent anyone needs but the rest is up to him.

What l think that means is that the lack of clear indicators means you simply couldn't predict it from the outside, and personally l still wouldn't put it better than a 50/50 chance anyway since the pull home will always be quite significant. This is his year to show something though.