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

[Footy Smarts]

Look where 3 of those players are 4th-5th in line though!
Erasmus competes against Serong Brayshaw Young Omera Johnson Fyfe
Mcrae-Daicos De Goey Pendelbury Lipinski Daicos Sidebottom
Robertson - Neale Mcluggage Ashcroft Dunkley Fletcher Ashcroft

I just think those types can be a buried diamond at times.

These guys never ever ever ever ever work.

They're not competing with these guys for a spot. These clubs could easily shift players around to squeeze them in but they prefer others.

Clark is a year younger than Erasmus, 2 years younger than McRae and Pedler and 3 years younger than Robertson. He's been disappointing. But he's still played more games this year than those 4 combined.

The chance any of these guys become even solid midfielders is incredibly slim.

 

[Lingsface]

These guys never ever ever ever ever work.

They're not competing with these guys for a spot. These clubs could easily shift players around to squeeze them in but they prefer others.

Clark is a year younger than Erasmus, 2 years younger than McRae and Pedler and 3 years younger than Robertson. He's been disappointing. But he's still played more games this year combined than those 4.

The chance any of these guys become even solid midfielders is incredibly slim.

I'd say Bowes has worked out well for us.
I feel recently with the sub rule they are given limited opportunities to blossom and never get to show their full capabilities.
Those 3 just seem to be above the WAFL, VFL, SANFL level they dominate and have dominated at such young ages. The right place and they could be a very solid part of our midfield I think. Also, we are about 2 injuries away in our midfield from it being pretty bad, good depth is important. Hypothetically Smith and Atkins go down for a few weeks, who do we bring in? Our next brigade isn't overly strong.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

If the Hawks don't really want Worpell... they ain't matching, because they won't be getting a R1 pick for him and any compo would be pretty close to what they'd get in a trade.

Jeremy Cameron is the only play to ever have a bid matched.
Dangerfield would have been but we traded to avoid that at the time.

James Worpell ain't the type of player a club matches for.

They haven't even offered him a contract

 

[Strange Cat]

Then we'd settle for the compo. If you're paying him well over a long term deal.
Otherwise he'd take our deal I'd imagine.

Hard to accept an offer when you haven’t made one to him

 

[CatToTheFuture]

These guys never ever ever ever ever work.

They're not competing with these guys for a spot. These clubs could easily shift players around to squeeze them in but they prefer others.

Clark is a year younger than Erasmus, 2 years younger than McRae and Pedler and 3 years younger than Robertson. He's been disappointing. But he's still played more games this year than those 4 combined.

The chance any of these guys become even solid midfielders is incredibly slim.

I think pedlar goes a bit under the radar. He's tracking ok

 

[geelong_crazy26]

I still don’t see how we could get the Reid deal done at the end of 2025.

And the ‘West Coast will take what they’re offered’ BS won’t work for a contracted player

Given they are not going to win a flag in 2026 what is the point in keeping him?? May as well do a norf with JHF and just get rid of him if we wants out. Dont keep someome stinking up your club

 

[geelong_crazy26]

These guys never ever ever ever ever work.

They're not competing with these guys for a spot. These clubs could easily shift players around to squeeze them in but they prefer others.

Clark is a year younger than Erasmus, 2 years younger than McRae and Pedler and 3 years younger than Robertson. He's been disappointing. But he's still played more games this year than those 4 combined.

The chance any of these guys become even solid midfielders is incredibly slim.

Spot on. These hidden gems very rarely work. Clubs will find a spot in the 23 for them... A good example is tanner bruhn who wasnt a midfielder at GWS but they found a HF role for him..

If you are talented enough, sides will find a spot in the 22 for you

 

[Footy Smarts]

I'd say Bowes has worked out well for us.
I feel recently with the sub rule they are given limited opportunities to blossom and never get to show their full capabilities.
Those 3 just seem to be above the WAFL, VFL, SANFL level they dominate and have dominated at such young ages. The right place and they could be a very solid part of our midfield I think. Also, we are about 2 injuries away in our midfield from it being pretty bad, good depth is important. Hypothetically Smith and Atkins go down for a few weeks, who do we bring in? Our next brigade isn't overly strong.

Bowes was not in this category. He was a walk up start when fit at Gold Coast. He even finished top 10 in the B&F there in 2020.

They left him in the VFL in his last year to convince him to leave because they desperately needed his wage off their books.

He was much better than any of these guys and he's only a solid role player.

 

[Footy Smarts]

Spot on. These hidden gems very rarely work. Clubs will find a spot in the 23 for them... A good example is tanner bruhn who wasnt a midfielder at GWS but they found a HF role for him..

If you are talented enough, sides will find a spot in the 22 for you

Yep. Bruhn was being found a role in his first and second years in the system. These guys can't get a game in their 4th-6th years.

I'm still hopeful on Clark. But let's be honest. If he's stuck in the VFL in 24 months time like MacRae and Pedlar are then it'll be clear he's a flat out bust.

 

[Lingsface]

Bowes was not in this category. He was a walk up start when fit at Gold Coast. He even finished top 10 in the B&F there in 2020.

They left him in the VFL in his last year to convince him to leave because they desperately needed his wage off their books.

He was much better than any of these guys and he's only a solid role player.

I would say playing in a grand final and playing 75 percent of games throughout that season would be just as good as Bowes efforts in a bottom of the ladder side.

But let's agree to disagree.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Yep. Bruhn was being found a role in his first and second years in the system. These guys can't get a game in their 4th-6th years.

I'm still hopeful on Clark. But let's be honest. If he's stuck in the VFL in 24 months time like MacRae and Pedlar are then it'll be clear he's a flat out bust.

I think what is dissapointing about his game is what his strength was as a draftee he has struggled to show at AFL level.

He can get involved in tackling, but he struggles with winning contested ball in clearances and contests.

This was his 1 wood as a junior... It is not translating at AFL

 

[Footy Smarts]

I would say playing in a grand final and playing 75 percent of games throughout that season would be just as good as Bowes efforts in a bottom of the ladder side.

But let's agree to disagree.

Ok so Robertson is a bit different to the others in that he played for a good team for a while.

But he's also almost 24 now and has played 20 consecutive VFL games without getting selected despite Brisbane having some pretty major injury woes over that time.

They've absolutely put a line through him. The chance they're wrong to the point that he can turn into a good AFL mid is approximately zero.

 

[Footy Smarts]

I think what is dissapointing about his game is what his strength was as a draftee he has struggled to show at AFL level.

He can get involved in tackling, but he struggles with winning contested ball in clearances and contests.

This was his 1 wood as a junior... It is not translating at AFL

The only reason I'm still hopeful is that he's so physically undeveloped that it's possible this is just a lack of physicality. And that should change over time.

It was interesting looking at Lachie Fogarty on the weekend. Another very small player we picked up with no physical attributes. It took him a long time but he's so much more physically mature now and has been able to physically compete for a few years now.

I think Clark has better disposal and more tricks than Fogarty. So hopefully could be a much better player. But he might just be the body type that takes until 23-24 to properly mature. The other question is whether he can be an effective player as his body matures because 23-24 is a long time away still.

 

[iameviljez]

Have a look at Erasmus, Fin Mcrae, Robertson, Pedlar?

Footy is absolutely full of stories of high-pick guys who couldn't break through at top-four teams either going on to 150-game careers at crappy clubs (Andrew Carrazzo), absolutely bombing out at another decent one (Schache, Tambling), or absolutely bombing at a crappy one (Jasper McMillan-Pittard).

 

[iameviljez]

It was interesting looking at Lachie Fogarty on the weekend. Another very small player we picked up with no physical attributes. It took him a long time but he's so much more physically mature now and has been able to physically compete for a few years now.

I reckon Fogarty still wouldn't get a game with us now.

 

[iameviljez]

Given they are not going to win a flag in 2026 what is the point in keeping him?? May as well do a norf with JHF and just get rid of him if we wants out. Dont keep someome stinking up your club

A few reasons. Number one, they may believe that he could stay. Number two, they do not want to be Horne-Francis'd.

Robert Walls was really interesting on this when he talked about Nathan Buckley's Brisbane year in 1993. It was important - in a time when players didn't want to go, and didn't want to stay, and didn't want to take it seriously when they were there - to put the foot down.

 

[Footy Smarts]

I reckon Fogarty still wouldn't get a game with us now.

I agree and I'm not saying he would. He doesn't have any obvious tricks and we prefer our half forwards to be skillful and quick rather than really hard tacklers and contested ball players.

But physically Fogarty is a solid body at AFL level which he wasn't for ages and he's a better player now because of it. If he played for us we're more likely to play his type in midfield and he might get a role in there ahead of someone like Knevitt.

 

[Catman]

Got to love the Hawks fans. Reading their Worpel thread, the usual "Cats bringing in Worpel confirms they have no salary cap."

They have just brought in Battle and Barrass on big money, and they think Reid is locked and loaded to go there. But apparently we have no salary cap. Lol.

Not just them. Every halfwit supporter from another club assumes every player that joins or that is already on the list is on close to a million a year with the repetitious and tedious jokes about "No salary cap at Geelong.

Didn't know our finances were so openly available in the public domain...

 

[Kobe Gryant]

Doesn't mean a whole lot, but Twomey has us as one of the clubs he expects to be after Logan Morris.

OOC this year, and he expects he'll stay. Unless he was desperately homesick, there'd be no reason to leave so soon you'd think.

Half of the battle with list management is planting the seed early though for a later date, so there's that factor I guess.

 

[Oisin_the_Goat]

Not just them. Every halfwit supporter from another club assumes every player that joins or that is already on the list is on close to a million a year with the repetitious and tedious jokes about "No salary cap at Geelong.

Didn't know our finances were so openly available in the public domain...

Pretty sure Jonathan Brown had a bit of a dig at us about this commentating on one of our games recently too.

 

[Catman]

Pretty sure Jonathan Brown had a bit of a dig at us about this commentating on one of our games recently too.

Nick Riewoldt and Campbell Brown both made little jibes about Cotton On over the past few weeks. Very unprofessional, but I wouldn't expect anything different from an intellectual midget like Brown, but thought Riewoldt would be better than that.

 

[goyoucatters]

Nick Riewoldt and Campbell Brown both made little jibes about Cotton On over the past few weeks. Very unprofessional, but I wouldn't expect anything different from an intellectual midget like Brown, but thought Riewoldt would be better than that.

Envy and spite do strange things to people.

 

[Kobe Gryant]

Envy and spite do strange things to people.

Speaking of....

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Pretty sure Jonathan Brown had a bit of a dig at us about this commentating on one of our games recently too.

Do we even have the most traded in players??? I think its just overblown and exxagerated due to our success.

Do we have more players traded in that collingwood brisbane or hawks have had over the years??

 

[Footy Smarts]

Do we even have the most traded in players??? I think its just overblown and exxagerated due to our success.

Do we have more players traded in that collingwood brisbane or hawks have had over the years??

No.

I count 9 recycled players on our list. I get 14 for Carlton and 15 for Collingwood.