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News.com.au
4 days ago
- Sport
- News.com.au
AFL coach bakes ‘nuffy' journo as St Kilda crisis addressed
Ross Lyon has hit out at reports of unrest at St Kilda as the club's dressing room dramas took another turn on Tuesday night. The Saints coach singled out a report from Adelaide-based veteran journalist Michelangelo Rucci, who had earlier set the rumour mill ablaze surrounding the future of several senior players at the club. Rucci reported on SEN SA that star defender Cal Wilkie, captain Jack Steele, midfielder Marcus Windhager and ruckman Rowan Marshall could be part of a mass exodus at the end of the 2025 season. That was quickly followed by the bombshell suggestion from Essendon legend Tim Watson that the Saints were preparing a $25 million offer to bring West Coast star Harley Reid to the club on a 12-year-deal. FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every match of every round in the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE in 4K, with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer. With the Saints already breaking the bank to bring Carlton ruckman Tom De Koning to the club on a rich deal previously reported to have been worth up to $1.7 million per-season and with superstar Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera set to offered a monster deal worth around $1.4 million, there does not appear to be much left in the kitty. GWS 22-gamer Leek Aleer is also reportedly set to move to the Moorabbin-based club. Fox Footy on Tuesday night added details to the dramas at St Kilda with leading journalist Jon Ralph reporting there are fears Steele will be part of the 'collateral damage' of the club's list management moves. Speaking on Fox Footy's mid-week tackle, Ralph said: 'It's not a player exodus just yet, but it's a state of affairs that certainly impacts the club's captain in Jack Steele, and it's vice-captain Cal Wilkie. 'There's multiple players on the brink of considering leaving a club that needs to bring in talent, not lose it. 'Senior players are worried that Jack Steele will be part of the collateral damage. This is a club that is making massive offers to the likes of Tom De Koning, Leek Aleer and Harley Reid. They just need to clear cap space.' He said he does not expect Wilkie to leave at the end of the season, but said there has been some bewilderment from Wilkie's camp when it learned of the money the club is preparing to throw elsewhere. With all that swirling in the background, Lyon said on Channel 9's Footy Classified that Rucci's report about Wilkie was 'half-baked'. '6.30 tonight (Tuesday), in my car, in my driveway, (Wilkie said): 'Ross I've never entertained going anywhere else, I love St Kilda, I love what we're doing',' Lyon said. 'There's a lot of half-baked stories, that's what I see. 'I heard the (Michaelangelo) Rucci stuff, I listened to it. I thought it was two old blokes having a beer and a barbecue in the backyard. 'There was no substance, no rigour, I said 'Ruc, you send me postcards from Italy herding the sheep and counting the sheep. 'To be honest, you're a Port Adelaide nuffy, let's move on. 'Does he write content for the Port Adelaide SANFL club, is he a mad Port Adelaide, are they trying to get us into a bit of turmoil? 'It's all part of the theatre, it's all part of feeding the chooks. 'I hear the noise about contracted players... I would think contracted players are at your club unless you decide otherwise.' Lyon also addressed reports about the club's interest in Harley Reid, curiously suggesting West Coast officials are frustrated by Reid's ongoing contract saga — and the club's failure to lock the young star down. 'I do love Tim, but he got this one wrong,' Lyon said. 'You just voiced, Don Pyke the (West Coast) CEO, who we love and respect, is frustrated at their end for whatever reason for Harley and negotiations. 'Clearly they think there is something in the ether that is getting in their way. Well it certainly isn't me.' Lyon said he has never spoken to Reid personally.
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
‘People are spinning': Footy legend drops $25 million bombshell
Essendon legend Tim Watson has dropped a bombshell Harley Reid rumour that would explain murmurings of dressing room drama at St Kilda. Watson on Tuesday morning said West Coast figures are under the impression the Saints have made Reid the biggest offer in the history of Australian football. The former No. 1 draft pick's contract saga has been a rollercoaster this season with Hawthorn and Essendon the clubs previously suggested to have been at the front of the queue trying to entice Reid back to Victoria. However, Essendon icon Watson said on SEN Breakfast on Wednesday it is the Saints that have now caused a stir behind the scenes with an offer of $25 million. FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every match of every round in the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE in 4K, with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer. 'They've also made a Godfather offer to Harley Reid of $25 million over 12 years. That's the number that's coming via the West Coast Eagles at the moment,' Watson, a former Channel 7 news presenter, said on SEN Breakfast. 'I'm not making this up. This is what I was told yesterday. This has absolutely got everybody in the footy world spinning. 'That's the information that I received, that the West Coast Eagles believe that there's been an offer tabled by St Kilda around $25 million over 12 years.' It was reported last month that the Eagles had dived further into the piggy bank to present Reid with multiple contract offers, including one reported to have been worth more than $20 million. Watson said the rumoured plot to snatch Reid away from West Coast partly explains the playing group unrest at the Saints. St Kilda is already fighting to retain superstar Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera and have reportedly already reached an agreement with Tom De Koning from Carlton. News reports broke on Monday night to suggest a group of senior players at St Kilda are not happy with list-management decisions made by football department boss Graeme Allan and recruitment chief Stephen Silvagni. The most damaging news surrounds All-Australian defender Cal Wilkie, with reports claiming he will 'seek his options elsewhere' at the end of this season. The 27-year-old's deal at the Saints runs through 2027, meaning any departure would have to come via trade. The Saints are thought to be offering Carlton ruckman De Koning $1.7 million per year, while they're said to have tabled $1.4 million per season to Wanganeen-Milera to stay at Moorabbin. They've also been strongly linked to and are expected to land out-of-contract GWS defender Leek Aleer on a considerable sum. However, SEN SA's Michelangelo Rucci reported on Monday that Wilkie, Jack Steele, Marcus Windhager and Rowan Marshall could be part of a mass St Kilda exodus at the end of the 2025 campaign. Watson said the reported monster money for Wanganeen-Milera, Reid, Aleer and De Koning would explain why St Kilda players would feel 'disgruntled'. 'When you think about it, if all that money was being paid out to those four players, particularly, you have to wonder what's left,' Watson said. 'What do they have left to be able to pay the rest of their list? If all those (contract offers) landed and maybe they hope they don't all land, then they have the irons in the fire and they have the potential to get some big names and keep NAS (Wanganeen-Milera), then they are serious about re-shaping their list, St Kilda.' SEN's Sam Edmund also said rival clubs believe Wilkie is 'gettable' because he is 'disillusioned' with the Saints. 'He's particularly concerned about the list management workings of his football club,' Edmund said on Seven. The news about Reid is another blow to the Eagles, who were already fighting suggestions that Hawthorn was throwing the kitchen sink to land the star midfielder. Nine's Tom Morris reported last week the Hawks were 'all in' on Reid and Port Adelaide's Zak Butters. Reid's management has reportedly made a counteroffer to West Coast in the vicinity of $24 million over 10 years — a two-year deal until 2027, then a nine-year extension — with the Hawks, Bombers and Cats among the rival clubs most consistently linked to the 20-year-old.
News.com.au
15-07-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
Tim Watson labels Harley Reid childish and unprofessional after copping 13th fine from AFL
AFL great Tim Watson has lashed out at West Coast young gun Harley Reid, labelling his on-field behaviour 'childish' as well as unprofessional and demanded club leaders reel him in after copping a 13th fine in his brief 37-game career. No player in the AFL has conceded more free kicks in 2025 than the brash former No.1 pick amid suggestions his behaviour is going unchecked at the battling Eagles. Reid, 20, and in just his second season, copped a $6250 fine for tripping Port Adelaide's Travis Boak during the third quarter of Sunday's loss during which the rising star had a running battle with fellow former No.1 pick Jason Horne-Francis and gave away six free kicks. The fine was the largest fine available to the match review officer and took the total Reid has been fined to $26,250, including $15,000 this season. Watson, who made his AFL debut as a 15-year-old in 1977, lashed Reid's behaviour and said there shouldn't be an out clause because of his age. 'As a young man we've been a little bit gentle on him and his behaviours out there on the field,' Watson said. 'He's now given away more free kicks than any other player in the game. 'I think it's time to deliver some hard truths to Harley Reid, and I don't know whether or not they've gone softly because they're fearful that he's going to turn around and want to go home or whatever it might be. 'But I think his behaviours are childish, and they're unprofessional, and they're undisciplined. 'It appears like there's been this soft touch that's been applied to him. I just don't think that you can tolerate the way that he behaves on the footy field any longer. 'Who else in the game is behaving like that as a 20-year-old. You name one player that's behaving like Harley Reid, is behaving regularly on the football field in the game right now. 'So why do we tolerate it? We're like, 'Oh, he's young'. Every guy that steps into the game is young, they're 18 or 19-year-olds. 'I'm understanding of young people making mistakes, but this is just a pattern of behaviour now that hasn't been modified, hasn't been controlled, and is still hurting his team.' Watson questioned the quality of the Eagles' leadership under first-year coach Andrew McQualter and whether Reid was getting away with his behaviour because club officials feared he would leave. 'The behaviours that you walk past are the behaviours you accept in any form of life,' Watson told SEN. 'Do you think that every other player that's playing there at the West Coast Eagles at the moment aren't looking at him sideways and thinking, 'Hang on a minute, how come this bloke gets away with it? How come we tolerate this? The coach is telling us all this and all of a sudden we've got this other guy here and different rules apply to him'. 'It's ugly behaviours that he's displaying out there on the football field, and I think it's hurting him and it's hurting the West Coast Eagles as they try to build a young team too.'
