The “expectation” is Jack Silvagni will depart Carlton, while a host of other uncontracted names remain in limbo following the Blues’ final game of the season.

Meanwhile, the Bombers have a long list of unsigned names of their own and will need to clear at least eight of them.

Stay up to date with the latest player movement developments with AFL Trade Whispers!

Watch the best coverage of the 2025 AFL finals series, including every game until the Grand Final LIVE with no ad-breaks during play, on Kayo. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.

BIG-NAME BLUES TO DEPART, OTHERS IN LIMBO

Tom De Koning effectively said farewell in his post-match address after the Blues’ 34-point win over Essendon on Thursday night, and according to Herald Sun and Fox Footy reporter Jon Ralph: “The Carlton expectation, now, is that Jack Silvagni will, too.

“Nothing is official there, he hasn’t told them that, but their feeling is that you give a bloke a four-year deal on nearly $700,000 (A$2.8m total) in Round 12, he hasn’t come back to them, yet, so I think we know where those free agency deals go.”

The in-demand Silvagni, an unrestricted free agent, has drawn interest from Collingwood, the Western Bulldogs and Essendon.

There are currently 11 Carlton players out of contract, and Ralph confirmed a trio would certainly be offered fresh deals, but he added some others would be in limbo for the next while as the movement period nears.

“Brodie Kemp, Nick Haynes, Jesse Motlop will all get new deals,” he said.

“And then there’s players like Will White, Fantasia and Francis Evans; they’ll probably have to wait until exit interviews, and maybe some of them until the trade period.”

On Evans’ future at Princes Park, AFL legend Jason Dunstall said: “Given what I saw over the last month, I’d be tempted to keep (him), purely because he doesn’t waste the footy.

“Does he get enough of it? Well, he has in recent weeks. Have they been junk games? Probably, but at least he doesn’t turn it over. He kicks goals when he gets the opportunity, and he hits teammates and delivers the ball well inside 50.”

Ralph said the situation of Mitch McGovern was “fascinating”, with the veteran swingman’s future now uncertain after missing out on a games trigger.

“They have told him over the last week or two ‘the reason we’re not playing you, it’s not because you’ve got that contract trigger … it’s because we’re playing the kids, we want to see players like Ashton Moir, Flynn Young and Hudson O’Keeffe’,” he continued.

“Certainly, if he gets a contract now, it saves them a lot of money, and they’ll have about $2 million of salary cap space.”

As for contracted spearhead Charlie Curnow, Ralph said of persistent trade speculation: “They’re just a ‘no’ … I think the feeling is ‘you give us Gulden, or you give us Heeney, we’ll think about it. But anyone short of that, we don’t want your half-back flankers, we don’t want your Ollie Florent types; we want your stars.

“And even then, we don’t want to give up Curnow.”

Which Blues players are on the way out? | 02:55

NAMES ‘IN TROUBLE’ AS DONS TO AXE EIGHT

A whopping 15 Essendon players remain unsigned beyond this season, and the club will soon need to make brutal calls on eight of them before navigating the nitty gritty of this off-season.

Amid this year’s horror injury crisis, the Bombers took four players at the mid-season draft and have played all but one — Kayle Gerreyn — of the AFL-listed players at their disposal in 2025.

“They effectively need to dump eight players from their list just to get back to the 43 that every club can have,” he said on Fox Footy post-game on Thursday night.

“They brought in those four mid-season picks, they’ve got two first-rounders and two second-rounders, and then they might even look at players like (Brandon) Starcevich, (Marcus) Windhager and Liam Ryan.”

Ralph then reeled off the names he believed were “in trouble” this off-season as numerous Bombers face a nervous wait for new deals.

“I would say out of those out-of-contract players right now, I think Alwyn Davey, Dylan Shiel, Jye Menzie, Will Setterfield are in trouble,” he said. “Setterfield is not old, but he’s got that Lisfranc issue, we might not see him until June or July.

“And then there’s players who are on the borderline who are in trouble. I think Ben Hobbs, who was dropped and not even in the emergencies, he’s a Pick 13. I think they’ll keep one of Blakiston or Goldstein on their list.

“I think Oskar Smartt’s probably in trouble, (and) Jye Menzie … and then of the other players who are uncontracted, would you go with a Jaxon Prior — who’s played nearly every game, Luamon Lual, Liam McMahon?

“You feel like they’ve exposed a lot of the list, there’s some quality there, but there’s not A-graders on this list.”

Dunstall questioned how much genuine talent was among the bevy of names Essendon has had to trot out at senior level this year.

“I don’t know how much decent talent has been exposed, they’ve at least had the opportunity to look at everyone, so they should be well-placed to make decisions,” he said.