AFL 2021: Emotional Adam Treloar pays tribute to Kim Ravaillion on AFL 360
Magpies star Taylor Adams believes Adam Treloar would still be at the club if not for salary cap issues, despite an emotional Treloar claiming otherwise on TV last night.
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The gulf between Adam Treloar and his former club Collingwood remains wide apart ahead of Friday night’s grudge match with contrasting views as to the reason he was controversially traded to the Western Bulldogs late last year.
Treloar has revealed he was told that the Magpies wanted to trade him because of concerns around his mental health, not the club’s salary cap woes.
But his former midfield teammate Taylor Adams said on Wednesday morning Treloar, Jaidyn Stephenson, Tom Phillips and Atu Bosenavulagi would likely still be wearing black and white if it hadn’t been for the club’s salary cap squeeze.
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The Magpies initially denied their tumultuous trade period was due to their bulging salary cap, but eventually fessed up that was the reason for cheaply moving key players on.
But Treloar told Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Tuesday night that he was told by Magpies coach Nathan Buckley the club was concerned about his mental health because his partner Kim Ravaillion was moving to Queensland with their young daughter to restart her professional netball career.
“I was told what I was told,” Treloar said.
“I was told it was the mental health side of things, and not being able to cope with Kimmy being away.
“Bucks did tell me, everything that was reported was pretty much told.”
The Western Bulldogs recruit said he had wanted to stay at Collingwood and fulfil his five-year contract before being squeezed out of the club.
Adams told RSN Breakfast: “What happened was unfortunate … we lost some really great people from our football club.”
“The large percentage of the reasons behind those decisions was because of the salary cap. If we weren’t under that sort of pressure financially I dare say Adam, Jaidyn and Tom and Atu would most likely be at our football club still.”
But Treloar said the use of Ravaillion’s netball career to twist the narrative was the most painful part of the whole saga.
“To have that used against her and me was probably the most hurtful thing because the story it should have been was it should have been about this incredible woman who sacrificed her body for nine months to have Georgie and not play at the professional level and to make a comeback at a club she really wanted to be at,” he said.
“For her to do that and then that message to be missed was really challenging for me.”
Treloar will face-off against his former club in a blockbuster Friday night Round 1 match at the MCG.
The new Bulldogs star said it would actually be a “relief” for the game to be over after the big build-up.
“(I’m) disappointed with everything that happened,” he said.
“I still think about it now and it can still really pull at the heartstrings for me because it took a long while after that trade period for me to get over the fact that I wasn’t playing for Collingwood any more.
“It was a place that I love… I loved playing for the footy club and I wanted to retire there.
“It took a while for me to get over the fact that I wasn’t playing for the footy club.”
He said it had affected his love for the game as well.
“In my mind, it’s made footy more of a business, and it is a business at the end of the day. If the club wants you to move on, they’ll do anything they can to move you on, and I well and truly experienced that.”
Adams said he remained good friends with Treloar, but that won’t stop the pair – and the clubs – from going at it on Friday night.
“Although we are great mates and have a lot of respect for each other, I want to beat him and he wants to beat me - and we want to beat them,” Adams said.
“We will spend time on each other, we have done that a lot at training over the years, we’ve butted heads over the years. I am looking forward to it. He is a great mate of mine and an awesome competitor, one of the best competitors I’ve come across.”
Bucks: I hope Treloar doesn’t get a touch
— Nick Smart
Meanwhile, Buckley has declared he’s “full of energy” and the right man to coach Collingwood beyond 2021 as he enters the final year of his contract.
Buckley has been at the helm since 2012 and is far from certain to win a deal this year, despite taking his side to the grand final just under three years ago.
There have been winds of change at Collingwood over summer, with football boss Geoff Walsh and president Eddie McGuire both stepping down during the summer.
As Buckley prepares to start his 10th season in charge, Buckley said “whatever is best for the club will happen.”
“I still have a belief that my contribution can be really positive to this place,” he said.
“If I didn’t have that belief internally, I couldn’t do the job that I intend to do.
“My challenge as senior coach is to do my job as well as I possibly can, so I’m full of energy and looking forward to doing that.”
Treloar will face his former club at the MCG on Friday night in his first game for the Western Bulldogs and Buckley said the messy exit from the Magpies would not be discussed internally this week.
“I think Ads is a fantastic footballer and I wish him all the best,” he said.
“But if he plays this week I hope he doesn’t get a touch.
“We want to challenge the Bulldogs and we want to take the game away from them, and if he’s a part of their 22 then that will be a part of it.
“But it won’t be an individual focus.”
The Magpies won a final and lost one last year, and there are some that believe the Magpies need a full rebuild.
Although, Buckley said his group had plenty of improvement in it.
“Our most important and significant players, nearly all of them had broken seasons last year and we think there is a natural growth from that,” he said.
“We’ve got some players who have been in the system two or three years, such as (Mark) Keane who we expect to play senior football and quite a bit of it.
“Trent Bianco, Nathan Murphy who’s coming of age, Brayden Sier, Josh Daicos to take another step, so there’s plenty.
“If you listen to the naysayers there might be enough evidence to suggest there’s no growth there, but we don’t subscribe to that.
“We’re really confident and bullish about what we’re capable of.”
Buckley lays down the law on racism
— Nick Smart
Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says his club does not want a repeat of racist incidents that have occurred in the past, labelling the recent accounts of some former Magpies as “confronting.”
Ex-Collingwood players Heritier Lumumba, Leon Davis and Andrew Krakouer have all detailed their personal experiences in the wake of the ‘Do Better’ report into racism at the club, which led to Eddie McGuire’s resignation as president.
Buckley admitted he had stopped to reflect on the issue following a tumultuous off-season.
“One of the things you need to consider with that is becoming more conscious of that reality and more open minded and open hearted to being challenged by it,” he said.
“It hasn’t been a period we’ve breezed through clearly, so whatever the public front or facade of it is and the challenge that comes through the media is one aspect of it.
“The reality is how we feel in here and the fact it is confronting to know that people you love and respect so much have felt that way.
“The white, privileged majority is not the experience that matters whether it is good, bad or indifferent, and we need to stop and listen more and understand more.
“Whilst we feel we might have done that in some ways in my time at the club, clearly we need to do better.”
The Magpies coach said he had learned to “listen, acknowledge and seek to understand.”
“I think as a club we acknowledge we need to do better,” he said.
“The board and the expert panel that have been put together are going to roll out the changes that need to take place and things that need to be put in stone.
“The intent might have been there but the process hasn’t been, so the players and staff will be guided as much as any on how that looks.
“We don’t want a repeat of the incidents we’ve seen that the report spoke about over the last 50 years and what Leon, Andrew and Heritier have discussed.”
Buckley said this was an issue far greater than Collingwood that needed addressing across the globe.
“Collingwood doesn’t stand alone in this,” he said.
“We’re part of a world, of a nation, of a state, of a society that this is ever present.
“If we can, through this process, somehow have a positive impact on all of those levels, that will be great.
“But our intent is just to get our backyard improved.”
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