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The AFL’s annual trade period is entering the stretch run, with deals having to be completed by Wednesday night. There are still some superstars waiting to discover their fate, while lower-profile deals also hang in the balance.
Charlie Curnow
Curnow’s trade remains a work-in-progress as Sydney attempt to create an offer tempting enough for the Blues to release him with four years remaining on his deal. The Blues have already rejected Geelong’s offer of three first-round picks (in 2025, 2026 and 2027), and made it clear to the Swans that two first-round picks (No.11 this year and their 2026 selection) will not be enough. Will Hayward looks the most likely Sydney player to pique the Blues’ interest, with James Rowbottom not wanting to be traded and Ollie Florent – although invited to explore his options – also reluctant to move. This will go down to the wire, with Curnow’s preference still Geelong, although the Swans remain a good back-up plan. The first step is giving Carlton the right keys to unlock the gate.
Christian Petracca
Petracca will get to Gold Coast this week, and no, it won’t include Bailey Humphrey going to Melbourne, or any other Victorian club. The Suns have been adamant from the moment Humphrey was photographed walking The Tan with Steven King and Nathan Jones that they would not trade him. Gold Coast are prepared to trade both of their top-10 picks (currently selections seven and eight) for Petracca. That will be the nub of the deal that gets done, and there will be some shuffling of other picks. The Suns still have picks 15, 18, 29, 36 and 52, with more potentially coming in for Connor Budarick and Brayden Fiorini, to match bids on their academy players.
Zach Merrett
Monday shapes as a critical day for Merrett. The Hawks will renew their push to try to secure the Bombers captain, but know they need to beef up their offer to entice the Dons to change their minds. This year’s pick nine and next year’s first-rounder are on the table, but the Hawks recognise that with Merrett in their team, their first selection next year could be very late in the first round. Picks in the 2027 draft are not attractive to Essendon as it is the draft compromised by Tasmania coming in. The Hawks are yet to come up with a player they would be prepared to part with, alongside the two first-round picks. Without a player involved, they will need to find an early pick in next year’s draft. This masthead’s story that Essendon’s board would have to sign off on any trade of Merrett encouraged Hawthorn. They felt it was a softening of the club’s position that he would not be traded.
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Clayton Oliver
We know two things: Oliver is about to become a Giant, and Melbourne will pay a sizeable chunk of his contract – possibly up to $700,000-a-season – for the remaining five years of his deal. How much the Demons agree to pay could be a point of conjecture, given that is one of Greater Western Sydney’s major appeals of recruiting Oliver. But Melbourne will want to come out of this with something other than salary cap space. Not much progress has been made on this one, but a future third-round selection, plus some other pick-related swaps, might be as good as it gets. This deal likely won’t be done until Wednesday.
Jy Simpkin
North Melbourne’s captain was unhappy about being pushed out of an inside midfield role onto the wing late in the season despite having some of his most prolific performances there. Collingwood have expressed interest in Simpkin, but the problem is brokering a deal. The 27-year-old dual best-and-fairest is contracted until the end of 2029, and the Roos don’t need salary cap relief, so there is little incentive for them to trade him. North told the Pies they would need two first-round picks to budge on Simpkin, who is yet to request a trade. That stance might soften, but Collingwood’s best pick this year is No.39, so they would have to use future selections or trade with a third club. The Magpies are reluctant to entertain trading one first-round pick for Simpkin, let alone two. Simpkin will likely stay at Arden Street, but there is time for that to change.
Jamarra Ugle-Hagan
Gold Coast’s board are being kept abreast of the club’s plans to secure Ugle-Hagan on a very tight contract with behavioural clauses that protects the club. However, there has been no time frame put on when the 23-year-old is signed. Assuming the deal proceeds, Ugle-Hagan is likely to command a token future pick at the trade table before the Bulldogs and his management discuss the financial terms of his departure, given he was contracted until 2026. There was some talk the Connor Budarick trade would be tied to Ugle-Hagan, but it appears the pick 37 the Bulldogs will gain in a pick swap with the Giants (pick 12 for picks 14 and 37) will be used in the Budarick trade. Budarick is likely to join the Dogs well before Ugle-Hagan’s deal is done.
Rowan Marshall
On Monday, the Cats put pick 19 on the table for Marshall. It sat there for four days before Geelong rang St Kilda to see whether they were going to grab it. When they were told ‘no’, they made the pick a part of their initial, quickly rejected, offer of three first-round picks for Carlton’s Charlie Curnow. Geelong will keep pushing on Marshall until the deadline, all while being aware he is contracted and with reports the Saints intend to keep him. If Curnow looks like he is heading to Sydney; the Cats will have enough collateral to make the Saints at least consider trading Marshall. The trade is set to remain an open question until close to Wednesday’s deadline.
Leek Aleer
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Aleer planned to become a Saint on a four-year contract worth north of $700,000-a-season, but St Kilda reneged on their offer, and interest, in an almost-unprecedented decision last Thursday. That stunning backflip – after beginning negotiations with GWS around a future second-round pick – means Aleer’s management were left scrambling for options. The Giants would have him back, on a less-lucrative deal, but they have a premium on list spots, while North Melbourne are at least discussing the possibility to bring the intercept defender in. This has been an unfortunate saga for the 24-year-old.
Callum Ah Chee
Negotiations are at a standstill, and this one has deadline day written all over it. Brisbane want Adelaide’s pick 16, or a future first-rounder, for their dual premiership-winning forward, whereas the Crows remain insistent that all they will offer is a future second-round selection. Adelaide have offered Ah Chee, 28, a five-year deal, while the Lions were willing to give him four years.
James Rowbottom, Will Hayward and Ollie Florent
This Swans trio have all been mooted as trade possibilities, but are happy to stay at the Swans. The Blues made a push for Hayward when he was a free agent before he re-signed, so he was seen as a possible sweetener to a Charlie Curnow deal, but Hayward (contracted until 2029) does not want to go. Florent also has four years to run on his deal. Several clubs, including Gold Coast, Essendon and Collingwood, sounded out Rowbottom (2028). He was suggested as a possible third-party solution to help Hawthorn break open the Zach Merrett impasse with Essendon, but that didn’t go anywhere when he said he wanted to remain a Swan. Craig McRae rang Rowbottom after this to see if he might be interested in moving if it were to Collingwood. He wasn’t.
The others
Richmond defender Tylar Young will get to West Coast, but the Eagles have so far resisted using their pick 34 to make it happen. They also have selections 38 and 41, so one of them should seal the deal. Essendon will trade for Gold Coast free agent Brayden Fiorini to avoid diluting their Sam Draper compensation (currently pick 21), but a future third-round pick is not appeasing the Suns, who would prefer something in this year’s draft to help match academy bids. More likely is a swap of 2025 picks that favours Gold Coast. Hawk Jai Serong’s move to Sydney will likely involve this year’s No.63 selection, or a similarly late pick in the future. But there is still work to do for Collingwood to secure Swans forward Jack Buller. The Bulldogs were unwilling to accept pick 41 from Carlton for Buku Khamis, and the Blues no longer own that selection. He should still join Carlton, but there could be a bit of haggling yet. Melbourne’s Steven May and St Kilda’s Jack Steele are unlikely to be traded despite Collingwood and Essendon, respectively, briefly flirting with pursuing them. No club at this stage is willing to trade for contracted Blue Elijah Hollands.
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