Moneyball: All the trade, draft and contract news around the AFL
Sam Docherty has made a call on his future, St Kilda hold the keys to shaping this year’s national draft, details on George Wardlaw’s extension and more in Moneyball.
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Carlton veteran Sam Docherty is keen to play on next season if the club wants him, believing he still has “a lot to offer” at AFL level.
Fresh from his best AFL game this season following a rare stint in the VFL, Docherty revealed it had been a mutual decision with coach Michael Voss after the round 8 loss to Adelaide for him to return to the second tier to regain confidence.
“I still love playing the game and I really love game day,” the 31-year-old defender told this masthead after notching his first 30-plus AFL disposal game since the middle of 2023.
“The pre-seasons are getting a bit long … but it is a part of it and you have to be able to do the pre-season to play the game out there.
“But I feel like I still have got a lot to offer at AFL level. Those (contract) discussions will come later in the year, but I still love footy.”
Docherty, much like the Blues, struggled to have an impact early in the 2025 season, having been shuffled around in various positions.
During that time he had some honest conversations with Voss, with both believing he could benefit confidence-wise from locking down in one spot – at halfback – in the VFL.
“I felt like I was going from position to position and needed to be settled a bit,” Docherty said. “I wasn’t playing as well as I would like in the other positions. Obviously my form wasn’t as high as it should have been and I wasn’t able to impact games like I wanted to.
“(Going back to the VFL) was a bit of a decision by both of us to find a spot where I feel like I can make an impact for the team moving forward.”
Docherty averaged 35 disposals and 150 ranking points in three VFL matches, in his first games back at the level since his first season with Carlton in 2014.
“There was a sense of freedom to be honest,” he said of his three-week VFL block.
“I hadn’t played too much VFL across my career … I think some of the boys who had been drafted (last year) were about eight years old the last time I played back then.”
His form warranted an AFL return last week for the Blues’ AFL clash with GWS, where he was one of the best players in the loss.
Just lovely stuff from Doc 👌#AFLBluesGiants#AFLDeadlypic.twitter.com/w3axFVl5Me
— Carlton FC (@CarltonFC) May 24, 2025
He ended up having 30 disposals, six inside 50s and eight intercepts.
“It’s been a tough year, finding my feet and finding my position in the team,” he said.
“It was nice to come (to the Giants’ game) with a bit of confidence, and play a fair bit of half back in the game. I felt like I impacted the game well. It’s something to work on moving forward and I felt like I gained a bit of confidence out of it.”
A decision on whether Docherty plays on or not almost certainly won’t happen until the end of Carlton’s season.
SAINTS DRAFT IMPACT
St Kilda could shape the top ten of the national draft this year if it continues its bid frenzy from last season as the club looks set to again be shunted down the draft order.
St Kilda plans to continue lobbying AFL House about what it sees as the end of equalisation through the national draft and it has twin concerns.
Recruiters believe the 2026 and 2027 academy harvest of Gold Coast already look exceptional even as eight Suns players were chosen in the Allies side, with the best Suns player Zeke Uwland injured and unavailable.
The Saints believe the Suns have had elite talent handed to them on a plate, and even if a new bidding system makes it harder to secure talent Gold Coast will only need to top up with one or two academy players a year to stay afloat.
But St Kilda can again see what is happening to this year’s top ten.
St Kilda is desperate for more elite talent but faces the prospect of another diluted top ten after it bid on Gold Coast’s Leo Lombard as the last star mid/half forward in the draft.
Lombard will debut this weekend after early-season shoulder concerns.
St Kilda had the seventh and eighth picks in the draft order but was pushed down to nine and ten (Tobie Travaglia, Alix Tauru) by bids on Levi Ashcroft and Lombard.
This year clubs expect Brisbane’s Daniel Annable and Gold Coast’s Zeke Uwland to go in the top five selections.
Sydney’s Max King, a 191cm marking forward, is in the top six or eight in phantom drafts.
West Coast are also desperate for a first-round compensation pick after their No. 1 selection if Oscar Allen departs.
On current ladder order Gold Coast has Port Adelaide’s No. 4 draft pick and it would be swallowed up by an early bid for Uwland.
But there is a chance the Suns could take that No. 4 pick before a bid comes in for Uwland, then match a bid for him with later points before taking Suns academy players Dylan Patterson and Beau Addinsall later.
So St Kilda might bid on some of those academy players to keep the bastards honest, as the saying goes, knowing it will push them even further back in the draft order.
CATS TO GO ON RE-SIGNING SPREE
Geelong will continue to steadily tick through its list of out-of-contract players, with youngsters Ted Clohesy and Oisin Mullin soon to join negotiations on new deals.
Veteran Mark Blicavs inked a new deal this week, with talks ongoing for toughnut Tom Atkins and wing flyer Ollie Dempsey.
The Cats still have a long list of young and old coming off deals at the end of this year, including premiership players Cam Guthrie, Jed Bews, Rhys Stanley and Mitch Duncan, and youngsters like Oli Wiltshire, Mitch Knevitt, and George Stevens.
Talks for a new deal for Mullin are yet to seriously kick off but he should be rewarded for another improved season, having developed as an influential tagger in recent weeks.
Cats academy graduate Clohesy is also expected to get a new deal after being on the fringe of selection throughout the year, with five of his seven games coming as the starting substitute.
Bews has solidified his spot back in Geelong’s side in the past three weeks but is in no rush to think about 2026 yet, while Guthrie played his first half of footy of the year in the reserves on the weekend.
Stanley has proven he still has the tank to carry on into another season if he chooses, having shone in the ruck when required this year.
Given injury concerns around highly rated young rucks Toby Conway and Mitch Edwards, if Stanley were to depart, the Cats would likely need a replacement veteran stopgap, so keeping the 2022 flag winner could be the simpler option.
ROO CONFIDENT HOUSEMATE WILL STAY
George Wardlaw’s housemate Charlie Comben says he has no doubts the North Melbourne cult hero will re-sign with the club long past 2026 as his star continues to rise at Arden Street.
Wardlaw is signed to the end of next year but the Roos would like to sign him on in the same manner as Harry Sheezel, who signed an initial two year extension then another four-year deal to 2030 on top of that contract.
Wardlaw has had to battle hamstring issues but continues to show he is a game-changer in the midfield.
His management has been keen for him to ease into the season and the Roos are not yet pushing hard on that deal.
But a side that secured Luke Davies-Uniacke this year on a long-term deal has him as their big priority extension.
“I have got full confidence George will sign on. Some of his best mates are at the footy club. There are great relationships with all the boys,” said Comben, who lives in a Carlton sharehouse with Wardlaw and Jackson Archer.
“I won’t take the words out of his mouth about his contract situation but I have got great confidence.”
The Roos handed over their 2025 first-rounder for the chance to secure key back Matt Whitlock and the Tigers’ 2025 second-rounder but now sit in second last on the ladder.
Comben had no say in that deal but couldn’t be more impressed with Whitlock, who has made his AFL debut.
“Matt Whitlock will be an incredible player. He’s got some really good skills, he reads the ball well, he’s already done a job on Nick Larkey multiple times in the pre-season which I failed to do once. He’s got some serious, serious talent in the air. His kicking is elite so from a key back department we have got some really strong development.”
The club also has No. 22 pick Wil Dawson emerging as well as athletic ruck Taylor Goad and has seen strong development in No. 23 draft pick Riley Hardeman in recent weeks as a third tall.
INSIGHT INTO TIGES REBUILD
Essendon’s key position crisis continued unabated and while Richmond is deep in its own rebuild it has an unusual conundrum not usually associated with a bottom four team.
It will soon have too many key talls who will be deserving of a spot in this side but can’t find a way in.
The curfew-related absence of Noah Balta has meant Campbell Gray has twice secured senior games in the backline and the rangy mid-season draftee already looks hard to drop.
Fellow mid-season draftee Jacob Blight dominated in the VFL against Essendon after five early-season AFL games with seven intercept marks and 26 possessions.
In that game returning ACL victims Tylar Young and Mykelti Lefau built game time, with centre half back Josh Gibcus still 5-8 weeks away.
The strong form of Ben Miller, Nick Vlastuin and Nathan Broad in the backline alongside Tom Brown and Luke Trainor means the cupboard is stocked with key backs.
Blight can play ruck, but against Essendon with Toby Nankervis out Samson Ryan got a rare chance with Tom Sims backing him up.
Former Perth Wildcat Oliver Hayes-Brown, a mature-aged ruckman, has had his best fortnight in the VFL but Nankervis and Tom Lynch are expected back this week against GWS.
Hayes-Brown is a category B ruckman who is in his second year at Punt Road and has won 18 possessions in each of his last two games.
So coach Adem Yze will have to give his key talls enough chances to keep them eager, having thrown first-round pick Luke Trainor forward last week with Lynch out.
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