Western Bulldogs midfielder Jack Macrae has reportedly told the club he will be seeking a trade.
AFL.com journalist Callum Twomey tweeted that the premiership midfielder has three years remaining on his deal but will be looking to play elsewhere in 2025.
The 30-year-old played 19 matches for the club this season with an average of 18.4 disposals and 63 tackles per game.
The former All-Australian and 2016 premiership winner also played four as a sub, and spent parts of the season at VFL level.
So far he hasn’t nominated a club.
It comes just days after another star midfielder Bailey Smith also requested a trade away from the Western Bulldogs.
More to come.
AFL hands down punishment to Giants general manager for Papley clash
GWS footy boss Jason McCartney has been fined $20,000 by the AFL after coming in contact with Sydney star Tom Papley.
The pair came together during the quarter-time break as players from both sides started to walk towards their respective huddles at the first break, after being involved in a tense melee.
McCartney and Papley briefly collided before going their separate ways.
“Jason admitted his conduct on the weekend was unacceptable and that it falls well below what is expected by the AFL and the Giants,” AFL General Counsel Stephen Meade said.
“The AFL took into account and appreciated McCartney’s cooperation and contrition during the investigation.
“Opposition officials and players engaging each other on the field of play is something we don’t want to see and we are grateful that things didn’t escalate further on Saturday.”
Despite the sanction, McCartney remains free to enter the field of play during breaks in games going forward.
On Sunday, Papley and Toby Greene were both fined $1875 for the melee.
Toby Greene brushes off ‘form slump’
Toby Greene feels no pressure to be the constant match-winner for GWS as they prepare for an AFL semi-final against the Brisbane Lions.
The Giants skipper didn’t have his usual influence during their qualifying final loss to Sydney as their rivals produced a fourth-quarter blitz to steal the game.
Greene, well known for breaking opposition hearts with his creative talents in front of goal, only kicked two behinds in the first term as he battled with Swans defender Dane Rampe.
Awarded the 2023 All-Australian captaincy for his moments of brilliance, Greene shrugged off concern he wasn’t able to deliver last weekend at the SCG.
And there won’t be any expectation for Greene to be the spark against the Lions this Saturday.
“I’m not expected to do anything special. I’m just playing my role,” Greene said on Tuesday.
“I don’t really feel any extra pressure, to be honest.
“I want to perform as well as I can, be the best leader I can be as well.
“That’s my goal for the next three weeks.
“I know what’s required and I know what I’ll do.
“There’s 18 other blokes that know what they’re doing as well.”
But he does admit disappointment with failing to bury his shots at goal against Sydney.
(Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
“I was super flat missing those goals, especially when we could have gone up by a bit,” Greene said.
“We probably missed a couple of easy set shots as well but that’s footy, and that’s why you practice it every week.
“I’ll hold myself on it and put in time and effort into getting better.
“It’s never something I take for granted, getting shots on goal. I want to make the most of them, and hopefully can.”
Expecting a hard-fought contest after Brisbane held Carlton scoreless in the opening quarter of their elimination final, Greene says his team will be taking some confidence from their come-from-behind round-22 win against the Lions.
Adam Kingsley’s men overturned a 30-point quarter-time deficit to surge home in a six-goals-to-one final term and snap Brisbane’s nine-goal run.
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“We know what worked. They were going really good at the time … so we’ll take a little bit from it,” Greene said.
“They were impressive (in their elimination final). They gave Carlton a good lesson.
“It was pretty much game over at halftime, so hard to read into the second half, I reckon.
“They’re a good team and they’ve got plenty of finals experience and plenty of experience in their team so we know what’s coming.”
Port tip Butters to play through pain against Hawthorn
Port Adelaide expects Zak Butters to play through pain – and for Hawthorn to target the star midfielder’s sore ribs in Friday night’s semi-final.
Butters was substituted out of the Power’s qualifying final capitulation to Geelong last Thursday night.
The dual All Australian wore a pink cap at Tuesday’s training to denote no contact but took part in some light drills.
“Obviously he’s in the pink hat so didn’t train fully but when he was out there he was moving well,” teammate Willem Drew told reporters after training.
“He’s giving himself every chance to play. Obviously (we have) got a couple more days to see how he pulls up but hoping to have him out there.
“He will probably do a little bit of contact training (later) to make sure but he’s been all cleared of some structural damage.
“Butts is probably one of the most competitive people I have ever met – if he can play any sport and he’s fit enough to play, he’ll be out there.”
Drew said Hawthorn would physically test out Butters’ injury during the sudden-death semi.
“I’ve got no doubt, if he’s got sore ribs, he will probably get a few hip and shoulders and whatnot,” he said.
“But I’m sure he’ll be expecting that. And he won’t be out there if he’s not right.”
The Power face exiting the finals with consecutive losses for a second-straight season after being trounced on home turf by Geelong.
The 84-point loss to the Cats followed defeats by 23 points, 48 points and 71 points in Port’s previous finals but Drew denied the club was mentally scarred.
“Personally I don’t think so, but our record obviously isn’t great,” he said.
Power players were summoned to a review on Saturday – earlier than usual post-game – and had “open and honest conversations” about their latest finals flop.
“It was probably more just around our work rate and effort – and if we don’t show up with that, then we’re probably no hope of winning,” Drew said.
“It was a massive game for us and for some reason, we didn’t show up.”
Asked why, Drew said the exact reasons remained unclear.
“It’s probably a difficult thing to sort of say ‘this was the reason, or this and that’,” he said.
“It’s hard to pinpoint one thing … we definitely don’t want the same thing to happen again.”
The Hawks enter the semi-final after a rousing 37-point elimination final victory over the Western Bulldogs.
Cornes hits back at AFLPA boss who ‘crossed the line’, defends Butters criticism
Kane Cornes has hit back at AFL Players Association CEO Paul Marsh’s pointed criticism at his rebuke of Butters, accusing him of ‘putting words in my mouth’.
Cornes argued on Nine’s Sunday Footy Show in the aftermath of the Power’s humiliating 84-point qualifying final loss to Geelong that Butters, a 2024 All-Australian and the AFLPA’s Most Courageous Player for the past two seasons, needed to ‘push through’ a rib injury that saw him subbed out of the match at half time.
The star midfielder has since been cleared of significant rib damage and wasn’t hospitalised, but remains doubtful for the Power’s must-win semi-final clash with Hawthorn at the Adelaide Oval on Friday night.
“A lot of players are playing sore at this time of the year,” Cornes said.
“He has to really grit his teeth this week. Yes, it’s going to be sore. He can’t do any damage to it; it’s just putting up with the pain, and he needs a huge performance on Friday to respond.”
Speaking to the Herald Sun, Marsh said Cornes ‘crossed the line’ in criticising Butters, citing Christian Petracca’s major internal injuries following his much-publicised King’s Birthday injury – with Melbourne slammed around the footy world for briefly sending him back on after the knock which caused them – as proof of the dangerous of playing through the pain.
“Zak was voted the AFLPA’s most courageous player – by the players,” Marsh said.
“And he [Cornes] went on TV on Sunday and said basically he was soft and he shouldn’t have gone off.
“That crossed the line in my view… my issue is the game takes too many chances with player health and safety.”
Marsh claimed ‘irresponsible’ comments like Cornes’ make it more difficult for players to report legitimate medical concerns and risk putting themselves in danger.
“We have to take a step back and consider: are we just going to continually put players back on the field in the hope that they might be OK, or are we going to take a more conservative approach?” he asked.
“One of the barriers to that is that when there’s commentary like this – that a player is soft for not going back on the field, and this is a player who any right-minded person would not think is soft.
“I think it’s irresponsible.”
On Nine’s Footy Classified on Monday night, Cornes responded to the rebuke, claiming Marsh misrepresented his comments.
“He thought they [Cornes’ comments] were irresponsible, he thought I questioned Zak Butters’ courage – I don’t think so,” Cornes said.
“Those comments were on Sunday, after Port Adelaide had released the updated medical report on Zak Butters, which essentially cleared him of anything – he’s got bruised ribs, [but] there’ll be no further damage if he plays with bruised ribs.
“A lot of players are playing sore at this time of the year, and I think he had to push through that… I said he’s got to grit his teeth this week.
“Paul’s gone and said that I called him soft – so Paul’s got to be really careful with putting words into my mouth that I didn’t say.”
Cornes also confirmed Marsh had rung him before going public with his comments, criticising him directly.
“He said on the phone that I questioned his [Butters’] courage. I said ‘Paul, I’d never questioned Zak Butters’ courage. I said it’s a real challenge for him, and he needs to grit his teeth.’
“With bruised ribs, players play through that is what I was saying. It was a night, you put into consideration, where a lot of his teammates gave up, and he’s a leader of that footy club.
“As much as Paul would love to protect everyone, there’s players playing right now that are really sore at this time of year, and he can’t protect every player like he wants to.”
Cornes was critical of Marsh singling him out for his Butters criticism, claiming former greats Nathan Buckley and Luke Hodge expressed similar views without being called out.
“So he’s going to pick up the phone to everyone? I wonder if he’s picked up the phone to Nathan Buckley or Luke Hodge, or is he just coming to me and then running to the Herald Sun and letting Mark Robinson write that column, which shouldn’t have even gone to print.”
Cornes has run afoul of the AFLPA before with his criticism of players, most notably earlier this year when he queried whether Essendon’s Nik Cox was up to AFL football after being subbed out of a match against St Kilda with concussion after what Cornes perceived to be only slight contact.
Shortly after making those comments, Cornes was slammed by Melbourne great and fellow SEN presenter Garry Lyon for being ‘dangerous and irresponsible’.
“He [Cornes] questioned whether he [Cox] was tough enough to play AFL footy… we can’t have that,’’ Marsh said.
Zak Butters of the Power bleeds from the face. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Ginnivan slammed for social media Port taunt
Hawthorn star Jack Ginnivan has once again caused a stir leading into a major final, with the Hawks goalsneak cheekily taunting upcoming semi-final opponents Port Adelaide on Instagram.
Commenting on a photo from Sydney ruckman and former Collingwood teammate Brodie Grundy celebrating the Swans’ qualifying final win over GWS, Ginnivan wrote ‘see u in 14 days’, implying that the Hawks would defeat the Power in Friday night’s semi-final to earn the right to face the Swans in a preliminary final.
The cheeky comment has seen Ginnivan come in for a barrage of criticism, with Hawthorn great Luke Hodge among the most vocal.
“Jack, Jack, Jack, what are you thinking?” Hodge said on SEN’s Sportsday.
“When it comes to social media stuff, one thing you don’t do is give ammunition to the opposition.
“He’s having a bit of a joke – he played two years with Grundy at Collingwood, so they know each other and it’s probably a bit of banter.
“But what you do is you send banter in a text message. You don’t put it out in the open for Port Adelaide to sit there and go: ‘Let’s use this and get stuck into Ginnivan’.”
Hodge urged the Hawks on-field leaders, including captain James Sicily, to pull the extroverted 21-year-old into line.
“I’m not looking at Sam Mitchell to tell him not to do this – I’m looking at James Sicily, Jack Gunston, Luke Breust and the leaders of that football club to say: ‘Finals are hard enough’.
“They’ve been around a long time, especially Gunston and Breust. They know how hard finals are and that passion and emotions motivate players.
“You don’t want to go give anything to an opponent to try and make them come out any more pumped up.”
Also speaking on Sportsday, Kane Cornes was just as critical, saying he would be ‘filthy’ if he were a Hawks player, and claiming Ginnivan has ‘made it all about himself again’.
“He thinks he’s won already – he’s got to come to Adelaide on Friday night first,” Cornes said.
“Is there anyone who can read the room less than Jack Ginnivan?
“It’s all working beautifully for him at the moment, Hawthorn is embracing him and happy for him to go to the pub before a game… but when you get ahead of yourself and it may be half a per cent motivation for Poet Adelaide extra – Ginnivan thinks he’s already through to a prelim final – why would he do that?
“It is not a distraction I would want as his teammate. I’d be filthy. He got the sack from Collingwood for doing something similar – it’s just bizarre.”
AFL journalist Mark Robinson said Ginnivan had ‘disrespected’ the Power on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“He’s bitten off more than he should have here,” Robinson said.
“He has disrespected Port Adelaide. He’ll say it’s only fun. You have your fun, but if you involve the club and your teammates, you’ve stepped over the line.
“I suspect either Sam Mitchell or the captain or senior players have to pull him aside and say: ‘Hey Jack, you’re playing good football, but you’re still immature. You’re going too far’.
“He shouldn’t have done that. You can say it’s only five words – not good enough. it’s disrespecting Port Adelaide.
“[It’s] not a good start to the week. You know why? Sam Mitchell will be asked about it, every Hawthorn player getting interviewed this week will be asked about it. It is a thought pattern they don’t have to deal with. Now they have to.”
The Powers Willem Drew said Ginnivan’s reaction had been noted, but dismissed it giving Port any extra motivation.
“I haven’t got much to say about that. It doesn’t really bother me,” he said.
“I suppose it’s up to individuals to do what they do and they can do whatever they want, so that’s fine.”