Collingwood star Adam Treloar appears destined for an ugly break-up with the Pies.
Former Magpies recruiter Matt Rendell told AFL Trade Radio yesterday that the midfielder asked the club whether they wanted him: “And they said ‘no.’ If that is the case, he has a decision to make now”.
Matthew Lloyd can’t see how Treloar returns to Collingwood, despite being contracted until the end of 2025.
“I don’t think there is (any coming back from this),” Lloyd told AFL Trade Radio.
“It’s interesting that they were talking about Adam’s wellbeing, if a club wants you enough, they will work with you to make it work.
“For example, could you imagine if Dustin Martin or Marcus Bontempelli’s wife signs a contract with a netball team (interstate) and he says, ‘I still want to play and we can work through it’.
“(The club) is not going to say ‘nah, nah, nah, for your wellbeing you go to the Gold Coast’. They’d do everything in their power to say ‘we’ll pay for flights, we’ll fly her back’.
“They’ll do everything for you if they want you, but this is a case of (Collingwood), by the sounds of it, and we take Matty Rendell at his word there, he worked at Collingwood for a long time, for Collingwood it is a golden situation.
“It would free up money, they would get pick five from the Gold Coast Suns and he’s got a contract that is back-ended.
“They (Collingwood) have got themselves in this problem. It’s a salary cap mess and Treloar is the collateral damage.”
Kane Cornes agrees and believes the Magpies would have spoken by now if the reports were untrue.
“The treatment of the player is bordering on disgraceful when you look at the way it has been done,” he said.
“There’s been no one from the club that has come out and spoken on this and if this was untrue, you’d think the Collingwood Football Club would be jumping on the front foot or even ringing us and saying ‘this is incorrect, Treloar is a valued member of the team and we will make it work’, we haven’t heard anything.
“Not one person from the club has spoken on Treloar’s future, so the way that we’re treating him is really disgraceful.”
However, Cornes adds that the Suns, who have been the team linked strongest to the midfielder, should not pursue him.
“I probably wouldn’t pursue Treloar if I was Gold Coast, with his age, the money he’s on and his body starting to break down with the soft tissue issues he’s got,” he said.
Lloyd believes the Suns have to be sure that bringing in Treloar wouldn’t squeeze out one of their young guns.
“With (Matt) Rowell coming through and (Noah) Anderson, they’ve got to be careful that they don’t lose guys like Ben King in a couple of years because they’re paying too much to Adam Treloar,” he said.
“If I’m Adam, I’d be thinking ‘I’ve left the Giants to come to Melbourne to play big time football and win premierships’.
“I’d be going to my manager and saying there’s no going back to Collingwood, ‘you find me a club that can win a premiership in the next four to five years’.”