Western Bulldogs, Collingwood locked in standoff over Adam Treloar contract
Collingwood insists the Bulldogs agreed to further negotiations over who would pay what to Adam Treloar after his trade. The Dogs see it differently.
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Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs remain significantly apart over a resolution to the Adam Treloar contract dispute.
Figures close to the standoff say the Dogs are adamant they will not be paying Treloar a cent more than a “watertight” five-year, $600,000-a-season contract agreed with the cast-off Magpies midfielder.
It would mean Treloar is still owed $300,000 a year — or $1.5 million — under the terms of his original Magpies contract.
But Collingwood insists the Bulldogs agreed to further negotiations over who would pay what to Treloar after the trade went through, which the Bulldogs absolutely dispute.
The Dogs are confident any money owed above and beyond Treloar’s new arrangement at the Whitten Oval is simply a matter for Collingwood.
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The only concession the Western Bulldogs did offer Collingwood during the frantic final days of the trade period, one figure said, was an offer to front-end some of Treloar’s wages in his new contract to assist the Magpies with management of their salary cap.
But if Collingwood’s position is right, the Bulldogs effectively agreed to a trade for Treloar without knowing how much they would pay him.
The clubs agreed to the trade one minute before the AFL exchange period deadline.
But no paperwork outlining any financial details has been lodged with the AFL by either club.
Attempts by Collingwood to push back on payments owed to Treloar will inflame an already bitterly strained relationship with the player after the messy mishandling of the midfielder’s departure.
The AFL is yet to become embroiled in the negotiations.
The clubs held amicable talks on Thursday and have been given extra time before Treloar’s full financial arrangements must be submitted.
The day after he was traded, Treloar revealed how hurt he was by Collingwood’s treatment of him at the end of the 2020 season.
The Western Bulldogs recruit said he was shocked to be told by Magpies coach Nathan Buckley that teammates did not want him, given the strong relationships he had built across five seasons at Collingwood.
“To be told that, when I don’t think that’s the truth, and to be told that there’s some players that don’t want you there when I know the majority of the players love me and care for me, that did hurt a bit,” he said.
“But they were adamant on moving me on, so no matter how they were going to go about it, it was going to happen. It was a fight up until the end, because I wanted to be at Collingwood.”