Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\nPIES\u2019 BIG $700K MOVE TO TARGET BIG NAMES <\/p>\n
Collingwood made a \u201cmassive\u201d $700,000 move at the end of 2025 to free up salary cap space to go big fish hunting.<\/p>\n
AFL Media\u2019s Callum Twomey reports the Magpies prematurely paid off the remainder of Brodie Grundy\u2019s salary they were still contributing towards \u2014 a salary the club was originally set to have on its books until the end of 2027.<\/p>\n
The call to pay out the remaining funds owed to Grundy coincided with the final year Collingwood was still chipping in around $300,000 of Adam Treloar\u2019s contract at the Western Bulldogs, freeing up around $1 million in total on the Pies\u2019 books.<\/p>\n
And they now have their eyes on four big names \u2014 Zak Butters, Ben King, Zac Bailey and Bailey Humphrey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s put them into a position where they can go and attack the best in the competition,\u201d Twomey said on Nine\u2019s Footy Classified.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve opened up this window of money and they are being super aggressive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tactical, it\u2019s smart and they\u2019ve got ahead of it … essentially they\u2019re $1 million better off after these two moves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Collingwood has paid out Brodie Grundy\u2019s remaining salary (Photo by Michael Willson\/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Butters, King and Bailey are eligible to become free agents in 2026, while Humphrey, who considered a move back to Victoria last year, is contracted at Gold Coast through 2028.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going to need upwards of $2 million to attract Zak Butters out of Port Adelaide and get him to your club. Nick Daicos is already putting in the work,\u201d Twomey added.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, (Collingwood) were chock-full and couldn\u2019t bring anyone in. This year, get ready for the pursuit.\u201d<\/p>\n
CONTRACT LATEST ON AMARTEY, SANDERS, STRINGER<\/p>\n
Rival clubs are \u201cqueuing up\u201d for Sydney forward Joel Amartey after he couldn\u2019t strike an extension with the club ahead of his free agency year. <\/p>\n
Herald Sun reporter Jon Ralph revealed Amartey is \u201cabsolutely desperate\u201d to stay at the Swans but he\u2019s set to draw interest from clubs as one of few key position free agents on the market. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s led to a waiting game between the two parties in a season the Swans have already boosted their attacking stocks with the addition of Charlie Curnow alongside Amartey and Logan McDonald.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Swans put in a modest offer last year, that was rebuffed,\u201d Ralph said on Fox Footy\u2019s Midweek Tackle.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t have a great last year due to injury but kicked 43 goals the year before. <\/p>\n
\u201cBoth parties happy to wait and see … it\u2019ll be interesting to see if clubs come really hard and if the offer is much more significant than Sydney\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hawks duo were locked up in America?! | 01:04<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Ralph revealed Ryley Sanders is keen to stay at the Western Bulldogs despite the potential lure to return to his home state Tasmania ahead of the Devils\u2019 entry into the competition in 2028.<\/p>\n
Though Sanders, who was targeted by Adelaide last trade period and is out of contract at season\u2019s end, wants to establish himself as an inside midfielder in Luke Beveridge\u2019s side.<\/p>\n
\u201cWants to stay at the Dogs, not particularly interested in a return to Tasmania. But he\u2019s got a view that he wants to be a pure inside midfielder \u2014 he doesn\u2019t really want to be a half-forward,\u201d Ralph said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdelaide asked (about him) last year, they were knocked back. He was dropped for Round 24 and disappointed by that. Amazing in the pre-season then got concussed. Does he get back into that side as a pure midfielder?\u201d<\/p>\n
Hawks arrest details revealed | 02:39<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Jake Stringer is expected to extend his career into 2027, though he has no contract triggers built into the final year of his deal at the Giants.<\/p>\n
Stringer has historically performed well in such instances including the 31-year old booting 42 goals in his final year at Essendon in 2024, which technically hit a trigger for 2025, before he was traded to GWS.<\/p>\n
The forward started 2026 with a bang with five goals against Hawthorn in Opening Round. <\/p>\n
\u201cContract year Jake is real \u2014 he\u2019s twice kicked 40-plus goals in the last decade and they were both contract years. His contract this year is worth around $500,000 … he hasn\u2019t got a trigger for 2027,\u201d Ralph said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Giants love him, they keep saying he was incredible last year (despite) a couple of soft tissue injuries, he\u2019s so selfless and bought into the culture. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt would take a long-term injury for him to not consider going on next year. I think he\u2019ll play well into his 30s there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood has made a \u201cmassive\u201d salary cap move to assist its pursuit of big names Plus contract updates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[36664,638,264109,64,63,689,55,639,11295,12124,1129,218845,264112,12111,77702,1127,10145,61,2105,2485,1139,264111,92519,1120,681,29652,663,7198,677,264110,12922,6082,701,19068,49045,1124,85,7200,2801,11236,1133,660,698,25581,23510],"class_list":["post-531956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-adam-treloar","tag-afl","tag-arrest-details-revealedafl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-king","tag-brodie-grundy","tag-charlie-curnow","tag-connor-macdonald","tag-contract-triggers","tag-dylan-moore","tag-fish-hunting","tag-fox-footy","tag-garry-lyon","tag-gerard-whateley","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-greater-western-sydney-giants","tag-hawks-arrest-details","tag-hawks-duo","tag-jake-stringer","tag-jon-ralph","tag-logan-mcdonald","tag-luke-beveridge","tag-michael-willson","tag-oceania","tag-pies-eye","tag-player-movement-news","tag-port-adelaide","tag-queensland","tag-ryley-sanders","tag-soft-tissue-injuries","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-sydney-swans","tag-tasmania","tag-trade-news","tag-trade-period","tag-victoria","tag-western-bulldogs","tag-zach-merrett","tag-zak-butters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531956","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=531956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n