Rumour GFC 2025 Player Trading, Drafting FA, Rumours and Wish lists Pt 1

[geelong_crazy26]

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My Tilly

Imagine the outrage of this when Brisbane are just about to draft likely their third no1 draft pick via their academy… I know the Ashcroft boys weren’t chosen at 1 but they were quite often cited as the best in the draft and only slipped due to the club ties.

Having 3 no picks in such short succession is unprecedented

 

[Lana]

Rules changed according to AFL website article ShadowCat posted.

But as I say... It has been talked about so little, I'm still not sure it's true... even though I read it with my own eyes.

I was surprised how much they freed it up.

The freeing up of the trade rules, is going to warp the meta again. Our best trade work has been done by manipulating our limited trade capital. Increases the value of free agents, and mature aged recruits.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Was just watching the Front Bar with John Longmire. He said they knew Buddy Franklin was coming to Sydney 12 months prior to his eventual arrival. I’m sure things behind the scenes with Reid are already at an advanced stage too. This is going to be interesting to see how things play out over the rest of the year.

Reid would have grown up watching the golden recent years of the cats… and with a coach he probably also admired still at the helm, I imagine the lure will be pretty tempting.. not to mention the household family excitement

 

[geelong_crazy26]

What would a midfield of Conway holmes smith and Reid look like in 2026?

 

[ShadowCat]

I was surprised how much they freed it up.

The freeing up of the trade rules, is going to warp the meta again. Our best trade work has been done by manipulating our limited trade capital. Increases the value of free agents, and mature aged recruits.

Honestly, our best work has been done via the draft. Currently in our Best 26 and not a 1st round pick (going backwards from best draft value to least):

Rookie Pick 33 - Zach Guthrie
Rookie Pick 16 - Jack Henry
Rookie Pick 15 - Ollie Dempsey
Rookie Pick 14 - Brad Close
Rookie Pick 11 - Tom Atkins
Cat B Rookie - Mark Blicavs
Cat B Rookie - Mark O'Connor
Cat B Rookie - Oisin Mullin
Cat B Rookie - Ted Clohesy
Pick 63 - Lawson Humphries
Pick 57 - Gryan Miers
Pick 41 - Jake Kolodjashnij
Pick 40 - Tom Stewart
Pick 36 - Shaun Mannagh
Pick 33 - Shannon Neale
Pick 25 - Mitch Knevitt

+ (more valuable picks, but none in the Top 10)

Tyson Stengle - SSP
Future 3rd round pick - Jack Bowes
Pick 20 (draft) - Max Holmes
Pick 20 (38 for 40 cancels out) - Bailey Smith
Pick 25 and throwaway picks and player - Ollie Henry
Pick 19 - SDK
Pick 21 - Rhys Stanley
Pick 11 - Connor O'Sullivan
Picks 9 and 28 - Patrick Dangerfield
Picks 13 & 15 (20 cancelled out by two second rounders) - Jeremy Cameron




It's absurd the way our list has been put together, lol.

 

[supahoops]

So Reid would be our highest paid player? Could ruffle some feathers internally. Can't see him leaving half mil on the table to play for us. Don't think we have enough depth to miss out on 3 years of drafting. This is going to make or break us.

I’m more bullish about our depth now than ever before. Managing the likes of Danger, Cameron, Blicavs a year or two longer. The ability to attract ISmith, Martin types. Our spine is set for a decade. Two young rucks developing. A great under 24 core. Picked the eyes of the 23 draft & 24 looks promising. I’d have no qualms effectively trading back 5 or 6 picks over the next few years, particularly with our strike rate on later picks. A midfield triumvirate of Holmes - Smith - Reid for the next decade is next level.

 

[FootyLad0]

Reid would have grown up watching the golden recent years of the cats… and with a coach he probably also admired still at the helm, I imagine the lure will be pretty tempting.. not to mention the household family excitement

Reid is an absolute Cats nuffy.
He said when joining the Eagles that the guys he’s looking forward to most playing with was Tim Kelly and Jamaine Jones LOL

Bro wasn’t even hiding his love affair for the Hoops.
Told Twomey he is a die hard Catters fan and if he could play for anyone it’d be them.

I don’t want us to stuff up our future drafting and trading for the kid but that’s almost a match made in heaven.
A team crying out for a young star mid, a young future star mid looking for a club that will embrace him

 

[D BRIDGE]

Honestly, our best work has been done via the draft. Currently in our Best 26 and not a 1st round pick (going backwards from best draft value to least):

Rookie Pick 33 - Zach Guthrie
Rookie Pick 16 - Jack Henry
Rookie Pick 15 - Ollie Dempsey
Rookie Pick 14 - Brad Close
Rookie Pick 11 - Tom Atkins
Cat B Rookie - Mark Blicavs
Cat B Rookie - Mark O'Connor
Cat B Rookie - Oisin Mullin
Cat B Rookie - Ted Clohesy
Pick 63 - Lawson Humphries
Pick 57 - Gryan Miers
Pick 41 - Jake Kolodjashnij
Pick 40 - Tom Stewart
Pick 36 - Shaun Mannagh
Pick 33 - Shannon Neale
Pick 25 - Mitch Knevitt

It's absurd the way our list has been put together, lol.

This is why I'm not worried about potentially giving up so many picks for Reid.

Our R1 will likely land well in the teens this year after bids etc... maybe even 20 like the Smith selection.
Next year if we had Reid I'd expect another pick in the teens.
Then the year after that might be the Tasi draft year and yeah that R1 could easily be mid 20's and hardly even feel like a R1.

So that 3x R1's that I don't think any will be great picks.

Then if there are R2's involved... Well I just think Wells could snag a guy or two he'd normally surprise and take around pick 40ish with third-rounders.

I also think we will find a way to make the money work if Reid wanted to get here.

I'll back us in to make it work if Reid wants us.

I'm confident he would be a superstar for us... and he is just 20 years old.

 

[Strange Cat]

I can already see the irrational melts and sea of red cards from eagle/richmond supporters if we land Reid and he takes a pay cut

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Reid is an absolute Cats nuffy.
He said when joining the Eagles that the guys he’s looking forward to most playing with was Tim Kelly and Jamaine Jones LOL

Bro wasn’t even hiding his love affair for the Hoops.
Told Twomey he is a die hard Catters fan and if he could play for anyone it’d be them.

I don’t want us to stuff up our future drafting and trading for the kid but that’s almost a match made in heaven.
A team crying out for a young star mid, a young future star mid looking for a club that will embrace him

What would be a price you would be happy to pay??

 

[ShadowCat]

This is why I'm not worried about potentially giving up so many picks for Reid.

Our R1 will likely land well in the teens this year after bids etc... maybe even 20 like the Smith selection.
Next year if we had Reid I'd expect another pick in the teens.
Then the year after that might be the Tasi draft year and yeah that R1 could easily be mid 20's and hardly even feel like a R1.

So that 3x R1's that I don't think any will be great picks.

Then if there are R2's involved... Well I just think Wells could snag a guy or two he'd normally surprise and take around pick 40ish with third-rounders.

I also think we will find a way to make the money work if Reid wanted to get here.

I'll back us in to make it work if Reid wants us.

I'm confident he would be a superstar for us... and he is just 20 years old.

Absolutely agree about the picks, but the money and the culture aspects do concern me - and have concerned me since there became even a possibility that we could land him.

At the end of the day though, just have to go with the club and trust that our club culture is strong enough to absorb any discrepancies in payments - if he were to nominate us.

I'd hope we'd stick somewhat with our structure, offer around 1.2 ish, which gives us room to increase Bailey, Max, Dempsey, Zuth, Miers, COS, SDK etc. down the track if need be.

 

[D BRIDGE]

I’m more bullish about our depth now than ever before. Managing the likes of Danger, Cameron, Blicavs a year or two longer. The ability to attract ISmith, Martin types. Our spine is set for a decade. Two young rucks developing. A great under 24 core. Picked the eyes of the 23 draft & 24 looks promising. I’d have no qualms effectively trading back 5 or 6 picks over the next few years, particularly with our strike rate on later picks. A midfield triumvirate of Holmes - Smith - Reid for the next decade is next level.

Fully agree.

Holmes, Smith and Reid for just about a decade would be epic.

Snag a couple of solid free agents here and there + some Wells specials late in the draft and we'd be going pretty good.

 

[Kobe Gryant]

A midfield of Holmes - Reid - Smith - Dempsey would win us a flag at some point. Maybe more than one...

That sounds like a big call, particularly with the heavy cost associated...but it's not just the talent, it's the age.

We've been so used to having 12-24 month windows with our list during the last decade. A lot of that has been misplaced judgement, but it was the narrative nonetheless.

The group above would genuinely have an 8-10 year window to win premierships, and if there's any club who can find the requisite pieces through different avenues to complement that core, it's ours.

Add COS, SDK, Neale, and Henry as locked in KPP with long careers ahead, and it wouldn't take much for it to work, put it that way.

 

[sexyhunk]

Was just watching the Front Bar with John Longmire. He said they knew Buddy Franklin was coming to Sydney 12 months prior to his eventual arrival. I’m sure things behind the scenes with Reid are already at an advanced stage too. This is going to be interesting to see how things play out over the rest of the year.

not to be technical but frankiln was a FA and there wasnt the complexity of needing to trade like a Reid. you can work as hard as you can behind the scene you still need the eagles to come to the party.

 

[FishGutz]

How do you rate the likelihood of us closing the deal, from what you've heard?

Any indication of how much we'll have to give up?

I don’t even want to put a % on it. Eagles might just turn around and laugh at us and we won’t hang Reid out to dry. It’s a common thread though that we are in these player’s ears and get them to nominate us publicly and do our best work getting them across. He might ask and they just might flat out refuse. I’ve had no indication on where Eagles stand for what they’ll ask but I can imagine, as everyone else, it will be the biggest asking point in the history of any trade. But Geelong trading out 3x first rounders isn’t unprecedented. I feel hopeful just based on the fact the indication is Reid wants us. For mine, that’s the biggest hurdle.

Just speculation from my own behalf, I wonder if he is prepared to leave for much unders what Eagles are offering if that will annoy them even further as well. There is just so much to play out and it’s going to be emotional.

I just know one thing for sure, when it comes to assets we are not afraid to throw everything we have at this one because of the upcoming Tasmanian side and compromised drafts and belief we can get some free agents across for free (Butters I’m looking at you). It’s such a rare situation that everything including the kitchen sink will be thrown at him. But yeah, to rate it, would have to have intel from West Coast so it’s impossible to say. Maybe them losing Allen could be a plus. They finish bottom. Get pick 2 as compo. Maybe even get a priority pick say at pick 3. Get all our first rounders. Suddenly the rebuild is fast tracked and set in motion. Or it could work inversely and they land pick 1 and 2 and believe that’s a sales pitch to Reid for another year and force him to stay. But if he’s unhappy now and mopey, it couldn’t be good after another preseason and another year of this. Their hand will feel somewhat forced but it’s such a tricky situation, one I can’t even recall being such high profile maybe ever. At least not over a kid based on potential opposed to someone like Judd who was already a bonafide superstar.

 

[ShadowCat]

I don’t even want to put a % on it. Eagles might just turn around and laugh at us and we won’t hang Reid out to dry. It’s a common thread though that we are in these player’s ears and get them to nominate us publicly and do our best work getting them across. He might ask and they just might flat out refuse. I’ve had no indication on where Eagles stand for what they’ll ask but I can imagine, as everyone else, it will be the biggest asking point in the history of any trade. But Geelong trading out 3x first rounders isn’t unprecedented. I feel hopeful just based on the fact the indication is Reid wants us. For mine, that’s the biggest hurdle.

Just speculation from my own behalf, I wonder if he is prepared to leave for much unders what Eagles are offering if that will annoy them even further as well. There is just so much to play out and it’s going to be emotional.

I just know one thing for sure, when it comes to assets we are not afraid to throw everything we have at this one because of the upcoming Tasmanian side and compromised drafts and belief we can get some free agents across for free (Butters I’m looking at you). It’s such a rare situation that everything including the kitchen sink will be thrown at him. But yeah, to rate it, would have to have intel from West Coast so it’s impossible to say. Maybe them losing Allen could be a plus. They finish bottom. Get pick 2 as compo. Maybe even get a priority pick say at pick 3. Get all our first rounders. Suddenly the rebuild is fast tracked and set in motion. Or it could work inversely and they land pick 1 and 2 and believe that’s a sales pitch to Reid for another year and force him to stay. But if he’s unhappy now and mopey, it couldn’t be good after another preseason and another year of this. Their hand will feel somewhat forced but it’s such a tricky situation, one I can’t even recall being such high profile maybe ever. At least not over a kid based on potential opposed to someone like Judd who was already a bonafide superstar.

Underrated part of this, and one I don't want to get too 'conspiratorial' on...but guess who manages Harley Reid? That's right kids, Nick Gieschen...of Connors Sports Management. Also represents Oliver and represented Rohan.

Who is O. Henry, Dangerfield, Bowes and Smith's agent...Paul Connors.

If Danger wants a chat with Reid and to sell him on Geelong...like the aforementioned have done...he's got the perfect way to do so.

 

[dudusmaximus]

Under the changes, clubs will be able to trade their full suite of picks 1 year ahead with restrictions applying to the second year of trading that previously applied to the trading of picks one year ahead

If we apply that to trading this year, it would basically mean:

• 2025 draft hand, fully tradeable
• 2026 draft hand, fully tradeable
• 2027 draft hand, restricted to either R1 keeping R2 & R3, or if trading R2 and/or R3 you have to keep R1

I thought R4 had previously counted in future trading but maybe not


For example this season, clubs will be able to trade their 2025 picks and all of their 2026 picks, but then have to carry their 2027 second and third-round selections to trade that year's first-round pick, or to trade out their 2027 second and third-round picks, they need to retain that year's first-round pick.

The AFL has kept its 'two-in-four' condition to future trading, meaning clubs must use at least two first-round picks over a rolling four-year period to be able to trade out their future first-round selections.

Bombers ruck in talks, next free agency moves, ex-Magpie back on radar

Check out all the latest trade news from around the League

www.afl.com.au

I predict Wells/Mackie have schemed everything out. Expect a bold bid for Reid. I expect it may involve 1 or more (willing) players and 1 or more clubs. Rules changes are the kind of chaos Wells/Mackie thrive in.

 

[FishGutz]

Underrated part of this, and one I don't want to get too 'conspiratorial' on...but guess who manages Harley Reid? That's right kids, Nick Gieschen...of Connors Sports Management. Also represents Oliver and represented Rohan.

Who is O. Henry, Dangerfield, Bowes and Smith's agent...Paul Connors.

If Danger wants a chat with Reid and to sell him on Geelong...like the aforementioned have done...he's got the perfect way to do so.

I don’t think it’s conspiratorial at all to be honest. It’s almost flaunted how important management and those relationships are when it comes to these things. I feel myself getting excited…. Hahaha

 

[D BRIDGE]

You'd think Reid would be a massive Danger fan...

Well mate... Get on board and you can play with him.

I doubt Reid is keen to stay at WC... they are a shambles and even the captain will go.

 

[Commando]

Look there's a lot of water to go under the bridge so let's not get ahead of ourselves here...

But would Reid take Stanley guernsey number 1 or possibly 29 vacated by Cuthrie, Jnr old number??

 

[And_ROOS]

You'd think Reid would be a massive Danger fan...

Well mate... Get on board and you can play with him.

I doubt Reid is keen to stay at WC... they are a shambles and even the captain will go.

The thing too is the media will say "oh why didn't Reid stick around and become a club legend" etc etc, but the allure of playing the the club you supported close to home who constantly play finals must be a huge lure instead we will see memes about Cotton On and farms instead.

 

[And_ROOS]

Look there's a lot of water to go under the bridge so let's not get ahead of ourselves here...

But would Reid take Stanley guernsey number 1 or possibly 29 vacated by Cuthrie, Jnr old number??

Theres a strong chance next season that number 4, that Jnr and Mackie both wore, being available...

 

[D BRIDGE]

#1 for Reid every day of the week.

 

[AM]

You'd think Reid would be a massive Danger fan...

Well mate... Get on board and you can play with him.

I doubt Reid is keen to stay at WC... they are a shambles and even the captain will go.

It's one thing wanting him. It's quite another wrangling it.

My impression is he'll go to the highest bidder subject to that club being in the flag window.

 

[petrolium]

I predict Wells/Mackie have schemed everything out. Expect a bold bid for Reid. I expect it may involve 1 or more (willing) players and 1 or more clubs. Rules changes are the kind of chaos Wells/Mackie thrive in.

I don’t think any player from our club would honestly want to play for WC right now. They are a shambles. We will throw draft picks their way and A LOT of them.