2026 Trade / FA Thread

[TradeDraft]

Who?

Col Wisbey was was/is a AFL Scout

Made EBW Forum

 

[gouki88]

Col Wisbey was was/is a AFL Scout

Made EBW Forum

Ah.

We'll take his views seriously when his site doesn't look 30 years old

 

[Roverjg]

Amarty and Mitch Lewis. Yay or nay. Amarty is a bit flukey but I see the ‘power’ sides all having dual, or more, options up forward whilst we try and craft one decent players and a Buller or the like into the side. Big Dan, Amarty and Lewis as a different mix up forward appeals greatly to me.

All of the key forwards out of contract this year have flaws. Some you can accommodate, some you wouldn't bother. Just because they’re “available” doesn’t automatically mean they fit Collingwood’s style of play. Most of them struggle to win enough of their own ball, and in a forward line where our key forwards already struggle to get hands on it consistently, are any of these players actually going to improve us in a chaos, territory-based, bomb-it-long system?

Mitch Lewis has stated all season that he wasn’t interested in FA and it was his goal to remain at Hawthorn. He appears to have got his wish with a 4-year contract.

Amartey in particular would take up a huge chunk of the salary cap (reportedly seeking $1m+), yet there’s little to no evidence that he would meaningfully improve our forward line. He’s extremely injury prone too, having played only 48% of possible games.

At Sydney over the past 7+ years, he’s benefited from elite territory dominance, repeat inside 50s, and one of the AFL’s best ball-use midfields. Despite that, his possession numbers remain low, his contested marking is poor for a genuine key forward, and there are way too many games where he completely disappears.

We should not be considering a KPF with a 36.5% goalless rate, especially playing in a strong side. He also struggles badly against teams with strong defensive systems. If he can’t consistently impact in a highly functional attacking setup like Sydney’s, why would he suddenly thrive in Collingwood’s far more chaotic, long-entry system where the ball movement is less controlled?

Goals per game:
0 = 26 games (36.5% of games)
1 = 14 games (19.5% of games)
2 = 19 games (26% of games)
3 = 5 games (7% of games) - Opp position: 3, 14, 8
4+ = 8 games (11% of games) - Opp position: 16; 18; 11; 15; 10; 17; 8; 6 (suggestive of a flat track bully)

A lot of his big bags come against weaker opposition. There’s a real risk of paying elite key forward money for a player who will struggle to influence games against quality defensive teams.

 

[Roverjg]

They're dripping with talent. I'm beginning to think that a lot of Hardwick's success was the product of his assistant coaches. Fair bit of talk that Leppa was the main architect of the game plan that swept all before the Tigers.

You are correct. I was at a function about 4 years ago where Neil Balme was the speaker. He confirmed that Justin Leppitsch was the architect of the 80-20 rule that was instrumental in them winning the 3 GF’s

He brought it to the Pies and modified it further leading to our success in 22-23

 

[Roverjg]

I think he was lucky that he had the best player in finals history also.

Leppa was Richmond's forward line coach in 2017 & Dusty credited Leppa with transitioning his role from a more traditional midfielder into the devastating centre-forward hybrid that exploded in 2017

 

[Roverjg]

I mean if Parish is could practically be given away…would we look at him?

Play him as purely a distributor to Nick and our other mids.

(only asking the question, I don’t love it because Essendon would be pricks as always)

As a distributor for Nick he would be VG if fit. However,Tom Morris said the other night “I think the issue with that is he’s on too much money for another club to take that on and he’s on a long-term contract as well" He has 3 years left on his contract (2029)

 

[Chrispiesssss]

Hope we are chasing Darcy Wilson.

 

[satty]

I’m happy we got obree instead of hind there I’m more confident he will pick what we need more then Hines speculative picks I wouldn’t touch Amartey

Obree has learnt under Stephen wells who is a master at identifying talent in the later rounds and from other pathways.

I believe we are in good hands. We have already started to see his handiwork with the recent draft selections, dating back to the msd last year were we got roan.