{"id":17081,"date":"2025-07-23T22:48:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T22:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/17081\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T22:48:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T22:48:11","slug":"victorian-club-linked-to-former-top-10-pick-free-agent-afl-trade-news-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/17081\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian club linked to former top 10 pick, free agent: AFL trade news – AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

The Western Bulldogs<\/a> have been tied to two off-contract players from a pair of rival clubs as the club looks to bolster its list this off-season.<\/p>\n

The Dogs have enjoyed a successful year to date of retaining their top line of talent in 2025, headlined by the re-signing of captain Marcus Bontempelli<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n

The club has also secured the extensions of Ed Richards<\/a> (2030),\u00a0Luke Cleary<\/a>\u00a0(2027),\u00a0Sam Darcy<\/a>\u00a0(2029),\u00a0Sam Davidson<\/a>\u00a0(2028),\u00a0Rory Lobb<\/a>\u00a0(2027),\u00a0Lachlan Smith<\/a> (2026), and Laitham Vandermeer<\/a> (2028) this year.<\/p>\n

Veteran midfielder Tom Liberatore<\/a> looms as the club’s next in-house target, and while negotiations on a new deal will continue, the Dogs are also placing a focus on luring talent to the Kennel.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0AFL<\/a>.com.au,\u00a0the Dogs are showing an interest in Fremantle midfielder Neil Erasmus<\/a> and GWS free agent Jacob Wehr<\/a>, who are both off-contract in 2025.<\/p>\n

Erasmus, a former Pick 10, has struggled to cement his place in Fremantle’s starting side off the back of a stellar year with Peel Thunder<\/a>, whom he helped steer to a WAFL premiership in 2024 while claiming the Simpson Medal.<\/p>\n

The agile midfielder has played 10 games in 2025, and hasn’t featured since the Dockers’ Round 17 loss to Sydney.<\/p>\n

\"TrioPERTH, AUSTRALIA – APRIL 03: Neil Erasmus<\/a> of the Dockers celebrates the win with the fans during the 2022 AFL<\/a> Round 03 match between the West Coast Eagles<\/a> and the Fremantle Dockers<\/a> at Optus Stadium on April 03, 2022 In Perth, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Carson\/AFL Photos via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Erasmus is tipped to have interest from West Coast as well as the Bulldogs, as he weighs up his future at Cockburn.<\/p>\n

Wehr, who is eligible for free agency this year after previously being delisted and then re-listed by GWS, also has interest from Port Adelaide.<\/p>\n

The Woodville-West Torrens product can play across all three lines of the field, with his clean kicking a leading trait that has seen him play 37 games for the Giants since being drafted in 20202.<\/p>\n

Wehr has played 12 games this year, playing the first 10 of the season under coach Adam Kingsley<\/a> before falling out of the team.<\/p>\n

\"HugeADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA – JULY 09: Jacob Wehr<\/a> of the Giants kicks the ball during the 2022 AFL Round 17 match between the Port Adelaide Power<\/a> and the GWS Giants<\/a> at the Adelaide Oval on July 09, 2022 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Sarah Reed\/AFL Photos via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

As a free agent, the 27-year-old wouldn’t cost the Dogs any trade capital, while Erasmus would need to be traded by the Dockers to join another club, unless he was delisted or went through the Pre-Season Draft, which would be unlikely.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs have a host of their own players without deals they’ll need to consider over the coming months, with Oskar Baker<\/a>,\u00a0Nicholas Coffield<\/a>,\u00a0Taylor Duryea<\/a>,\u00a0Jason Johannisen<\/a>,\u00a0Arthur Jones<\/a>,\u00a0Liam Jones<\/a>,\u00a0Caleb Poulter<\/a>,\u00a0Anthony Scott<\/a>,\u00a0Michael Sellwood<\/a> and Adam Treloar<\/a> all unsigned for 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Western Bulldogs have been tied to two off-contract players from a pair of rival clubs as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-17081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}