The Free Agent Pool

[Presti35]

I dont think the Bont will be leaving the Kennel. And Cripps is expected to stay at Carlton too.

That leaves Zach Merrett and Josh Kelly as the two big-name restricted free agents. Kelly is demanding big dollars around the $1.1M mark. Merrett will probably be asking for something similar. Is this something we can afford?

George Hewett has had his name come up and is now a restricted free agent. He's been very good for the Swans since his debut year. That is until a back injury saw him play only 6 games in 2020. He is South Australian, meaning Port and the Crows will probably have a sniff.

Cameron Guthrie and Luke Parker, both 28 years old, are the big-name unrestricted free agents. Guthrie will likely stay in Geelong, and was a die-hard Carlton supporter growing up. I dont think he'll come to Collingwood at any price. Parker, however has been linked with a move back to Victoria for a few years now. Essendon have always been linked to him. A massive upgrade on JT, a premiership player, all-Australian, best and fairest, and club captain tells me that the cost will be high.

With Levi and Mayne both expected to retire, Tom Liberatore and Mitch Wallis could be interesting targets. Liber would come in and take Greenwoods place in the side, while Wallis would come in for Mayne. It's doubtful that Wallis wants out, but he is playing a lot of VFL at the moment. Just something to think about there.

Jake Kelly, 26 years old, probably doesn't offer too much, but could be seen as an upgrade for Madgen if we were to part ways. We might need to find a ready made defender with Howe over 30 and the injury worries he has too.

Sean Lemmens also isn't the big name attraction, but he did a good job against us a few weeks back. The worrying sign there is that he is a Small Forward with only 25 goals in 102 games. But he has been playing defensively in 2021.

We've shown interest in Neville Jetta and Lin Jong before, but thankfully I feel that ship has sailed with age and injuries a factor for those players.

Robbie Tarrant, Jack Ziebell and David Astbury would be perfect if they were a few years younger. And Tex Walker would have been ideal if he was younger too.

No one here addresses our FF problems.

More info here: https://www.afl.com.au/news/617515/try-and-match-these-two-surprise-additions-to-restricted-free-agents-list

[Haff]

Only one here close to the profile we want is Parker but given he will be over 30 when this list starts to come on, I can’t see it happening. All passes for mine.

[Pies2016]

The free agency list has thinned out a little since the start of the season.
My thoughts are that we wait until a quality KPF becomes available and then go all in. We have absolutely no one we can trust coming out of the goal square and it needs to be a focus. At the earliest, that wouldn’t be until the end of 2022.
We’re so far off it, why bother investing in a second rate forward for the sake of it. We will also know more about Kelly, McMahon etc in another year.
It’s also difficult to attract a quality player while we have so much instability going on at the club.
Bed the core of the list down, stabilise the joint and then attack the free agency options when the time is right in a year or two.
I was keen on Merrett for a while but weve got a number of his type coming through ( albeit all of them totally unproven )
These young blokes need a genuine target to kick to, not just a cardboard cut out standing in the goal square.

[qldmagpie67]

I would be asking Geelong if they want to keep Josh Jenkins
He’s kicking loads of goals in the VFL and wouldn’t have a huge price tag
He’s on the wrong side of 30 but could likely have a couple good seasons left in him and he’s a true forward with a decent kicking at goal rate
Having his experience up forward might help McCreery, Kelly or other young players
As for the free agents list I doubt other than Kelly we would really be sniffing around any of them
Kelly’s price tag may not be as high as some think
GWS have cap issues coming up they can’t keep 6/8 players on $800k a year or above in there books just doesn’t balance out

[Pies4shaw]

Bontempelli just re-signed for 4 years at Footscray.

[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]

I'd actually avoid all free agents for the next couple of years unless they are CHEAP - if we're rebuilding (obviously it depends on who's coach), we're better off saving our $$$ until later 1. until our actual premiership window reopens 2. we actually get what we're paying for (i.e we want the best, not a 'oh well we didn't get the guy we actually wanted we'll go for this other guy') and 3. we want to be able to retain our own players that we develop in this 'rebuild' and we won't be able to truly judge what they're worth until once they've matured into 1st 22 players.

Of all the names above - only the cream would be worth it and they ain't coming i.e Bont, Cripps. Guthrie is an interesting thought but imo in the end he's still a cog player. If you get Top end cost the earth free agents, you want to be able to build your team around them...

I don't think either Zac nor Josh are worth even close to 1 million, more like 800k tops

[Presti35]

Updated list:

https://www.afl.com.au/news/629190/who-s-still-on-the-table-updated-free-agents-list-revealed