MoneyBall: Trade chatter from around the AFL
Collingwood has missed Tom Lynch, Jeremy Cameron and even made a play for Josh Kennedy. Plus, the Pies have been linked to the likes of Jack Gunston and Ben Brown. Where is the club’s search for a key forward at?
Collingwood
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Adam Treloar is a beautiful misser.
He doesn’t shank set shots like Levi Casboult in the bad old days, he doesn’t kick the kind of finger-breaking floaters to leading forwards that put Matthew Richardson in a wild rage.
But as Collingwood bemoans another missed chance in a premiership window that won’t stay open forever, it will be doing a deep level of forensic examination into its strengths and weaknesses.
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Of the 234 players who had 100 kicks in the 2020 season, Treloar had the third-worst kick rating.
That minus 7.8 kick rating takes in the degree of difficulty and every circumstance, and yet he was ahead of only David Swallow and Brad Ebert on that score.
Add in a single goal from 10 games and it is hard to build the case that Treloar hurts the opposition enough.
Despite elite ball winning, elite contested work and elite clearance work he is part of the problem in a Collingwood side with a midfield-forward connection issue.
On face value, it is hard to countenance the Pies offering one of footy’s most popular characters and all-round good guys just so they can keep bad boy Jordan De Goey.
As Jason Dunstall told Fox Footy on Friday night, if Collingwood is to officially put Treloar up for trade they need to treat him with respect by telling him instead of allowing an escalating whispering campaign.
Yet Collingwood is saddled with five more seasons of Treloar’s contract at a price tag that rises due to a back-ended deal just when they have other more pressing priorities.
Collingwood hasn’t had a key forward kick 40 goals since the dominant days of Travis Cloke way back in 2013.
Collingwood’s key forwards kicked the seventh-most goals in the competition this year (47) and ranked 11th last season (11), up from 14th in the Grand Final season of 2018.
It is why they have been linked to a series of key position forwards including Jeremy Cameron, Jack Gunston, Ben Brown and even West Coast’s Josh Kennedy.
Cameron is off to Geelong and Gunston is seemingly going nowhere but it won’t stop Collingwood’s chase for key forward tall timber.
As Nathan Buckley said in his final press conference, the Pies don’t need a single focal point, but the club’s key priority seems to be a hybrid forward to partner with Brody Mihocek.
This year Mihocek kicked 25 goals after last year’s 36-goal haul.
While 2018 brought a dynamic array of mid-sized goalkickers like De Goey, Josh Thomas and Will Hoskin-Elliott, Darcy Moore was the leading key position goalkicker in 2017 (25) and 2016 (24).
It is hard to think of many clubs which would be prepared to accept Treloar’s significant salary impost but, for Collingwood, it’s a matter of cap space.
Especially given what they have coming.
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As veteran list builder Chris Pelchen told the Herald Sun on Monday, the Pies have Josh Daicos stepping into the breach and then his brother Nick in the 2021 draft.
Daicos is already seen as the No.1 pick in that draft, so if Treloar’s cap space could be turned into room for a bona fide key forward the deal begins to make sense.
“Josh has clearly had an outstanding season but the expectations for Nick are even greater. He has a bigger body and probably an even greater scope to play as a taller midfielder than Josh,” he said.
“No one would expect Nick to come in and play a similar role to Adam in 2022, but the long term prospects for Nick are outstanding. They might need to take what could be a step backwards in that particular position for the short term for long-term benefit.
“Especially if they can secure a premier forward in the competition.”
