Collingwood’s Adam Treloar situation slammed as messy drama deepens

The Collingwood Magpies are under more fire over their dealing with Adam Treloar with a suggestion that it could get even uglier.

Nathan Buckley hit back at rumours he told Adam Treloar senior players didn’t want him at the club.

Nathan Buckley’s tweet hitting back at suggestions that Collingwood senior players “didn’t want” Adam Treloar at the club any more has seemingly done little to quiet the criticism of the club.

Treloar has been at the club since the 2016 season but has shown himself to be an ideal clubman for the Magpies, sacrificing salary in order to fit other players under the cap.

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But when his wife and netball star Kim Ravaillion revealed she would continue her career with the Queensland Firebirds, the rumour mill kicked into overdrive with the pairs young daughter set to go with Ravaillion.

Rumours and leaks that the Magpies didn’t think Treloar could perform at his best away from his family, that the Magpies don’t see him as part of their future and that the club would be willing to pay upwards of $200,000 of his contract to move him on swirled.

On Monday however, Buckley was forced to respond when SEN’s Sam Edmund reported that the senior players had stepped in.

“What we can say as absolute fact is Nathan Buckley had a phone conversation with Adam Treloar last week where he told him that Collingwood’s more senior players didn’t want him around the club anymore.

“We were wondering how Collingwood would seek to pour more pressure on forcing Adam Treloar out — now we have our answer.

“Now they’re telling him his teammates want him out, which I find staggering as he’s a very popular player at that football club.”

Adam Treloar has been caught in the middle.

Buckley hit back quickly.

“Absolute fact”...news to me Sam.

The constant rumour and innuendo is disrespectful to Adam, the club and our supporters.

We’ll continue to communicate directly and sensitively with Adz and his management.

FYI, our leaders don’t sit on list management, it’s not their job.

— Nathan Buckley (@ncb_cfc) November 2, 2020

Edmunds then responded back saying he “double and triple checked the messaging and everything around it to make sure I was 150 per cent sure”.

But despite the first real communication from the Magpies around the Treloar situation, the Herald Sun’s Jon Ralph told Fox Footy’s Trading Day that Pies fans were furious at the treatment of the midfield star.

“This is like one of those balloon mortgages where his deal is back ended and back ended and back ended,” he said. “He has done that so the club could secure the likes of Dayne Beams and Daniel Wells and be in the Premiership window. Now they‘re saying to him ’we want to get rid of you’.

“He’s not prepared to take a pay cut and he wants to stay at Collingwood clubs like North Melbourne have said ‘we’re just not interested’. As much as Nathan Buckley might say they’re communicating, the Pies fans are filthy.

“They want someone official, not on Twitter, not replying to rumours, and if it is that they want to get rid of him, just say that to fans and show some side-by-side spirit. They’re big enough to know when you need to move a player on, but they think Adam is being really hard done by and I think they’re right.”

Adam Treloar has sacrificed for his club.

Two-time premiership winner and All-Australian David King said that he agreed Treloar was being hard done by but added “this is the professional nature of this sport”.

“It‘s a big boys business and sometimes the information coming back at you is going to be raw and it’s going to be hard to accept,” he added. “I don’t think for a moment that Nathan Buckley said those words that the leadership group don’t want you here. I would be surprised if a coach has ever said that to a player of that quality and of that professionalism.”

But fellow two-time All-Australian Leigh Montagna called for the Magpies to call a spade a spade and communicate with the masses.

“Say it‘s a salary dump, we need to free up some money in our salary cap – why aren’t Collingwood coming out and saying that?” he began.

“I think this is a poor reflection on Collingwood, they are leaking out these little bits of information, that we’re not sure about him being away from his wife and child for a year, we’re not sure he hits the scoreboard enough, we’re not sure if he kicks enough goals, we’re not sure if the players or coach want him. I think that’s really poor because it’s a salary dump. They’re trying to free up some money in their salary cap so why don’t they just come out and say that rather than letting this fester?”

King argued that it would be the difference between an early first round pick and a later pick, but Ralph hit back as the rest of the AFL would understand what is happening.

“The list managers out there will say to you if they don‘t believe he can stand a single season away from his partner, who is of course in Queensland playing netball, they why would Collingwood think we would pay $4.5m for him?” Ralph said taking aim at the slow leak of rumours dominating headlines.

Gold Coast are reportedly not interested and Ralph added the most likely result is that he will stay with the Magpies.

In 2019, Treloar took a large pay cut to fit other players under the cap but is owed that money now, which has inflated his salary.

Montagna said it was “patronising” that the leaks appear to suggest the Magpies don‘t believe Treloar can cope without his wife, as he argues the pair would have come to an agreement before her netball return was finalised.

Montagna believes Treloar and Ravaillion would have discussed the move.

But King said it was “a game of poker” and that Collingwood may not be officially saying anything so as not to weaken its position.

Another potential twist came from Fox Sports‘ Tom Morris, who spoke to lawyer Andrew Jewell at Jewell Hancock Employment Lawyers about the situation with a potential breach of the Sex Discrimination Act (1984).

“If their motivation is to trade him because they don’t think he can play as well without his family with him in Victoria, it is in breach of anti-discrimination legislation,” Jewell told foxfooty.com.au.

“The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 makes it illegal for an employer to discriminate on the basis of a person’s family responsibilities.”

While this is a ways down the road, it adds another element to what has become a messy situation.