Melbourne superstar Clayton Oliver is reportedly set to remain at the club, putting an end to talk in recent days of a potential bombshell trade.
According to SEN journalist Tom Morris, the Demons will soon release a statement to confirm Oliver will be playing for the club in 2024, which followed keen suitor Adelaide reportedly conceding the gun midfielder was staying put.
The Herald Sun reports Oliver agreed to address issues raised by the club, having spoken with senior coach Simon Goodwin about making improvement towards his professionalism and off-field standards that had caused growing concern.
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Those discussions on Thursday night ultimatley ratified the decision for Oliver, who’s contracted for another seven years on a reported $7 million deal, to remain a Melbourne player.
Clubs had been awaiting Melbourne to officially quash trade speculation despite building belief over the past 24 hours that the 26-year old would remain a Demon in 2024.
Reports this week stated Melbourne gave Oliver an ultimatum to “shape up or ship off” due to his “increasingly erratic behaviour” in recent weeks, though it’s believed the 26-year old told the Dees he wanted to remain at the club.
SEN reported Oliver’s recent behaviour forced Melbourne to take a “harder stance” – a stance the club is “making no apologies for”, and that it’d led to “crisis meetings” including an update to the board.
As recently as Thursday night, a host of rivals including the Crows and Bombers were still eagerly watching on the situation.
“The situation with other clubs is they’re waiting. The Adelaide Crows are very keen and they haven’t been told he’s officially off the market,” SEN journalist Tom Morris said on SEN Breakfast earlier.
“Why the Crows are appealing is two-fold – Darren Burgess is the fitness boss there and has a very good relationship with Clayton Oliver, who I’d say has had a mixed relationship with the fitness people at Melbourne.
“St Kilda believe he’s staying at Melbourne, but it hasn’t been told officially.
“The Essendon Football Club is also waiting, they have the salary cap space but probably not the draft capital.
“The interest from other clubs has been growing rapidly because they felt there could be a chance he could be available.”
Morris noted he expected Oliver to remain a Demon, but emphasised that the disconnect between the two parties has been real.
“I’ve always said I still expect him to be at Melbourne in 2024, but it was pretty tenuous there for a while,” he added.
“You speak to people at Melbourne and around the situation, they understand this is delicate.”
Hawthorn legend Dermott Brereton also weighed in on the matter, suggesting Oliver might be type of player who simply requires extra support.
“If you wanted to delve deeper into it, it’d seem for such a gun and champion player, is he as solid in the mind as we assumed him to be? Because he’s so emphatic the way he plays,” Brereton said on SEN radio.
“Perhaps he is like some others that need a bit of a cuddle emotionally and need to be bunked up.”
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Brereton also said he believed Oliver’s future would be Melbourne, but urged the club to stay disciplined with its approach to handlings with him.
“He’s too good a player and it’s so hard to get champion players playing for your club,” the five-time premiership player said.
“Whether you recruit them as kids yourself and you groom them and put time into them and get them up to that standard – and those champion players are high-end draft picks.
“Or it costs you the farm to get them into your club. When they have that sort of price tag, you can pay them top dollar yourself and it’ll cost top dollar plus for someone to crowbar them out of your club.
“If you’ve got them there, do everything you can to appease them and make them better, but you can’t let the tail the wag the dog.
“Some clubs have fallen for that syndrome in history and it’s hurt them.”
Oliver has become a central part of Simon Goodwin’s side since being drafted with the No. 4 pick in the 2015 National Draft, claiming three All-Australian blazers, four best and fairests and playing in the drought-breaking 2021 premiership across his stellar 162-game career.
The relationship between Oliver and the club reportedly took a turn this year, primarily due to the handling of his multiple injury setbacks and rehab process.
But given the star midfielder’s enormous talent, Brereton said it was a no-brainer why rival clubs were trying and recruit him.
“He is an easy fix and some of these teams will say: ‘Yeah, let’s cough up $1.2-1.4 million a year for him. It’ll cost us overs to get us there’,” he added.
“But sometime in the future, if you read a record book and it says: ‘2024 premiership, Essendon or Fremantle’ – or whoever it is that procures him, if he is gettable, it’s worth it.”
