Moneyball: Follow all the latest trade, contract and draft news across the AFL
Rory Lobb is in hot demand as clubs look for an experienced big man in a thin market. Check out the latest on his situation in our trade and free agency special.
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Leading journalists Jon Ralph, Glenn McFarlane and Jay Clark combine forces to bring you all the key names and big tips in the market place.
The latest Moneyball features a Bombers star, a Cat stuck on the outer and a pair of Dockers who could end up at Victorian clubs.
Check out the latest trade and contract news.
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SUNS IN RACE FOR LOBB AS MOVE LOOMS LARGE
Gold Coast have entered the race for Fremantle ruck-forward Rory Lobb amid uncertainty about his playing future at the Dockers.
The Herald Sun can reveal the Suns have expressed a strong interest in Lobb as the perfect mature-aged key position star to bolster their ruck and attacking options.
Lobb is contracted for the next two seasons on around $700,000 per year and has not expressed a strong desire to leave after crossing from GWS in late 2018.
But his partner is considering work options in Melbourne, with clubs on the eastern seaboard clearly believing the 28-year-old is gettable.
Clubs including Collingwood, Hawthorn and North Melbourne are searching for ruck-forwards but Lobb’s age and price tag would likely scare that trio off.
His manager Colin Young said on Friday neither he or Lobb had courted a trade from Victorian clubs.
But he could not guarantee Lobb would be at the Dockers next season.
The Suns have not lodged an offer for Lobb yet but would clearly need to offer a three-year deal or more to drag him across the country.
They have already expressed an interest in Richmond ruck-forward Callum Coleman Jones.
Gold Coast’s injuries and recent departures have left their tall stocks ravaged at times this year with captain and ruckman Jarrod Witts out for the season with an ACL tear.
Ben King has shown exceptional talent and kicked 40.19 this season ahead of Alex Sexton (17) and Izak Rankine (16), with athletic 191cm forward Josh Corbett the next-best tall.
Chris Burgess has battled away valiantly in the ruck but ranks 23rd for hit-outs across the competition.
Lobb has kicked 20.19 for the year but rucked less with the emergence of Sean Darcy, averaging only 4.2 hit-outs a season.
Gold Coast has picks five, 19 and 23 in the national draft after being handed an end-of-first-round selection as part of its AFL assistant package.
The league has the right to take that assistance pick away from the Suns if they roar up the ladder but with only six wins would be unlikely to strip it off Gold Coast.
Most clubs have a strong first ruckman but are looking for a second or third key tall who can also play in the ruck at times.
It is why Port Adelaide’s Peter Ladhams, Collingwood’s Mason Cox and out-of-contract Melbourne tall Sam Weideman will all have rivals assessing their suitability this year.
Richmond’s Mabior Chol is an unrestricted free agent and showcased his talents with four goals against Brisbane on Friday night.
COX HOPING NEW MANAGEMENT CAN HELP FIND A HOME
Out-of-favour Collingwood big man Mason Cox has switched management companies as he looks to shore up his long-term AFL future.
Cox, 30, has only managed six AFL matches for the Magpies this season and has regularly been overlooked at selection in favour of teammate Darcy Cameron.
But the man who helped lift Collingwood into a Grand Final in 2018 after one of the great individual preliminary final performances believes he still has plenty of good footy left in him.
Cox, who comes out of contract at the end of this season, recently switched to Bravo Talent Management from TLA.
His new manager Liam Pickering confirmed he has had a preliminary discussion about Cox’s future with Collingwood general manager of football Graham Wright.
“I have spoken to Collingwood and we will start having a few more serious chats now that he (Cox) is officially on board with us (at Bravo),” Pickering said.
“We will keep chatting over the next few weeks.”
Industry insiders believe there is likely to be a premium on ruck/forwards in the trade period this season, with the 211cm Cox likely to attract interest from rival clubs if he and the Magpies can’t come to an agreement.
Collingwood remains under a tight salary cap constraint, despite trading three key players last off-season.
Cox, who has kicked 92 goals from 72 games with the Magpies since his 2016 Anzac Day AFL debut, will likely have to take a sizeable cut on his previous deal if he remains a Magpie.
His previous deal, signed in 2017, saw him earn around $500,000 per season.
The former American, who became an Australian citizen in March 2020, had his best year in 2018, kicking 25 goals from 24 games, including three in a memorable preliminary final win over Richmond.
Injuries and inconsistent form restricted him to only 11 games last year.
He played the first four AFL games of 2021 before returning back to the VFL.
After Nathan Buckley’s departure as coach, caretaker Robert Harvey brought him back into the senior side for two games. But he is now back in the VFL side again, with his late game-saving tackle helping the Magpies’ VFL team knock off Richmond last week.
DOCKER CAUGHT IN TWO MINDS
Carlton and Richmond are at the head of the queue for Fremantle’s Adam Cerra, but the Dockers push for finals continues to give him serious food for thought.
Cerra is still likely to ask for a trade, but some confidantes are suggesting if he is genuinely 50-50 on returning home he could still sign a two-year deal with the Dockers rather than the four they have offered.
Cerra is split between returning to a Victorian-based family that he has barely seen since the Covid issues started and staying at a club that is going places.
Cerra loves coach Justin Longmuir, is enjoying playing with his Freo teammates and has finally been thrust into a pure midfield role rather than half-forward or wing.
Carlton is reported to have offered around $2.8 million over four seasons, with the Dockers offering as much as $3 million.
Former Fremantle captain Matthew Pavlich told Fox Footy on Thursday night he believed Cerra should stay given the club’s emerging midfield.
“Despite the loss tonight, I think the Dockers are trending in the right direction with that young group that’s come through together with Brayshaw, Serong, Darcy and Cerra himself,” Pavlich said.
“I think he should stay for a couple more years and see it through.
“Clearly that’s a bit of a biased perspective having done it myself a couple of times and seen it through, but I think it’s important for him and the club to at least go a couple more years and see where that gets the club to.”
BOMBER STAR CLOSING IN ON DEAL
Essendon is “a long way down the track” on reaching a new deal with explosive mid-forward Jake Stringer with the club confident of a resolution to their contract standoff.
The club’s general manager of football Josh Mahoney confirmed on Friday he expected an announcement in the coming weeks, with progress having been made on the negotiations.
It would be another contract boost for the Bombers following recent signings that have included star midfielders Zach Merrett and Darcy Parish in a sign of the players’ confidence in coach Ben Rutten and the club’s direction on and off the field.
Asked about the Stringer contract negotiations, Stringer said on SEN: “It’s a long way down the track, it’s not too far away.”
“I felt like I’ve said that for a little while now, but it’s actually true. It’s not that far away.
“Hopefully in the next little while, we’ll get an announcement.”
Stringer said last week that more midfield time had been one of the key reasons behind his strong form across the past months.
He has had 29, 24, 25 and 23 disposals in the last four games and has kicked nine goals in that time, including a matchwinning four against Hawthorn.
The versatile Bomber had been seeking a four-year deal to stay with the club, on around $700,000-$800,000 per season.
COULD CAT BECOME NEXT HIDDEN GEM?
Could Charlie Constable become the next Jarryd Lyons?
That’s what rival clubs continue to consider as the out-of-favour Cat slays his VFL opponents on a weekly basis.
Lyons was considered too slow by many when he started out at Adelaide and yet carved out an exceptional career after finding his way to Brisbane via the Gold Coast.
Constable’s pace has also come under scrutiny, but he has averaged 120 ranking points, 32 disposals and seven clearances in the VFL this year.
As one rival footy manager said of him last week: “He’s just too good to be playing VFL.”
He is out of contract this year but last October there were few interested parties at AFL level.
At just 22, surely there are enough clubs who need a flint-hard clearance expert for someone to offer him a chance elsewhere?
MOZZIE’S CAREER IN DOUBT
Irving Mosquito’s knee reconstruction could spell the end of his AFL career as the Essendon livewire continues his stay away from the club.
Mosquito has found it tough in the wake of his knee reconstruction and is with family and friends in Halls Creek in Western Australia.
It is unclear when the 20-year-old will return to the club.
His story highlights some of the challenges indigenous players from remote communities face adapting to a professional AFL lifestyle in Melbourne and the major knee surgery has been a huge setback for the electric forward.
Mosquito showed some exciting signs playing four games including an eye-catching debut against Richmond in the 2020 Dreamtime game when the livewire slotted two goals.
Mosquito was originally linked to Hawthorn’s next generation academy program but the Bombers were thrilled to land him at No. 38 in the 2018 draft.
The move allowed the Hawks to target Jacob Koschitzke at pick No. 52 that year.
WRECKING BALL SET TO STAY
Greater Western Sydney midfielder Jacob Hopper has no plans to switch clubs as he rounds out a career-best season.
The midfield wrecking ball would be leading the Giants’ best and fairest season and, despite holding out on a new deal, is happy at GWS.
Hopper’s sensational form has been on the radar of every Victorian club but any hopes of poaching the New South Wales product have all but fizzled out.
The Giants remain confident they will be able to secure Hopper by the end of the season for at least another two years.
Talks with Hopper’s manager Robbie D’Orazio from Connors Sports are expected to ramp up shortly.
Hopper has averaged 27 possessions a game this season and has become the central cog in their glittering midfield unit including fellow out-of-contract star ball-winner Josh Kelly.
WHY TRADE PERIOD COULD FALL FLAT
This year’s trade period could be one of the greater fizzers on record.
AFL list managers and players managers continue to push the same message.
Only a handful of clubs have any spare cap space given most have deferred some of this year’s pay cuts into subsequent years — as allowed by the league.
The continued Covid crisis means a competition-wide pay rise is off the agenda, so player agents attempting to move their clients continue to be told there just isn’t money available.
Clubs such as Brisbane have so much depth on their lists they are struggling to find three players to delist at season’s end.
Players coming off excellent seasons are being told to accept contracts with bases of around $200,000 and match payments because there just isn’t room for them elsewhere.
The AFLPA has asked the AFL for more financial information as it kickstarts negotiations on a collective bargaining agreement, with the current deal expiring at the end of 2022.
Agents have been told the player union could broker an agreement that only runs to the end of 2024, to coincide with the end of the current TV rights deal.
Port fans go scorched earth on Ken Hinkley
The Swans have marched into another grand final, but Ken Hinkley was the name on many lips after he fell short yet again.
Why not Port, Ken? Swans show exactly why with finals lesson
Ken Hinkley asked his side pre-game, why not us? The answer was shown on the field at the SCG, which is as simple as they’re not good enough to take that last step, writes Matt Turner.