{"id":275232,"date":"2025-11-10T10:45:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T10:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/275232\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T10:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T10:45:11","slug":"collingwood-launches-bid-to-lure-brisbane-premiership-star-zac-bailey-as-afl-free-agency-call-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/275232\/","title":{"rendered":"Collingwood launches bid to lure Brisbane premiership star Zac Bailey as AFL free agency call looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collingwood<\/a> has approached two-time Brisbane<\/a> premiership star Zac Bailey ahead of the final year of his contract at the Lions.<\/p>\n

Bailey, along with Port Adelaide\u2019s Zak Butters<\/a> and Gold Coast\u2019s Ben King, headlines a blockbuster list of players set to reach free agency at the end of next year.<\/p>\n

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Collingwood launches bid to lure Brisbane star Zac Bailey.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today \"Download<\/a><\/p>\n

Back-to-back reigning premiers Brisbane are bursting at the seams with talent and already have lucrative long-term deals with Hugh McCluggage, Will Ashcroft, Cam Rayner and Josh Dunkley \u2014 plus new recruits Oscar Allen and Sam Draper \u2014 among others.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve already had to say goodbye to Brandon Starcevich and Callum Ah Chee<\/a>, who both played key roles in their consecutive premierships, as rival clubs continue to eye off their elite list.<\/p>\n

Essendon has already been reported as preparing a godfather six-year, $1.3 million offer for Bailey, but now the Magpies have joined the race for the 26-year-old\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n

The move comes after failed attempts at luring North Melbourne\u2019s Jy Simpkin and Gold Coast\u2019s Bailey Humphrey, with Collingwood intent on long-term midfield options.<\/p>\n

Port Adelaide and Adelaide have also registered interest in Bailey, whose future will remain a massive story throughout 2026 if he doesn\u2019t re-sign with Brisbane.<\/p>\n

The Lions are desperate to keep Bailey, who had an extraordinary nine scoring shots in this year\u2019s grand final against Geelong, and is one of their most damaging midfielder-forwards.<\/p>\n

\"ZacBaileyZacBailey remembers the chat that turned his form around. (James Ross\/AAP PHOTOS) Credit: AAP<\/p>\n

Joe Daniher\u2019s departure from the Lions at the end of last year has given them some extra wiggle room with their salary cap, but Brisbane list manager Dom Ambrogio also has the headache of trying to find money for rising stars like Logan Morris and Kai Lohmann, who come out of contract at the end of 2027.<\/p>\n

A move for Bailey would a massive blow to the Lions \u2014 though not on the same level as that of Butters to Port Adelaide, should he depart Alberton.<\/p>\n

The Victorian-born superstar is out of contract at the end of 2026 and is among the game\u2019s best handful of players.<\/p>\n

He has had strong links to the Western Bulldogs, who he supported as a kid \u2014 and former Power assistant coach Chad Cornes thinks he\u2019s every chance to go home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love \u2018Buttsy\u2019, he\u2019s such a great guy, I was listening to you guys speak about him earlier this morning,\u201d Cornes told SEN last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you had to make a prediction, I think he goes (to another club) this time next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I would be saying he loves the Bulldogs; just a real hard-core Bulldogs supporter before he got drafted. So, I don\u2019t want to make a big call too early…\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kane Cornes slams \u2018embarrassing overreaction\u2019 to AFL fixture move<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

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

Former AFL player \u2018loses everything\u2019 in devastating house fire<\/p>\n

1 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood has approached two-time Brisbane premiership star Zac Bailey ahead of the final year of his contract at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,53746,64,63,55,639,3237,10133,1625,3863,588,85],"class_list":["post-275232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-afl-trades","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-collingwood-magpies","tag-lifestyle","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275232","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=275232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}