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Magpies list boss set to fly out to Sydney for Oliver meeting
SEN • October 7th, 2025 3:20 pm
Collingwood list boss Justin Leppitsch is set to fly out to Sydney to meet with Melbourne’s Clayton Oliver.
Leppitsch confirmed the news on Trade Radio, with the race for the midfielder seemingly down to the Magpies and Giants after the Dees told him to look at his trade options last week.
Oliver flew out to Sydney late last week, where he’s already had a meeting with GWS. It’s believed he’ll then head to the USA for an off-season holiday.
“We're still doing our work,” Leppitsch told AFL Trade Radio.
“I’ll find out this afternoon, when that meeting is going ahead, when I ring Nick (Gieschen) this afternoon.
“He might be touring the Giants' facilities potentially today, I'm not sure, but I'll find out what the next move is.
“Yeah, at this point in time (I’m going up to meet him), unless he signs a contract by then, so that’s the plan.”
While Oliver has had his on and off-field struggles with Melbourne over the last few seasons, he’s still a four-time best and fairest winner and three-time All-Australian at only 28 years of age.
Given his profile as an inside bull and still theoretically being in his prime years, Leppitsch confirmed that Oliver could fill a need for the Magpies on-ball.
“Obviously, it's a position of need going forward,” Leppitsch said.
“We’ve got an aging midfield that you guys keep telling us about consistently, and we know that too.
“We want to slowly develop that part of the field. We’ve still got some great young talent with Ned Long and obviously Nick Daicos, who may be the best midfielder in the competition, at a young age.
“You also see things Beau McCreery going through there late in the year, so to see the excitement of options we could put through there, we do have some good young talent.
“So, I guess it’s providing the support around that as our veterans retire.”
Even if the Magpies don’t pursue Oliver or if he chooses the Giants, Leppitsch says that Collingwood will continue to look to improve their midfield, with the middle of the ground their biggest area of need this trade period.
“We're still at the point of making sure that Clayton wants to choose us and we want to choose him,” Leppitsch said.
“We should know that the next day or two, but, again, he might choose the Giants, and we might be out of the race or vice versa.
“But it (midfield) is the first one we're looking at. I guess the end of our season finished quite simply with the clearance work and field position Brisbane put on us.
“We just found out in the important time of year that we didn't have that.
“So, it’s the first area we’ll look at, it’s not the only area, but it’s the hardest one to fill and do right.”
