{"id":217387,"date":"2025-10-16T09:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/217387\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T09:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:18:10","slug":"afl-trade-period-2025-clayton-oliver-and-jack-steele-trades-melbourne-demons-and-st-kilda-saints-footy-furnace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/217387\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL trade period 2025 | Clayton Oliver and Jack Steele trades; Melbourne Demons and St Kilda Saints; Footy Furnace"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to the AFL trade period<\/a>, Zach Merrett, Christian Petracca and Charlie Curnow<\/a> were the names that dominated the headlines.<\/p>\n

But one name that has escaped scrutiny is Jack Steele.<\/p>\n

The now former Saints captain was traded to the Demons for a future third-round selection in the 2027 draft. Steele’s move effectively intertwined with Clayton Oliver<\/a>‘s long-awaited exit from Melbourne.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Titmus announces shock retirement at 25<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Inside the frantic final moments of Curnow trade<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ex-Storm beast confirms R360 approach<\/a><\/p>\n

Oliver went from Melbourne to GWS for a future third-round pick which was used to pick up Steele.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Clayton Oliver and Jack Steele. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“It’s the most underrated story of the trade period that St Kilda’s moved on its captain,” 9news Melbourne reporter Tom Morris said on Nine’s Footy Furnace.<\/p>\n

Oliver has had a troubling few years at Melbourne, but despite mammoth offers, the Demons didn’t wish to trade him.<\/p>\n

Now with Steven King at the helm, that attitude has changed.<\/p>\n

“They’ve moved Clayton Oliver, because they were unsure about his character off the field and they’ve brought in Jack Steele, who has an exemplary character but just wasn’t fitting in at St Kilda,” Morris said.<\/p>\n

On Footy Furnace, James Hird agreed it was a cultural decision but lauded the Giants’ recruitment, with Oliver the icing on the cake.<\/p>\n

“We think they’ve got a B+ (for the trade period), purely because they’ve got the best player in the competition for four or five years for pick 70-odd and they’re only paying half his fees. That’s a fantastic deal,” he said.<\/p>\n

St Kilda strangely traded its captain but it starts to make sense when you assess the sum of the Saints’ parts after an active off-season in the market. An aggressive trade period means Steele’s minutes were going to be severely hampered.<\/p>\n

When the trade period ended, Ross Lyon was the only coach of all the AFL clubs who spoke to the media.<\/p>\n

He made sure to point out Steele’s contribution.<\/p>\n

“There’s a significant move I really want to acknowledge, Jack Steele, his captaincy and performance before I came to the club and with me, he’s been a really strong leader,” Lyon said.<\/p>\n

“It just shows he’s got the fire in the belly and courage to explore an opportunity where he gets to lead and stand up. We wish him all the best.”<\/p>\n

\"SYDNEY,<\/p>\n

Ross Lyon. \u00a0via Getty Images<\/p>\n

St Kilda’s move would suggest they believe Steele, at 29, is past his best. However, the midfielder now has a chance to prove the club wrong at Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Steele was originally keen to stay at the Saints but was wooed into the Demons move. <\/p>\n

Melbourne list boss Tim Lamb told afl.com.au’s Gettable, that the deal came about late, when Oliver was traded.<\/p>\n

“We spoke to Jack on Tuesday morning and then had some more conversations with him, some of our leaders got involved in talking to Jack, which I think was important,” he said.<\/p>\n

“He did his own research on us and the environment at our footy club. I think he was really impressed with Steven (King) and Nathan Jones the midfield coach, he did his work on us like we did on him.”<\/p>\n

Steele is now contracted to the Demons until the end of 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to the AFL trade period, Zach Merrett, Christian Petracca and Charlie Curnow were the names…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-217387","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\/217387","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=217387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}