AFL 2024: Collingwood to sign at least one of Tim Membrey, Jack Hayes

Collingwood says it has struck the right balance with its trade period mentality as a key decision looms between two Saints.

Justin Leppitsch is adamant Collingwood has not traded away its future to secure Dan Houston, saying the Pies paid a fair price to secure “the best player in the trade period”.

The first-year Magpies list boss said they would decide on Thursday who they would pursue out of St Kilda forwards Tim Membrey and Jack Hayes, but committed to bringing in at least one mature-age key position player.

After earlier confirming that three-time Saints leading goalkicker Membrey had a medical at Collingwood, Leppitsch said it was important to add a “battering ram” to the Pies’ list to protect their existing talls.

It means more support for Brody Mihocek, who was restricted to 11 games in 2024 by hamstring and pectoral injuries after shouldering the load across centre-half forward for the last five years.

“We’ve got to look after our talls going forward. It is a focus for us, they’re really hard to find,” Leppitsch said.

Collingwood is poised to choose between out-of-contract St Kilda forwards Jack Hayes (pictured) and Tim Membrey to pursue as a delisted free agent on Thursday. Picture: Michael Willson / Getty Images

“With our footy club, often we just need to get bodies in that position, just battering rams, we like those types of players in that position.

“We think we can find that in the draft as well, but we also think we can get guys over the years as well … you almost need to get a top-five pick to get a superstar in those positions.”

Leppitsch said the Magpies’ uncontracted players, which include Reef McInnes, Nathan Kreuger and SSP duo Ned Long and Lachie Sullivan, would also be informed of their futures on Thursday.

“We’ll be going through those decisions (on Thursday). We’ve got a meeting in the morning and we’ll let not just those guys know, but the rookies awaiting on our decision ASAP,” he said.

“We’ll bring someone else in of that (mature-age tall) description – we’ll just finalise that.”

Leppitsch said the Magpies felt they had “got the balance right” by giving up a second consecutive first-round pick in the draft to secure Houston from Port Adelaide in a three-way trade.

Leppitsch says dual All-Australian Dan Houston was the ‘best player in the trade period’, which has included Richmond stars Shai Bolton and Daniel Rioli. Picture: Sarah Reed / Getty Images

“We have given up (a first-rounder) in the future, but as we know (in 2026-27) you’re able to use future picks to come forward … there’s lots of opportunities to come,” he said.

“We understand where the age demographic of our list is at, but we feel getting a 25-year-old (Harry Perryman) and a 27-year-old (Houston), that’s going to bring us through as well. Planning for the future is a tough thing to do, but we feel we’ve got the balance right.

“You can’t get everything you want, can you? You can’t bring in the best player in the trade period and also think you can get the perfect draft hand as well, it’s just not logical.”

When asked if Perryman was viewed as a halfback or a midfielder, Leppitsch said: “both”.

“If you watch back (Perryman’s) tapes, a lot of his vision, he’s done everything from tagging roles, to through the midfield, offensive roles at halfback, defensive roles at halfback,” he said.

“He’s what we like because he’s a team-first player. We see what Scott Pendlebury does for us and we’re going to miss that role eventually when Scott moves on … we think (Perryman) is that same personality type that can do a number of things for us, and make our club better.”

Originally published as AFL 2024: Collingwood to sign at least one of Tim Membrey, Jack Hayes