\n Surprise Eagle joins in-demand stars among restricted free agents available at the end of the 2026 season\n <\/p>\n
Bailey Williams, Zak Butters and Zac Bailey. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
WEST Coast ruckman Bailey Williams is the shock restricted free agent after bandings were released to clubs on Monday.<\/p>\n
Williams is one of only six restricted free agents to be on the market this year as he comes out of contract, with the 25-year-old yet to feature at AFL level for the Eagles this year.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Eagles big man joins a group of five other players who qualify as restricted free agents, along with Port Adelaide superstar Zak Butters, Brisbane jet Zac Bailey, Gold Coast spearhead Ben King, Melbourne’s Bayley Fritsch and Hawthorn’s Jarman Impey.<\/p>\n
This means their clubs will be able to match offers for them under free agency rules and force a trade if they choose to explore a move.<\/p>\n
The full list of unrestricted free agents is available below.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are 101 free agents now in total, which includes players who were previously delisted and are now out of contract or previously moved clubs under free agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Richmond pair Nick Vlastuin and Toby Nankervis were expected to be on the list, however Vlastuin’s deal was extended to 2027 and Nankervis hit a trigger to also take him through to the end of next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
2026 RESTRICTED FREE AGENCY LIST<\/p>\n
BRISBANE
Zac Bailey<\/p>\n
GOLD COAST
Ben King<\/p>\n
HAWTHORN
Jarman Impey\u00a0<\/p>\n
MELBOURNE
Bayley Fritsch<\/p>\n
PORT ADELAIDE
Zak Butters<\/p>\n
WEST COAST
Bailey Williams<\/p>\n
2026 UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENCY LIST<\/p>\n
*Denotes player is eligible for free agency after being previously delisted in their career.
^Denotes player is eligible for free agency after previously changing clubs as a free agent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
ADELAIDE\u00a0
James Borlase*
Jordon Butts
Mitch Hinge*
Chayce Jones
Lachie Sholl
Taylor Walker
Tyler Welsh*<\/p>\n
BRISBANE\u00a0
Darragh Joyce*
Ryan Lester
Lincoln McCarthy
Lachie Neale
Dayne Zorko<\/p>\n
CARLTON\u00a0
Wade Derksen*
Francis Evans*
Nick Haynes^
Elijah Hollands*
Mitch McGovern
Nic Newman
Zac Williams^<\/p>\n
COLLINGWOOD\u00a0
Jack Crisp
Jeremy Howe
Tim Membrey^*
Scott Pendlebury
Steele Sidebottom<\/p>\n
Jack Crisp during the round 16 match between Collingwood and West Coast at Marvel Stadium on June 28, 2025. Picture: Getty Images\/AFL Photos<\/p>\n
ESSENDON\u00a0
Jade Gresham^
Matt Guelfi
Liam McMahon*
Jaxon Prior*
Will Setterfield*<\/p>\n
FREMANTLE\u00a0
Bailey Banfield*
Oscar McDonald*
Sam Sturt
Sam Switkowski
Corey Wagner*<\/p>\n
GEELONG\u00a0
Jed Bews
Mark Blicavs
Patrick Dangerfield
Jake Kolodjashnij
Keighton Matofai-Forbes*\u00a0
Jack Martin*
Mark O’Connor
Rhys Stanley
George Stevens*<\/p>\n
GOLD COAST\u00a0
Oscar Adams*
Caleb Graham
Nick Holman
Ben Jepson*
Lachie Weller
Jarrod Witts<\/p>\n
Ben King during the R1 match between Gold Coast and West Coast at People First Stadium on March 15, 2026. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY\u00a0
Kieren Briggs
Stephen Coniglio
Toby Greene
Jayden Laverde*
Jake Stringer*\u00a0
Conor Stone*\u00a0<\/p>\n
HAWTHORN\u00a0
Jack Gunston
Mitch Lewis
Harry Morrison
Flynn Perez*\u00a0<\/p>\n
MELBOURNE\u00a0
Tom Campbell^
Kade Chandler
Jai Culley*
Tom McDonald
Jake Melksham
Christian Salem
Tom Sparrow<\/p>\n
NORTH MELBOURNE\u00a0
Aidan Corr^
Luke McDonald
Toby Pink*
Bailey Scott<\/p>\n
PORT ADELAIDE
Darcy Byrne-Jones
Ollie Wines<\/p>\n
RICHMOND
Nathan Broad
Tom Lynch
Dion Prestia<\/p>\n
Dion Prestia during the Round 21 match between Richmond and Gold Coast at People First Stadium on August 2, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
ST KILDA\u00a0
Ryan Byrnes*
Jack Carroll*
Patrick Said*
Liam Stocker*<\/p>\n
SYDNEY\u00a0
Joel Amartey
Harry Cunningham
Joel Hamling*
Jake Lloyd
Dane Rampe<\/p>\n
WEST COAST\u00a0
Tom Cole
Jamie Cripps
Matthew Flynn^
Harry Schoenberg*<\/p>\n
WESTERN BULLDOGS\u00a0
Oskar Baker*
Lachie Bramble*
Ryan Gardner*
Buku Khamis
Tom Liberatore
Lachie McNeil*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surprise Eagle joins in-demand stars among restricted free agents available at the end of the 2026 season Bailey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-558336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558336","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=558336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}