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Sport Nation
Lyon: A “highly-motivated” Oliver is great value for a rival
Andrew Slevison • October 8th, 2025 10:15 am
Garry Lyon insists Clayton Oliver remains highly-motivated to succeed at the top level.
The Melbourne midfielder has been told to explore his options and is currently being courted by both Collingwood and GWS.
Lyon indicated on Tuesday that perhaps the game was passing Oliver by, stating that “he’s never been a great kick”.
However, Lyon is adamant that the four-time best and fairest is driven and inspired to have an impact wherever he ends up.
“I don’t think there’d be too many secrets about where Clayton has been and what he’s been up to,” the former Dees captain said on SEN Breakfast.
“He had his challenges, that was well-documented. All I heard last year was that he was back and in really consistent behaviours and that wasn’t an issue.
“A very highly-motivated Clayton Oliver out there at the moment. Get him in the right environment and he could be of very, very good value.”
The Magpies interest was then raised by Tim Watson who wonders if they’d be a good fit for Oliver given they looked beyond a similar player in Tom Mitchell late in the season.
“It’s interesting that they would be looking at him because they were turning their back on some players,” Watson said.
“They wouldn’t play Tom Mitchell. He is a great ball winner, a great handballer, but not a great kick. We talked about Oliver yesterday and some of the same traits with him.
“He hasn’t really been able to improve his kicking dramatically over time either.”
Lyon is confident that Oliver, at 28, still has a lot more to give than 2018 Brownlow Medallist Mitchell who is now 32 and has had some injure woes in recent times.
“Tom is four or five years older and had missed most of the year through injury,” he said.
“Clayton has been a very durable over the journey. I suppose that would be one of the differences.
“Clayton is a better player than Tom Mitchell. Much better ball winner, much better user, kicking is debatable.
“At his best Tom was as good a ball winner as Clayton but not now I wouldn’t have thought.”
It remains to be seen where Oliver, who is contracted until 2030, does end up but right now the Pies and Giants lead the race for his services.
