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The Demons’ stance is a measure of their wish for a cultural overhaul.
Judd McVee requested a trade to Fremantle and Charlie Spargo will leave for North Melbourne in free agency.
The Cats could be an option again, although they hope to sign Hawks onballer James Worpel in free agency.
The Demons’ change of heart on Oliver comes eight months after outgoing president Brad Green told this masthead that the midfielder was “teary” last year during a phone call between the pair where Green told him he was “not going anywhere”.
“I said [to Oliver], ‘It’s OK, mate. I love you, I love having you around the club, you’re a four-time B&F winner, you’re going to go down as one of our champion players and [a] Hall of Famer at our football club, and you’re going to be a big part of our future’,” Green said in February.
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Four-time club champion Oliver’s value across the league is unclear, given he is on a significant contract worth about $1.3 million annually and has not reached his earlier heights across the past two seasons, including finishing only seventh in this year’s best-and-fairest award.
The triple All-Australian averaged 29 or more disposals in every season bar one from 2017-23 as one of the AFL’s best players, the only exception being 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in shorter games.
That number dipped to 23 last year before improving to 25.5 this past season.
Adelaide and Geelong both considered making moves for Oliver at the time, but the Demons’ then-CEO, Gary Pert, wrote in a letter to members that “at no stage has the club entered discussions with any club regarding a trade for Clayton [and] Clayton has not requested a trade”.
Oliver went to hospital in an ambulance in October that year, after hitting his head following a seizure.
Oliver and Petracca were Melbourne’s leading midfielders – and two of the game’s best players – during their run to the 2021 premiership.
However, much has changed in the years since as a once-promising era that seemed capable of being a Demons dynasty came crashing down, including Goodwin’s sacking. Melbourne did not win a single final after that drought-busting flat win, and finished 14th the past two seasons.
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