{"id":828308,"date":"2026-07-28T03:56:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T03:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828308\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T03:56:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T03:56:28","slug":"unsigned-lions-forward-targeted-by-victorian-pair-afl-trade-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828308\/","title":{"rendered":"Unsigned Lions forward targeted by Victorian pair: AFL trade news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlton and Essendon are among clubs eyeing unsigned Brisbane forward Will McLachlan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Lions youngster joined the club via the 2024 Mid-Season Draft from Geelong Falcons, and has spent the majority of his time in the VFL.<\/p>\n

McLachlan has played seven games in Chris Fagan’s side, including one this year, where he kicked four goals.<\/p>\n

He slotted 33 goals in last year’s VFL competition from 15 games, and has nearly matched that effort this season, kicking 27 goals in eight matches, with an eight-goal haul his most recent performance.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0SEN, the Blues and Bombers, who need forward stocks, are interested in his services.<\/p>\n

\"MixedWill McLachlan of the Brisbane Lions in the VFL during 2024 (Image via Brisbane FC)<\/p>\n

McLachlan has fallen behind the likes of Kai Lohmann<\/a>, Cam Rayner, Charlie Cameron<\/a>,\u00a0Zac Bailey <\/a>and taller options Eric Hipwood<\/a> and Logan Morris<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lions recruit Oscar Allen is also struggling to cement his spot in the senior side<\/a>, dealing with injury and the form of his teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe result of the way we play on offence is that we \u2026 get a lot of guys that get a look at goals, we share the scoring around which is great,\u201d Fagan said on the weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’d like to think that we’re an equal opportunity offence and therefore hard to stop. We don’t rely on any one person, and I thought that was a good example of that today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s hard to change a winning side.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill has kicked eight, but Kai kicked three today, and Charlie probably kicked three; Cam Rayner probably kicked two or three, so it’s a little hard to get in.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it’s good to have players playing in the reserves that can step up if we need them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlton and Essendon are among clubs eyeing unsigned Brisbane forward Will McLachlan. The Lions youngster joined the club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-828308","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828308","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=828308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}