Rumour GFC 2025 Player Trading, Drafting FA, Rumours and Wish lists Pt 3

[cats_09]

2025 AFL Draft and Trade Dates:​

Fri Oct 3 - Fri Oct 10: 2025 Free Agency Period
Mon Oct 6 - Wed Oct 15: 2025 Continental Tyres AFL Trade Period
Wed Nov 19 - Thu Nov 20: 2025 Telstra AFL Draft

 

[Romeoh1]

Add to that the coach is a terrible human being putting on a nice guy act. I hate them

How is he a terrible person?

 

[Pure_Ownage]

We're living off culture capital earned 15 years ago. It is crazy how we still have the lights on. At some point soon all we'll have is prayer.

We will do ok so long as our talent id is good for late picks and we keep attracting big name trades. But we wont compete with the brisbane academy riches.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Mitch may well be all these things, however 3 games in the VFL in 24 and 7 last year, he’s got a long way to go to be at AFL standard.

Even the most optimistic surely sees him still building this year with a seniors debut highly unlikely.

Hes good enough but he needs a lot more time in the gym and that wont come in one off season. It will still be blitz and sdk next year id be surprised if Edwards plays more than 2 or 3 games.

 

[foxdog50]

People will still scream that Geelong are the Man City/Real Madrid of the AFL, with the superstar list acquired through nefarious means, every unfair advantage known to man and permanent status as the AFL's pet.

The Brisbane Galacticos are somehow still the people's champions - maybe a few more flags in a row could change that.

I think Geelong are more like Liverpool
#YNWA

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Edwards has already put on a bit of bulk, new ruck rules will favour him.
He’s super athletic, we’ve gotta get games into him.

Nah I watched him in the vfl last year closely. Hes nowhere near strong enough in core strength yet afl experienced rucks will beat him up physically. I really rate him but hes not ready yet.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Like Curnow, it may come down to assets. We may not have enough and he may have to come up with another solution.

Until he’s wearing our polo, I’ll gladly wait till then.

Port will match and it will cost us pretty much our whole draft hand for the next 2 or 3 years to get it done (ie it will cost more than Cameron did i think) but I think we will get him because ultimately hes ooc and they will do a trade, whereas marshall was contracted.

 

[Tony Barber]

Port will match and it will cost us pretty much our whole draft hand for the next 2 or 3 years to get it done (ie it will cost more than Cameron did i think) but I think we will get him because ultimately hes ooc and they will do a trade, whereas marshall was contracted.

Yep. he's going to cost a crap load.
But along side max and Bailey he is just a perfect fit. Going to have to pay.

 

[Del216647]

How is he a terrible person?

I would assume that comment is in reference to the alleged incidents that occurred during his time at Hawthorn.

 

[D BRIDGE]

Port will match and it will cost us pretty much our whole draft hand for the next 2 or 3 years to get it done (ie it will cost more than Cameron did i think) but I think we will get him because ultimately hes ooc and they will do a trade, whereas marshall was contracted.

Probably wouldn’t mind Richmond finishing bottom so there’s the threat of him taking himself to the PSD if Port are thinking about matching a Geelong bid.

Obviously unlikely, but anything to have a little bit of extra power on our end.

 

[Generalissimo]

Even the most optimistic surely sees him still building this year with a seniors debut highly unlikely.

He'll get the game or two a lot of our rookies get before they're ready.

 

[And_ROOS]

I like to forget a losing GF pretty quickly and have avoided reviewing the game or following too much of the narrative but I've seen a few people say since Clark was promising. Zac Bailey

33

Zac Bailey

Age

26

Ht

181cm

Wt

84kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.7

3star

K

6.9

3star

HB

5.9

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.2

4star

CL

0.9

3star

D

12.9

3star

K

7.3

3star

HB

5.6

3star

M

3.9

4star

T

2.4

3star

CL

0.7

3star

D

13.4

4star

K

6.6

3star

HB

6.8

5star

M

3.2

4star

T

2.8

5star

CL

0.6

3star

should have kicked 6 on him.

Clark is promising, he also isn't a defender but we played him as one.

Bailey was hot and had he been accurate he would have kicked goals on anyone on GF day, thats not a slight on Clark thats a slight on the club for not having a reliable small defender besides Bews.

And really should be something we look at this draft this the ways teams have killed us over the last 4 seasons has been either via having a significantly better ruck than us, which will be an issue next season, having stronger midfield depth than us, which will be an issue next season until we get Butters or someone in the FA, and having goal scoring smalls, which we saw when no one could stop Bailey or Cameron.

Mullin isn't a lockdown small defender, but has proven to be a good lockdown tagger. O'Connor is a good lockdown medium defender but if Bews was younger and we had a mulligan heading into the GF I would be dropping Stanley for Bews.

Mullin needs to stay out of the D50.

And watch because if we don't target a small defender next season we will have games where a Watson etc tears us apart.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I'm of the belief that given our (Saints) list profile, we've traded players for picks in free agency the last 2 years and hit the draft hard to get to the point of moving into the top 8. Whether the club is right or not it believes that we are ready next year so players coming in, in areas that we are weak. We were never trading Ro for picks.

If a player had been part of the trade there was something to work with, first and importantly Mackie said that no players would be traded. Trade dead at that point.

For the sake of the exercise if a player was on the table, who could that be? A look at the Saints list would say that we need a quality mid which is an area that Geelong lack depth in. So probably that doesn't work, or if we say that Dougal Howard is becoming marginal then maybe SDK is an option, taller, faster, more agile but seems to have reached his limit; not very physical and a not a good interceptor, but 5 years younger than Dougal.

Then there's the problem of getting Marshall's value right. In the last 4 b&f he's finished 3rd, 3rd, 4th and 6th. If we look at Geelong's b&f to determine relative value. Holmes, Smith and Cameron are obviously untouchable, Tom Atkins is too old for our list profile and arguably not as good as Jack Steele whom we have moved past, we have Windhager, McCrae, and Boxshall all able to fill the same role.

Blicavs is an absolute gun but the age is wrong and he's too valuable to Geelong. Which leaves Gryan Miers (Max Hall, Hugo Garcia) and Olie Dempsey (Darcy Wilson). Who on the face of it have similar types already in the Saints list. I'm not making the argument that any of these guys should be traded but rather trying to point out the difficulties in making it work.

Best of luck next year and I hope I haven't offended.

No thats the best post I've read on the issue you are welcome to post here if youre that reasoned.
I agree with most of it.
I had 2 points one was that Lyon through his coaching career has loved 2 rucks and hes only really had 1 at St kilda because they had not decent 2nd so I expected him to push for 2 rucks (clearly Rowan doesnt want this hence asking for a trade but Ross does). And secondly st kilda are clearly trying to make finals the next 2 years in the hope that it will convince nwm to stay (and thats why they brought all these players in) and so they would rather have Marshall out of position than weaken the 22.

You are correct in that you need mids and we dont have them to offer its our weakest area. Clearly you wanted sdk but we were never going to trade him-apart from that we rate him long term he has to be the ruck solution by necessity (if we cant get a quality ruck another way) so we were never going to weaken the ruck stocks by trading him especially when blitz is 35. The only other player as an option would have been stengle but you tried last year and he said no. I think Mackie was honestly open to players but none wanted to go and culturally we wont force them (we wont do what Sydney did in terms of literally forcing guys out that wanted to stay to get curnow and I think it will end up being bad for them). So we didnt really have other options.

In the end I think both Geelong and St kilda did what was best for them. My criticism is more than while I think St kilda made the right calls they handled the communication very poorly.
Why not just tell Geelong (and tell rowan) weeks earlier that you weren't trading him why bother with this facade all trade week of a deal you weren't going to do? Clearly sos thought Geelong would get desperate and offer sdk but it was never happening.

The aleer deal is the same they clearly could have told the guy 6 weeks earlier when they were chasing silvagni so he had time to find another club (they cost him well over a million by not doing it). Gubby and SOS have a history of upsetting other clubs with these sort of tactics and its why a lot of clubs dont want to deal with them. They are lucky that the manager they made angry re aleer wasn't someone like Connors or their recruitment for the next few years would be stuffed. I think they will find that the way they've communicated with other clubs lately will cost them down the road.
Despite that wish you guys all the best for next year.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Clark is promising, he also isn't a defender but we played him as one.

Bailey was hot and had he been accurate he would have kicked goals on anyone on GF day, thats not a slight on Clark thats a slight on the club for not having a reliable small defender besides Bews.

And really should be something we look at this draft this the ways teams have killed us over the last 4 seasons has been either via having a significantly better ruck than us, which will be an issue next season, having stronger midfield depth than us, which will be an issue next season until we get Butters or someone in the FA, and having goal scoring smalls, which we saw when no one could stop Bailey or Cameron.

Mullin isn't a lockdown small defender, but has proven to be a good lockdown tagger. O'Connor is a good lockdown medium defender but if Bews was younger and we had a mulligan heading into the GF I would be dropping Stanley for Bews.

Mullin needs to stay out of the D50.

And watch because if we don't target a small defender next season we will have games where a Watson etc tears us apart.

I agree it needs addressing but you can get small defenders relatively cheaply (like the dogs did with budarick) so I wouldn't be surprised if we get one late in the draft or a cheap trade. For the start of next year it is a decent way to give Clark games until his body is more developed for midfield. Oconnor and Bowes probably help out in defence for another year or two until we bring in better players and phase them out.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Yep. he's going to cost a crap load.
But along side max and Bailey he is just a perfect fit. Going to have to pay.

Yeah and with port having Cochrane likely top 5 to match (and then pilot in the pipeline) they are better off matching and getting 2 or 3 firsts plus other later picks rather than one single pick.
But im not worried we can get the assets together.
Im more worried about whether we will pay him close to 2 mil- we can afford it but we've been reluctant with high wages before and the dogs will offer him that much. We should pay him.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

He'll get the game or two a lot of our rookies get before they're ready.

If you mean Edwards he may get a game or two against Richmond/wce etc as a taste but thats it.
The ruck next year will be Stanley doing 6 or 8 games plus blicavs doing the bulk of it supported by sdk and neale.
If Edwards plays more than a couple of games it means blitz and sdk are both injured and we are stuffed.

 

[D BRIDGE]

Gubby and SOS have a history of upsetting other clubs with these sort of tactics and it’s why a lot of clubs dont want to deal with them. They are lucky that the manager they made angry re aleer wasn't someone like Connors or their recruitment for the next few years would be stuffed. I think they will find that the way they've communicated with other clubs lately will cost them down the road.
Despite that wish you guys all the best for next year.

I was thinking about this earlier and pose this question.

Do we think St Kilda would have rug-pulled Aleer the exact way they did if he was managed by Connors?

Because I actually don’t think they would have.

He just has too much power and could really impact them in whatever way he wanted for years, if they scammed him and his like that.

If that’s actually the case (Im just assuming it would be) then it makes it even more gutless by St Kilda.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I was thinking about this earlier and pose this question.

Do we think St Kilda would have rug-pulled Aleer the exact way they did if he was managed by Connors?

Because I actually don’t think they would have.

He just has too much power and could really impact them in whatever way he wanted for years, if they scammed him and his like that.

If that’s actually the case (Im just assuming it would be) then it makes it even more gutless by St Kilda.

Only SOS can answer whether he would have or not-i tend to agree with you but he is pretty stupid. But i dont think its a coincidence that they did it to a manager with a small cohort-if they had done it to connors he would basically blacklist them with his entire stable of players not going there for years.

 

[cats_09]

Come on down

 

[Scorpio]

Get your flags ready

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Add to that the coach is a terrible human being putting on a nice guy act. I hate them

What makes you say that about him?

 

[Cataholic]

Come on down

Please no.

 

[Turbocat]

I’m still big on Sam Cumming if he’s there for us but there’s plenty of midfield options there.
We would surely be doing ourselves a disservice not picking up a talented mid for the future.

Outside of that a versatile defender who can play on smalls would be a big help

We know we’ve got another forward locked in with Jesse Mellor through our NGA so it’s just picking the rest of the spots.

Im sure there will be some surprises in this draft but if Cumming is there for our pick that would be a welcome one.

I really do not have a strong opinion on who I want as when our first pick is in the 20… you can only pick who is left. Any kid we pick we probably take time …do we have another more mature player up or sleeve? I find it interesting that we dumped two of our rookie mids..and I thought both showed something ..especially Recthco ..I guess we see what the Tiger make of him now.

 

[Oisin_the_Goat]

The AFL helped create a monster.

Breakdown of spending to build the 23 on GF day

	Brisbane Lions	Geelong Cats
List DVI	30645	18431
Total DVI of the 23 selected	24774	11376
Average Age weighted by DVI	25.89	27.30
Players traded with a DVI cost	5	4
Traded	5915	5277
Average Age Traded weighted by DVI	30.78	32.49
Drafted	18859	6099
Players drafted with a DVI cost	16	8
Average Age Drafted weighted by DVI	24.35	22.81
Players recruited with 0 DVI cost	2	11

We're fighting against both age and resources. They spend three times as much at the draft (Under the new DVI weighting it is 4 times as much), their players with a high DVI cost are closer to their peak age.

Next year they're adding two free agents that resulted in the creation of a pick 2 and pick 21 and they're also getting another top 5 pick at the draft.

We got Worpel and 19

Super interesting. This why we need Butters. Credit to them building a list that strong.

 

[Kobe Gryant]

We're living off culture capital earned 15 years ago. It is crazy how we still have the lights on. At some point soon all we'll have is prayer.

The clubs in this league are so poorly run that we'll be fine.

Our development and talent ID will be elite for some time yet, and the standard is so poor in this sport that that will almost singlehandedly be enough. We're talking about clubs that can't even get 'competence' down pat yet in comparison.

That said, it won't be enough when you're comparing it to Brisbane. Who have similar levels of talent ID, but have the academy picks on top of that. Gold Coast under Hardwick will be similar, that avalanche they've got going on is just ridiculous.

That's where the gap builds, and it's where we need to continuously pick up a club defining superstar every 3-5 years or so to bridge it (Dangerfield, Cameron, Smith, Butters).

I don't count F/S, it's luck of the draw at the end of the day. Take out Fletcher, and the two Ashcrofts, and they're still hunting for that maiden flag under Fagan.

Good luck to them. It's a genetic lottery, and you have to take them when they come.

 

[Turbocat]

Port will match and it will cost us pretty much our whole draft hand for the next 2 or 3 years to get it done (ie it will cost more than Cameron did i think) but I think we will get him because ultimately hes ooc and they will do a trade, whereas marshall was contracted.

Any chance Port sink in 26 …. Id love to think their comp pick would be so enticing they would not want to pass it up…. but I agree matching is most likely. I notice Lord is also OOC … and they will have points to consider… if they get. Cochrane it will be complicated for them...


If we were sneaky like Brisbane … we would tell them that if Butters does happen to be let go as a free agent then maybe a R1 pick might be available for another trade…like soldo for example ...or some such insignificant player. .. and the sneak Lions would get away with it..where as we would have media avalanche come down on us..