2025 List Management Thread

[doggies ftw]

It’s not going to happen but if Butters is a no go I’d throw a huge deal at Ollie Dempsey. Looks like he loves it down there but he’s coming off his rookie deal this year so hasn’t exactly been paid overly well yet and we know Geelong don’t like to give out huge contracts in the past so maybe he could be tempted by a large over the top deal? At the very least it’ll disrupt the cats into paying more than they want.

Imagine Dempsey & Davo on our wings for the next 10 years, with Williams rotating wing, HF, HB as required.

Hes a stud

[Bornadog]

BULLDOGS' BIG QUESTION

WHO SIGNS first at the Western Bulldogs – Marcus Bontempelli or Luke Beveridge?

It is an unusual position for one of the genuine premiership contenders to be midway through the season and have their captain and coach both out of contract.

Bontempelli has delayed starting talks so far. He wanted to get the season started first, but then got injured. Then he wanted to get back to playing and playing well. Tick tick. If he has wanted to wait for the Dogs to get other signings done – like Sam Darcy and then Ed Richards – that's a double tick too.

Beveridge has made enough noises that he is ready to get the ball rolling on contract talks and has said he won't be coaching anywhere else in 2026 if it's not at the Dogs. He has worked through myriad injury and other challenges this year and the Bulldogs only look more in sync as a team.

Champion Data shows how the Dogs' profile is humming: they are No.1 in disposals, disposal efficiency, points from clearances (and differential), points from centre bounces (and differential), clearance to score percentage, centre clearance differential, clearance differential, time in forward half differential and defensive 50 to inside 50 percentage. They are also the best scoring team in the competition.

Is Bontempelli wanting to see what happens with Beveridge? And how long will that take to unfold? The Dogs have their mid-season bye in round 12 – it seems the opportune time to get signing business done, or at least started, on both fronts.

Would be good to get these out of the way and stop the media discussion and speculation.

[Axe Man]

BULLDOGS' BIG QUESTION

WHO SIGNS first at the Western Bulldogs – Marcus Bontempelli or Luke Beveridge?

It is an unusual position for one of the genuine premiership contenders to be midway through the season and have their captain and coach both out of contract.

Bontempelli has delayed starting talks so far. He wanted to get the season started first, but then got injured. Then he wanted to get back to playing and playing well. Tick tick. If he has wanted to wait for the Dogs to get other signings done – like Sam Darcy and then Ed Richards – that's a double tick too.

Beveridge has made enough noises that he is ready to get the ball rolling on contract talks and has said he won't be coaching anywhere else in 2026 if it's not at the Dogs. He has worked through myriad injury and other challenges this year and the Bulldogs only look more in sync as a team.

Champion Data shows how the Dogs' profile is humming: they are No.1 in disposals, disposal efficiency, points from clearances (and differential), points from centre bounces (and differential), clearance to score percentage, centre clearance differential, clearance differential, time in forward half differential and defensive 50 to inside 50 percentage. They are also the best scoring team in the competition.

Is Bontempelli wanting to see what happens with Beveridge? And how long will that take to unfold? The Dogs have their mid-season bye in round 12 – it seems the opportune time to get signing business done, or at least started, on both fronts.

[SquirrelGrip]

Here's our current list by age:

No	Name	Games	Age	Date of Birth
19	Jones, Liam	204	34yr 2mth	24-Feb-91
15	Duryea, Taylor R	217	34yr	24-Apr-91
21	Liberatore, Thomas	244	33yr	16-May-92
39	Johannisen, Jason	202	32yr 6mth	8-Nov-92
7	Lobb, Rory	186	32yr 3mth	9-Feb-93
1	Treloar, Adam	255	32yr 2mth	9-Mar-93
28	Scott, Anthony	59	30yr 2mth	28-Feb-95
22	Harmes, James	170	29yr 7mth	5-Oct-95
4	Bontempelli, Marcus	245	29yr 5mth	24-Nov-95
31	Dale, Bailey	165	28yr 9mth	22-Jul-96
8	Kennedy, Matthew	128	28yr 1mth	6-Apr-97
43	Gardner, Ryan	53	27yr 11mth	1-Jun-97
44	English, Timothy	141	27yr 9mth	10-Aug-97
34	Williams, Bailey	161	27yr 7mth	10-Oct-97
29	Bramble, Lachlan R	64	27yr	19-Apr-98
13	Baker, Oskar R	42	26yr 11mth	25-May-98
23	Vandermeer, Laitham	76	26yr 3mth	3-Feb-99
20	Richards, Ed	135	25yr 10mth	3-Jul-99
17	Coffield, Nicholas	60	25yr 6mth	23-Oct-99
33	Naughton, Aaron	153	25yr 5mth	30-Nov-99
24	Khamis, Buku	36	25yr 1mth	24-Mar-00
14	West, Rhylee	68	24yr 10mth	12-Jul-00
3	Weightman, Cody	76	24yr 4mth	15-Jan-01
38	Garcia, Riley	31	24yr 3mth	30-Jan-01
30	McNeil, Lachlan R	63	23yr 8mth	2-Sep-01
42	Davidson, Sam	10	23yr 5mth	13-Dec-01
36	Cleary, Luke	14	23yr 2mth	5-Mar-02
2	Ugle-Hagan, Jamarra	67	23yr 1mth	4-Apr-02
18	O'Donnell, James R	35	22yr 8mth	31-Aug-02
25	Poulter, Caleb R	29	22yr 7mth	12-Oct-02
10	Darcy, Sam	34	21yr 9mth	19-Jul-03
32	Jones, Arthur	17	21yr 10mth	18-Jul-03
12	Gallagher, Harvey	25	21yr 7mth	26-Sep-03
5	Busslinger, Jedd	2	21yr 2mth	11-Mar-04
9	Sanders, Ryley	24	20yr 3mth	21-Jan-05
16	Croft, Jordan	0	20yr	12-May-05
40	Smith, Lachlan	0	19yr 7mth	5-Oct-05
27	Freijah, Joel	23	19yr 6mth	14-Nov-05
6	Hynes, Cooper	3	19yr 2mth	28-Feb-06
11	Jaques, Lachie	0	18yr 11mth	1-Jun-06
35	Kennedy, Luke	0	18yr 7mth	11-Oct-06
26	Dolan, Josh	7	18yr 6mth	11-Nov-06

[Scott2016]

Only just found this thread, like it.

I tend to go a bit hard at these. If I don't think a player can be on average a 6/10 player after a few years, I am ready to move on and find the next one.
You can always top up the list with players like Dom Brew on min wage to fill roles.

Scott - Move on at the end of the current contract
A Jones - Move on at the end of the current contract
Gardiner - Move on at the end of the current contract
L Jones - Wait and see, end of 2025 will tell
Dureya - Move on at the end of the current contract
Poulter - Move on at the end of the current contract
Baker - Move on at the end of the current contract
Garcia - Trade, end of 2025.
Gallagher - Assess at the end of 2026
Coffield - Move on at the end of the current contract

I agree on all of these. Still hoping Gallagher comes good.

[Bornadog]

Hasn't Kennedy been awsesome

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[hujsh]

One thing to factor into the list management discussions is it's a highly compromised draft this year with father son selections, NGA and Academy players which will push the 1st and even the 2nd round quite a lot deeper.
We also don't currently have a 3rd or 4th round selection so we might not want to be picking at the back end of this draft.
One other consideration is we have gone a bit deeper with our National Draft picks over the last 2 seasons which might indicate we were trying to get ahead of this year.

We have to promote JOD who can no longer sit on the Cat B list beyond this year

Based on that plus Axe's contract thread content we might limit the changes to around 6.
Those in the most risk would be
Duryea and Coffield would need to show a fair bit to earn other deals.
JJ and Liam Jones would want to be injury free after the bye and stay that way.
With all his concussions Scott would need to get back in asap and show some form
Poulter and Baker are decent depth players but shouldn't get more than 1 year deals if they are maintained.

We could also potentially select 2 players at the Mid-season draft given we have 1 list spot open and a season ending injury to Weightman.

I can't remember the last draft where that wasn't the case

[GVGjr]

Only just found this thread, like it.

I tend to go a bit hard at these. If I don't think a player can be on average a 6/10 player after a few years, I am ready to move on and find the next one.
You can always top up the list with players like Dom Brew on min wage to fill roles.

Scott - Move on at the end of the current contract
A Jones - Move on at the end of the current contract
Gardiner - Move on at the end of the current contract
L Jones - Wait and see, end of 2025 will tell
Dureya - Move on at the end of the current contract
Poulter - Move on at the end of the current contract
Baker - Move on at the end of the current contract
Garcia - Trade, end of 2025.
Gallagher - Assess at the end of 2026
Coffield - Move on at the end of the current contract

One thing to factor into the list management discussions is it's a highly compromised draft this year with father son selections, NGA and Academy players which will push the 1st and even the 2nd round quite a lot deeper.
We also don't currently have a 3rd or 4th round selection so we might not want to be picking at the back end of this draft.
One other consideration is we have gone a bit deeper with our National Draft picks over the last 2 seasons which might indicate we were trying to get ahead of this year.

We have to promote JOD who can no longer sit on the Cat B list beyond this year

Based on that plus Axe's contract thread content we might limit the changes to around 6.
Those in the most risk would be
Duryea and Coffield would need to show a fair bit to earn other deals.
JJ and Liam Jones would want to be injury free after the bye and stay that way.
With all his concussions Scott would need to get back in asap and show some form
Poulter and Baker are decent depth players but shouldn't get more than 1 year deals if they are maintained.

We could also potentially select 2 players at the Mid-season draft given we have 1 list spot open and a season ending injury to Weightman.

[Grantysghost]

Garcia has value, and has had multiple knee surgeries now. Multiple surgeries are the highest indicator for knee degeneration issues, which will start in a few years, and he is the kind of player if fully fit, and training in full, can be a solid AFL player; if he experiences degeneration, then his form will drop away quickly.
He is best as an inside mid, and we have better, and he is not hard to replicate a a forward. I would take the value he has, why I can.

Might be some interest from WCE too so we could get a pick in the 30s ish ? With what we did with Freijah I'd take that.

[Axe Man]

Garcia has value, and has had multiple knee surgeries now. Multiple surgeries are the highest indicator for knee degeneration issues, which will start in a few years, and he is the kind of player if fully fit, and training in full, can be a solid AFL player; if he experiences degeneration, then his form will drop away quickly.
He is best as an inside mid, and we have better, and he is not hard to replicate a a forward. I would take the value he has, why I can.

Fringe players like Garcia have next to no trade value, maybe a third round pick or a minor pick upgrade. Unless he comes back and shows something at AFL level to drive his value up I don't see us getting anything meaningful for him.

[Rusty12]

Garcia has value, and has had multiple knee surgeries now. Multiple surgeries are the highest indicator for knee degeneration issues, which will start in a few years, and he is the kind of player if fully fit, and training in full, can be a solid AFL player; if he experiences degeneration, then his form will drop away quickly.
He is best as an inside mid, and we have better, and he is not hard to replicate a a forward. I would take the value he has, why I can.

[Axe Man]

Only just found this thread, like it.

I tend to go a bit hard at these. If I don't think a player can be on average a 6/10 player after a few years, I am ready to move on and find the next one.
You can always top up the list with players like Dom Brew on min wage to fill roles.

Scott - Move on at the end of the current contract
A Jones - Move on at the end of the current contract
Gardiner - Move on at the end of the current contract
L Jones - Wait and see, end of 2025 will tell
Dureya - Move on at the end of the current contract
Poulter - Move on at the end of the current contract
Baker - Move on at the end of the current contract
Garcia - Trade, end of 2025.
Gallagher - Assess at the end of 2026
Coffield - Move on at the end of the current contract

Why would we trade Garcia after just fending off other clubs to re-sign him for 3 years? Especially after barely playing so far this season. At least let him return from injury.

None of the above is unreasonable in isolation but doing all of it would leave us with virtually no experienced depth. Having nothing but kids in the VFL is a recipe for disaster when we have a bad injury run like we have experienced this season.

It's always a fine line between holding a player too long and allowing them sufficient time to prove themselves.

[Rusty12]

So 8 games into the season and there are a few names who would be worried/concerned about next season:

Scott - does he have a spot or have others gone past him?
A Jones - do we persist and hope he has a break out game or is his time up?
Gardiner - how many are ahead of him now? The defence seems settled and he can't get a game in a depleted defence?
L Jones - is father time catching up?
Dureya - as per above, has father time caught up?
Poulter - struggling to crack a game. Too many people ahead of him
Baker - looked good off half back when fit, but again too many people ahead of him.
Garcia - inked a 3 year deal as the likely successor to LIbba, but got injured at the wrong time. With the midfield stacked does he get a look in?
Gallagher - does he have what it takes to refine his game?
Coffield - how does he break into the backline? H0w does he keep his body fit?

I can at least 3 of the above will be on the block, but we may prune a little more deeply.

Only just found this thread, like it.

I tend to go a bit hard at these. If I don't think a player can be on average a 6/10 player after a few years, I am ready to move on and find the next one.
You can always top up the list with players like Dom Brew on min wage to fill roles.

Scott - Move on at the end of the current contract
A Jones - Move on at the end of the current contract
Gardiner - Move on at the end of the current contract
L Jones - Wait and see, end of 2025 will tell
Dureya - Move on at the end of the current contract
Poulter - Move on at the end of the current contract
Baker - Move on at the end of the current contract
Garcia - Trade, end of 2025.
Gallagher - Assess at the end of 2026
Coffield - Move on at the end of the current contract

[jazzadogs]

I think a strong tall forward who can create a contest would be nice but probably doesn't exist...but really I would just go for the best two players available. Get the best quality in that we can: at worst they suck, at best they play, and in the middle they put pressure on spots.

[Grantysghost]

We should absolutely use two spots, with Weightman ruled out. I know there's a salary to be paid but it's basically a free hit. Don't let Rypstra turn us off!

Crosswell come on down !!