Cash splashers, bargain buyers win; \u2018trainwreck\u2019 avoided<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019ve been really clear he\u2019s valued, we want him playing at the Essendon Football Club… we look forward to him continuing to do that.<\/p>\n
Merrett fails in bid to join Hawks | 01:56<\/p>\n
\u201cOur number one priority and our only priority was to keep Zach. We were really clear on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lions\u2019 decision to knock back Adelaide\u2019s future second and future third round picks for Ah Chee was the most puzzling given the dual Brisbane premiership winner can still land at the Crows.<\/p>\n
Brisbane had demanded a future first round pick for Ah Chee – but the Crows held firm.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does seem churlish of Brisbane given he\u2019s not worth a first rounder,\u201d Fox Footy\u2019s Jon Ralph said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe could just walk through the pre-season draft. And Adelaide will end up getting him any way,\u201d Montagna added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wonder if there\u2019s a bigger play with Brisbane \u2026 And they are saying if anyone is going to come for our players in the future, we\u2019re going to play hard ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got some players that are going to be targeted by other teams with what they\u2019ve got so stacked. I wonder if it\u2019s a bit of a long-term message \u2013 we are not giving away our players for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
“Staggered!” Dogs fail to sign defender | 01:28<\/p>\n
The Crows later confirmed they were still committed to securing Ah Chee ahead of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe certainly explored many avenues in our endeavours to get a deal done with Brisbane,\u201d Crows list boss Justin Reid said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCallum has given great service to the Lions and we see him as a player who can really help improve our squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re committed to Callum joining the club and he is committed to joining us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meantime St Kilda coach Ross Lyon said he was happy to keep Marshall – who is contracted until the end of 2027.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur starting position, and Rowan knows that, we wanted to keep Rowan,\u201d Lyon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly we\u2019ve got a strategy\u2026 I mean Hawthorn went to three flags playing two rucks with the strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game lends itself to talls. <\/p>\n
\u201cLife\u2019s messy, football\u2019s messy, trade period\u2019s messy\u2026 we move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
“It’s a big reset!” Curnow leaves Blues | 02:26<\/p>\n
Saints great Leigh Montagna said it appeared the \u201cplayer power\u201d of previous trade periods was starting to wane as clubs find their voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of talk in recent years, player power. If players want to break contracts, they can just leave and they get to where\u2019re they want to,\u201d Montagna said on Fox Footy\u2019s Trading Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve seen some clubs are starting to get a bit of player back and say \u2018nah if you\u2019re contracted, we don\u2019t have to give you up. We can hold you. You\u2019re a professional athlete and you\u2019re going to come back\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen it with Rowan Marshall and Zach Merrett now \u2013 I think we\u2019ll see more of this in the future as more and more movement happens.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ll start seeing clubs being a bit stronger than they have in recent years and saying no if we want you, we\u2019re going to keep you at our football team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cats did make a \u201cfinal frantic offer\u201d for Marshall that was knocked back by the Saints – Geelong\u2019s first rounder pick 19 and a future second rounder. But it wasn\u2019t enough to get the deal done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not every deal can get done in the AFL Trade Period, and in 2025 it was no different…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-215352","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\/215352","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=215352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}