{"id":195332,"date":"2025-10-07T12:13:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T12:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/195332\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T12:13:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T12:13:07","slug":"best-afl-free-agency-move-for-2026-matthew-lloyd-picks-player-to-move-needle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/195332\/","title":{"rendered":"Best AFL free agency move for 2026: Matthew Lloyd picks player to &#8216;move needle&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Of all the high-profile AFL free agency switches this trade period, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/afl\/essendon\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Essendon<\/a> legend Matthew Lloyd believes one stands above the rest: Tom De Koning\u2019s blockbuster move to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/afl\/st-kilda\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St Kilda<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The former Carlton ruckman joined the Saints on a deal reportedly worth $1.7 million per season, with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/afl\/carlton\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Blues<\/a> receiving Pick 9 as compensation. And while other names such as Jack Silvagni, Sam Draper, James Worpel and the soon-to-be Brisbane-bound Oscar Allen have made headlines, Lloyd says De Koning is the one who could truly elevate his new side.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think of all of those, only one who moves the needle where you can jump maybe four spots on the ladder or something like that, and that\u2019s De Koning,\u201d Lloyd said on Nine\u2019s The Trade Off.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>MORE: <a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/afl\/news\/jamarra-ugle-hagan-gold-coast-western-bulldogs-budarick\/1a8db1d3befefa1fcafcff6d\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">How Jamarra Ugle-Hagan could be traded to Gold Coast<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know he didn\u2019t have the best year, but he might have struggled to handle the pressure. I know Max Gawn said he can be the best ruck in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>St Kilda\u2019s bold rebuild sparks trade domino effect<\/p>\n<p>The Saints have been the busiest side in this year\u2019s trade period, chasing an aggressive $4.5 million recruiting drive that includes Sam Flanders, Leek Aleer and potentially Liam Ryan.<\/p>\n<p>De Koning\u2019s arrival, however, has already triggered movement elsewhere, with ruckman Rowan Marshall requesting a trade to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/afl\/geelong-cats\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Geelong<\/a> after losing his starting role.<\/p>\n<p>Lloyd believes the reshuffle makes perfect sense. \u201cEveryone out of St Kilda likes to say that Marshall is a forward and can play well as a forward. I\u2019ve seen moments, but I certainly think he\u2019s a ruckman, not a forward,\u201d he said. \u201cI understand why he wants to leave St Kilda \u2014 when you bring all these players in on big money, you\u2019re always going to lose someone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of all the high-profile AFL free agency switches this trade period, Essendon legend Matthew Lloyd believes one stands&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-195332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195332","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=195332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}