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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[BrutThough]

it will be the NT

the government have flagged they will fund it completely. running costs. everything.

They can barely get young men to stay on the Gold Coast. No way they get 45 of them to willingly live in Darwin to make an NT viable.

 

[westernsainter]

They can barely get young men to stay on the Gold Coast. No way they get 45 of them to willingly live in Darwin to make an NT viable.

The only way Darwin would work is if a team was based elsewhere and played in the NT regularly. It's a town of less than 140k, can't see them getting a bricks and mortar club any time soon.

The most obvious place for a new team is WA.

 

[billings2paddy]

Reported by the Herald Sun. We wont match a bid that impact our F1.

Poker face
Smart

 

[Dard Ball Get]

They can barely get young men to stay on the Gold Coast. No way they get 45 of them to willingly live in Darwin to make an NT viable.

Yep can’t see NT ever happening. Shit conditions for footy too lol

 

[StCicatriz]

They can barely get young men to stay on the Gold Coast. No way they get 45 of them to willingly live in Darwin to make an NT viable.

the seem pretty happy there now that theyre winning

petracca just requested to go play there.

 

[BrutThough]

the seem pretty happy there now that theyre winning

petracca just requested to go play there.

Fair, Petrecca is a good get for them but you could take the negative view that they had to overpay for someone past their prime.

It took 15 years to attract a high profile player to somewhere as desirable as the Gold Coast, how are you going to convince any good players to move to somewhere as undesirable as Darwin? It would be a risky call to base a team there and it would need more support than any club has needed so far.

 

[austinnn]

Sorry I'm overseas this week so might have missed someone already covering this but there has to be something to us accumulating 2027 picks.

Most logical is other clubs dont rate them based on current Tassie plans, but a little like going for TDK potentially being tied to ruck changes I just kinda feel like the current Saints admin are good at predicting the future and they see something others dont.

The Big Boss (not Ross) made his fortune betting on the future with his brother who is one of the best at this in Australia in the tech scene right now.

I feel like we are either going to see some draft night magic or they have a gut feel about Tassie being delayed.

Second option in my uninformed opinion. How would it change the value of the picks we picked up?

 

[austinnn]

There's a doco on Netflix about Melbourne & the loss of so many magnificent historical buildings.

What is it called? Sounds interesting. I moved to Melbourne in 1995 and absolutely loved my 8 years there, felt like a lot longer (in a good way) tbh

 

[austinnn]

Was that the Lost City of Melbourne? I’ve seen it a couple of times.

Not available on Le Netflix français. I really need to get a vpn

 

[Dr Spaceman]

What is it called? Sounds interesting. I moved to Melbourne in 1995 and absolutely loved my 8 years there, felt like a lot longer (in a good way) tbh

The Lost City of Melbourne | Rotten Tomatoes

Discover reviews, ratings, and trailers for The Lost City of Melbourne on Rotten Tomatoes. Stay updated with critic and audience scores today!

www.rottentomatoes.com

 

[austinnn]

Fair, Petrecca is a good get for them but you could take the negative view that they had to overpay for someone past their prime.

It took 15 years to attract a high profile player to somewhere as desirable as the Gold Coast, how are you going to convince any good players to move to somewhere as undesirable as Darwin? It would be a risky call to base a team there and it would need more support than any club has needed so far.

The Petracca situation is a unicorn though, he needed to get out of a rotting culture. I have my doubts on how much longer he'll remain in the game, but he did well selling the Gold Coast as the ideal climate for pro athletes a month ago.

All the AFL have to do is keep the Q clubs winning and maybe the interest and culture will grow. All it takes is a few years in the wilderness for the interest to quickly melt away though. Good luck to the AFL though trying their best to make AFL a truly national comp though, its mad that in this global age it has even survived as a professional sport when 99% supporters are spread around half of ONE demographically tiny island country

 

[stfan]

, how are you going to convince any good players to move to somewhere as undesirable as Darwin?

What, you mean that there are not scores of players wanting to live in a sauna making life more bearable by knocking off slabs?

 

[Atomboy]

Fair, Petrecca is a good get for them but you could take the negative view that they had to overpay for someone past their prime.

It took 15 years to attract a high profile player to somewhere as desirable as the Gold Coast, how are you going to convince any good players to move to somewhere as undesirable as Darwin? It would be a risky call to base a team there and it would need more support than any club has needed so far.

I had an amazing time in Darwin through the bulk of my 20’s, it’s a bloody fun place.

Suspect they’ll just need to attract blokes who like the outdoors rather then macchiato officianados.

Would be a great pathway/support system for some of da local yoof up there as well.

 

[SaintsofSteel]

They can barely get young men to stay on the Gold Coast. No way they get 45 of them to willingly live in Darwin to make an NT viable.

The NT (Darwin) couldn't financially support a team, but to suggest people/players wouldn't want to move or live up there is an ignorant statement.

There are not too many NT recruited lads that don't end up back living in Darwin.

Can you believe that 18 million other Australians happily live outside of Victoria!

 

[saint66au]

Fair, Petrecca is a good get for them but you could take the negative view that they had to overpay for someone past their prime.

It took 15 years to attract a high profile player to somewhere as desirable as the Gold Coast, how are you going to convince any good players to move to somewhere as undesirable as Darwin? It would be a risky call to base a team there and it would need more support than any club has needed so far.

GAJ says Hi

 

[nikkig98]

The NT (Darwin) couldn't financially support a team, but to suggest people/players wouldn't want to move or live up there is an ignorant statement.

There are not too many NT recruited lads that don't end up back living in Darwin.

Can you believe that 18 million other Australians happily live outside of Victoria!

Yeah but there aren't really very many of those NT recruited lads to begin with, would have to draft Vic/WA/SA as they are best available and those lads would be out of there ASAP. Darwin is not Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney or even the GC

 

[SaintsofSteel]

Yeah but there aren't really very many of those NT recruited lads to begin with, would have to draft Vic/WA/SA as they are best available and those lads would be out of there ASAP. Darwin is not Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney or even the GC

It won't happen so its a moot point. But with the right development and support the NT will be a gold mine waiting to be tapped with AFL talent.

I was up the there from 1987 to 2001 and in that time the Darwin league itself could have fielded a side to beat most VFL/AFL sides. Things have changed and the younger generation don't seem to have the size of past players (lifestyle, diet & nutrition) play a huge part.

 

[stfan]

The NT (Darwin) couldn't financially support a team, but to suggest people/players wouldn't want to move or live up there is an ignorant statement.

There are not too many NT recruited lads that don't end up back living in Darwin.

There are also not many NT recruited lads. And with strong family bonds is it hardly a surprise that they return home.

Can you believe that 18 million other Australians happily live outside of Victoria!

And 99% of Australians happily live outside of the NT.


The population of Greater Darwin is about 153,000. That is a suburb in the bigger cities.
NT is about 260,000 people

The vast majority of Australian's choose to live in a handful of cities. Mainly the Capitals and several other cities areas. I doubt NT having its own AFL Team would make it attractive for players wanting to move up to Darwin.

 

[BrutThough]

The NT (Darwin) couldn't financially support a team, but to suggest people/players wouldn't want to move or live up there is an ignorant statement.

There are not too many NT recruited lads that don't end up back living in Darwin.

Can you believe that 18 million other Australians happily live outside of Victoria!

The league is made up primarily from white, wealthy inner suburb kids from capital cities. It is difficult enough to get a lot of these players to move to a different state with a major city with equal business/media/education opportunities outside of football. How do you expect a team located in a place without those things, that's significantly further away, that has more extreme weather conditions, less overall entertainment options etc to attract players?

That's great that NT lads move back but there arent enough of them to sustain a competitive football team.

 

[Saints43]

Can you believe that 18 million other Australians happily live outside of Victoria!

They don't seem happy.

 

[gringo2011]

The only way Darwin would work is if a team was based elsewhere and played in the NT regularly. It's a town of less than 140k, can't see them getting a bricks and mortar club any time soon.

The most obvious place for a new team is WA.

Unless they can get a huge indigenous community buy in. The footy played up there is amazing, a lot of locals don't end up following an AFL career because they'd need to leave home. You could probably get 15 players out of the Tiwis that would be AFL standard.

 

[gringo2011]

It won't happen so its a moot point. But with the right development and support the NT will be a gold mine waiting to be tapped with AFL talent.

I was up the there from 1987 to 2001 and in that time the Darwin league itself could have fielded a side to beat most VFL/AFL sides. Things have changed and the younger generation don't seem to have the size of past players (lifestyle, diet & nutrition) play a huge part.

The standard of footy up there looks insane. It is more fun to watch than the AFL. You could get a pretty good list together if you could get them to buy into the pro sport environment.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

GAJ says Hi

His brother was the one who did really well out of that deal.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

The NT (Darwin) couldn't financially support a team, but to suggest people/players wouldn't want to move or live up there is an ignorant statement.

There are not too many NT recruited lads that don't end up back living in Darwin.

Can you believe that 18 million other Australians happily live outside of Victoria!

But only 263 000 in the entire Northern Territory.
At that level, the number of AFL players that come from NT is phenomenal, but its still going to be limited.

Darwin has less people than Toowoomba.

 

[Broski]

I am sure there is a reason for this, but I have heard nothing in regards to Patty Said being delisted and re-rookied. I assume that has happened under the radar? Below is the draft nominations for this year.