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Trade period has ended, as it always does, with a rush. But this one was like The Godfather with the way it came home with an especially wet sail. It even finished like The Godfather with Tom Petroro demanding Hawthorn not tell him they’re innocent, because it’s insulting, and it makes him very angry. Zach Merrett’s manager Tom Petroro visibly animated in the Hawks trade room as a Zach Merrett mood looks more and more unlikely with just 7 minutes remaining until the deadline. pic.twitter.com/O427giFHqQ— Ball Don’t Lie (@BDLShow) October 15, 2025 They could’ve thrown Cam McKenzie in the deal…

How toxic do you want to make this? That’s the question at the heart of the final three days of the AFL’s trade period. That question is lingering so ominously because it’s the one that I imagine each the three biggest questions marks of the trade period are asking themselves. Christian Petracca, Zach Merrett, and Charlie Curnow each need to work out their appetite to make it truly toxic for their clubs, so that their clubs holding them to their contracts is truly untenable. Are they in an unhappy marriage that they’ll stick out for the kids? Or are they…

Following on from Part 1, let’s run through the 15 players with the highest trade value in the AFL. If you want to read how we ranked players 30-16 you can find that here. But let’s go through the best of the best. Right in Their Primes 15. Hugh McLuggae, 27, 6 years left 14. Ed Richards, 26, 5 years left 13. Chad Warner, 24, 2 years left 12. Zak Butters, 25, 1 year left 11. Izak Rankine, 25, 2 years left 10. Noah Anderson, 24, 2 years left Are you noticing a pattern here? We’re into the top-15 and…

I don’t know if you can tell based on the truly insufferable coverage, but the trade period is on! Even despite the fact that it’s virtually impossible to microwave a team by paying sticker price for players other clubs are willing to let walk, don’t let that stop the chat about whose fortunes Connor Budarick is going to singlehandedly change. "He's toured Arden Street and the Whitten Oval and it is down to those two clubs." @JoshGabelich breaks down where Connor Budarick could play in 2026 on the Continental Tyres AFL Trade Radio: https://t.co/CX6xu3ke56 pic.twitter.com/1qTyA5sPg6— AFL (@AFL) October 2, 2025…

Chris Fagan and his Lions have essentially stuck to the same set of core beliefs around contest, ball control, transition, and front half footy for his entire reign. A man got to have a code, and their code is defined by those core four principles. It was the theme of my piece after the Lions won last year. But last year, what drove Brisbane was probably the biggest change in identity that the Lions have undertaken under Fagan. When Kidean Coleman went down injured last year, Fagan threw Dayne Zorko to half back. Zorko is astonishingly aggressive with ball in…

We are finally at the last Saturday in September, and the game is between the two sides with probably the highest upside in the competition. The Cats are probably the defining team of the first 25 years of the century, and are as close to the AFL can get to a Patriots-style dynasty. Business as usual for the Cats, but is it time for another premiership? 🏆 pic.twitter.com/d1de0hLU4B— AFL (@AFL) September 5, 2025 They have made wholesale list and game style changes over the quarter century, but they’ve barely been bad for a single season over the last 20 or…

Modern footy is about three central questions: In which parts of the ground do you give yourself a defined numbers advantage? How do you maximise that numbers advantage when and where you have it? Do you have enough players that can make an opposition’s numbers advantage into a weakness? That third question, asked more simply, is do you have enough superstars? Do you have blokes that turn a 50/50 into a 60/40? For Geelong and Brisbane on Friday and Saturday night, the answer was a defined yes. And those superstars were their captains, both of whom played blinders to guide…

Not sure if you’ve heard, but it’s the AFL Preliminary Final weekend of the century. Terrific. Is our 2025 prelim finalists the Big 4 of the 21st Century? pic.twitter.com/hJaWhtrC6P— Triple M Footy (@triplemfooty) September 14, 2025 Heading into the weekend, I used my time to look backwards. Not at the 2008 or 2023 Grand Finals, but instead at the last game that the preliminary finalists played against each other this season. Here’s one burning question I have for each game on the big picture, and one smaller personnel question that has to be answered. Geelong v Hawthorn Last time they…