AFL trade news: Rory Lobb says his future still could be at Whitten Oval after career revival

Rory Lobb’s move to defense has reinvigorated his career at the Western Bulldogs. Here’s how it could shape the rest of his career, as the trade winds circulate.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JULY 28: Rory Lobb of the Bulldogs kicks the ball during the 2024 AFL Round 20 match between the Sydney Swans and the Western Bulldogs at The Sydney Cricket Ground on July 28, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Reborn Western Bulldogs defender Rory Lobb says he is back enjoying his football as much as ever after his tumultuous 2024 season settled on a magnet switch.

And he maintains he can now see a future beyond this year at the Whitten Oval.

Earlier this season the 31-year-old seemed destined to join a fourth AFL club next year when he was stuck in the VFL and unable to win a consistent spot in the Bulldogs’ well-armed forward structure.

But after Aaron Naughton and Sam Darcy were briefly sidelined with injury and suspension, and following a shock switch to defence on their return, Lobb is playing some of the best form of his decade-long career.

“I have two more years left after this one,” Lobb said of his Bulldogs deal that runs through until the end of 2026.

“I just want to play AFL football. I want to do what I can to help the team as much as I can.

“I don’t like to look too far into the future, but I really enjoy (being at) this club.

Rory Lobb shifted to defence this season. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

“I feel like us, at our best, can beat anyone. We’ve got a really good group and a lot of the boys have re-signed (with the Bulldogs) and I feel like we can go a long way.

“Hopefully we can just keep this form going.”

Lobb, who played in two losing preliminary finals for Greater Western Sydney (one of them against the Bulldogs), says he is driven by the pursuit of success and believes his club is well placed in the coming years.

He insists he still has a number of years of good football left in him, having started the game later than most, and is happy to whatever role Luke Beveridge thinks is the best fit for the team dynamic.

“I’ve always said that I am happy to do whatever is best for the club,” he said. “I feel like I am a player who can adapt to whatever role, whether it is wing, forward, back or even in the ruck,” he said. “I am happy playing down back … I already feel comfortable down there.

“I feel like we have been really solid (in recent weeks) so there is no point moving and I am really excited to see where we can take it for the rest of the year.”

The Bulldogs have consistently said that Lobb remains a part of their plans beyond 2024, with the club saying earlier this year it would be unlikely to entertain a trade for him, given Lobb’s versatility.

The Dogs are chasing defender Tom Barrass but the Hawks have emerged as the leader in the chase for the West Coast premiership defender.

HOW MITCHELL’S GENIUS MOVE SAVED HAWKS’ CAREER

Hawks coach Sam Mitchell has been lauded for the positional changes throughout this season, but one under-the-radar switch at Box Hill City Oval will go down as one of his best ever.

It was 2021, and Conor Nash’s AFL career was at a crossroads.

The Irish recruit, who joined the Hawks in 2016, had spent the majority of his first five years on a list playing as a key forward.

But despite being a matchup nightmare as a mobile and athletic 198cm target, Nash had managed just 11 goals in his first 21 games at AFL level, and after 14 games in the senior side in 2019, he featured just twice in 2020.

Mitchell, who was the senior coach at Box Hill at the time, came to Nash with an idea of moving into the midfield as to how he could break back into the senior team.

An aerobic beast due to a Gaelic football and rugby background, Nash thrived inside contests, using his big frame to bully opposition players and assert his dominance around the stoppages.

His form at VFL level was promising, so much so he earned midfield minutes in the final four rounds of the AFL season, averaging a tick over 20 touches, 4.8 tackles and 4.5 clearances per game.

Nash said he knew his career was spluttering along, and while he was contracted until the end of 2022, there were no guarantees he would earn an extension.

“There was a big crossroads in 2021, I was still playing forward, wasn’t going well, wasn’t getting a look in, then made the move to the midfield,” he said.

“I’m under no illusion that I was at a standing point there in 2021 and I was lucky to make the move into the midfield there and have the confidence of ‘Mitch’ to play a role in there, and since then it’s progressed into a lot of different things.”

Conor Nash was struggling as a VFL forward when he was swung into midfield by Sam Mitchell. Picture: Steve Tanner

Fast forward three years and Nash has missed just one game, averaged 19.8 touches, 4.8 tackles and 4.4 clearances, becoming one of the rising Hawks’ permanent fixtures in a surprising surge for a finals berth.

Such is his rise as a midfielder, the 26 year old signed a five-year extension at Hawthorn, warding off rival interest as an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2024 season.

Instead of signing a mammoth deal at a rival club, with reported interest from multiple Victorian rivals, Nash will remain under the leadership of his former VFL coach who revived his career.

Nash said he never expected to become what could be one of the most successful Irish recruits ever, with Nash just eight games away from becoming the sixth import to reach 100 games.

Splitting the 5 👌🇮🇪😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/2H9pK8IU8X

— Hawthorn FC (@HawthornFC) July 30, 2024

“It was 10 years now, it was 2014 when ‘Macca’ (Mark McKenzie, former Hawthorn recruiter and now list manager) first caught up with me in Ireland for a kick, he was showing me the vision there the other day, it wasn’t too pretty but since then it’s been a lot of hard work,” he said.

“You come over and it’s just like ‘well it’s an initial two years, let’s just have a crack, see where it takes us’.

“At the start it’s all about focusing on the little gains, like I was coming over and you’ve got to be comfortable being right down there at the bottom of the back again, once you can accept that then you just have to focus on the little gains day-to-day and from there it’s progressed.”

Despite the Hawks starting 2024 with a five-game losing streak, Mitchell’s men are one of the most in-form team in the competition, banging on the door of the top eight.

If Hawthorn wins three of its final four games, it is likely to become just the second team to start a season 0-5 and make the top eight, following in the footsteps of Sydney in 2017, who started 0-6 and finished fifth on the ladder.

Conor Nash has signed a long-term extension to stay at Hawthorn. Picture: Graham Denholm/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

“I think everyone can see how exciting the future is going to be here at Hawthorn so I certainly wanted to be a part of that,” Nash said.

“It’s really starting to turn and has turned in a big way this year and I suppose I’ve been here a number of years now and done a good few hard yards so I’m super excited about where the club is going under Mitch.

“I said ‘I had to be a part of that’ so there was only one decision in the end.”

TRELOAR POISED FOR BULLDOGS EXTENSION

Western Bulldogs ball magnet Adam Treloar is headed for a contract extension in reward for his brilliant form this season.

Treloar, who is still tied to the club for one more season as part of his original five-year contract at the kennel, is expected to agree to terms on a one-year extension.

It will keep the star midfielder at the Bulldogs until at least the end of 2026 following speculation last year he could be interested in a move to one of the two Queensland clubs.

His partner, Kim Ravaillion, and daughter Georgie, lived in Queensland to support her netball career with the Queensland Firebirds, but she has since retired.

Treloar, 31, has had an outstanding season and could win his first best and fairest this year, potentially edging out superstar captain Marcus Bontempelli.

TRELOAR YOU'RE KIDDING 😮#AFLTigersDogspic.twitter.com/auuXQWaZsw

— AFL (@AFL) May 11, 2024

Treloar, who previously played at Collingwood and GWS Giants, has averaged 32 disposals a game this year and has led the club’s revival in the second half of the season.

He was traded against his wishes from Collingwood in 2020 amid the Magpies’ salary cap crisis.

Collingwood was paying about $300,000 a year of his salary at the kennel but that will cease next season.

The Bulldogs are also working on new deals for Bontempelli, midfielder Ed Richards and prized young tall Sam Darcy.

The club will trade Bailey Smith, most likely to Geelong in the exchange period.

Adam Treloar has had his best year as a Bulldog. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

PEATLING FOCUSED ON FOOTY, NOT NEW DEAL

Breakthrough Giant James Peatling is only worried about winning a spot in Adam Kingsley’s finals team, despite remaining unsigned for next year.

The 2021 mid-season draftee has been handed a contract offer by the Giants and is coming off the best performance of his 39 AFL games after playing a key hand in a win over Melbourne on Saturday night.

Peatling gathered 28 disposals, 18 contested possessions and 11 tackles in a dominant performance as an inside midfielder, one that was capped off with a crucial tackle on Demon Caleb Windsor late in the tight game.

Peatling is from Western Sydney and is likely to sign a new deal with GWS but has been stuck as the starting sub in seven of his 13 games this year.

James Peatling and Clayton Oliver vie for possession. Picture: Morgan Hancock/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

Given GWS’ midfield strength, he has found himself thrown around by Kingsley into wing and forward roles.

He told this masthead he was happy to focus on football, not his contract.

“I just leave that to my manager and stuff like that. My focus at the minute is just playing football, I have bigger things to worry about just staying in the team,” he said.

Peatling has been in-and-out of the Giants side since being taken in the mid-year draft in 2021 and he said he was used to contract uncertainty.

“Coming in as a mid-season draftee you don’t really know, that is just how it is,” he said.

“I am used to it. It doesn’t really bother me and coming a bit later into the system, it’s something I am used to.”

ZURHAAR SIGNING LEAVES TWO FREE AGENTS

Just two names on the restricted free agent list are yet to cash in as Tim English looms as the sole option that could leave his club.

With Cam Zurhaar signing up for another five years at North Melbourne on Monday, seven of the nine players who entered the year as restricted free agents are now off the board.

Just English – remains caught between big offers from West Coast and the Western Bulldogs – and Geelong captain Patrick Dangerfield remain.

Dangerfield is of no risk of leaving but talks haven’t gotten serious yet, with the Brownlow medallist hoping for a two-year deal.

Tim English has been linked with West Coast. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

The seven players who have signed on before seriously testing the free agency market have all chased in, combining to have inked 37 years of contracts.

Zurhaar joined Lion Jarrod Berry, Hawk Blake Hardwick and Swan Will Hayward in inking a five-year deal.

Essendon defender Andrew McGrath signed for six years and Hugh McCluggage locked in a monster seven-year contract with Brisbane.

Sun Ben Ainsworth signed for the least amount of years, turning down Victorian interest to ink a four-year extension.

Each of the seven to sign played the market well to secure big extensions, with player agents sure to use this market to their advantage next year.

Young stars Luke Davies-Uniacke, Andrew Brayshaw, Tom De Koning, Cam Rayner, James Worpel, Oscar Allen, Ed Richards, Charlie Ballard and Noah Balta are due to fill the restricted free agent list in 2025.