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Gisborne: Planned outages Tue-Wed"Head-scratching": Star Sun's manager speaks on failed trade attempt
Jaiden Sciberras • October 14th, 2025 4:00 pm
Michael Oakes, from Elevation Sports Agency, has revealed the details of client Bailey Humphrey’s rumoured desire to leave the Gold Coast Suns.
The 21-year-old Victorian-born Sun did his due diligence in exploring his options early in the Trade Period, as he scouted out a potential suitor for a return home.
However, as expected, the Suns view the young gun as an essential piece for the future, denying any possibility of a trade.
This didn’t come as much of a surprise to Oakes and Humphrey, given the Suns’ resolute response to any comments regarding Humphrey’s future.
“Bailey is a contracted player,” Oakes told AFL Trade Radio.
“He has always known that whilst contracted, it’s at the club’s discretion as to whether they let the player move or not. Obviously, we flagged the possibility with the Suns post season, and we were told it wouldn’t happen then.
“We’ve seen other contracted players depart, some in this trade period, and that has made it a little more difficult in Bailey’s eyes, but where it sits with Bailey, we know based on what the club has said to us and said publicly too.
“I think the Suns have been consistently resolute in their comments on this. I do understand that clubs come out with default comments at the beginning of trade period on the availability of players who have requested or discussed trades.
“As we see, some subsequently do change their mind or change their stance within this period. This hasn’t happened with Bailey’s case at the moment, so I’d say so (he won’t be traded).”
Despite meeting with several Victorian clubs, Humphrey will return to the Suns ahead of the 2026 season, which – according to Oakes – is far from an issue.
“Bailey loves the club; he loves his teammates,” Oakes said.
“This was never flagged as an issue or a concern. I think we can see this clearly in his antics on the field and through his expression in social media.
“I don’t expect this to change in anyway. I will say, I think the notion of turning players into … who talk to other players while contracted is sort of exclusive to the public domain. Within the club and the industry, it’s a bit different.”
Although a trade won’t be facilitated, Humphrey’s desire to return home was incredibly strong, with family ties in Moe being the driving force behind his explorations.
“He’s got a very close bond with his family, and he is actually a pillar within his family. I won’t go into more detail there as it is private, but the club are across the particular.
“With players from Gippsland, it goes both ways. Either they never head back to the region after they’ve been drafted, or they maintain strong ties with the community there.
“Bailey is clearly someone who has retained strong ties within the region.”
The Suns’ comments were incredibly strong in denying any chance of a move, and some of the comments and language utilised were much to the disliking of the Humphrey camp.
“They have (been across everything thus far). They’ve been fairly staunch in their messaging, that’s for sure.
“The coach (Damien Hardwick) has been in contact with Bailey, offering assistance where he can as well.
“I found Craig (Cameron, list manager)’s comments a little head-scratching last week surrounding Bailey. It’s a tense period, I understand, and I took that up with Craig privately.
“Our ongoing relationship with the Suns is fine. We both have the player as paramount importance to us.
“No, they weren’t (aware that Bailey was meeting with clubs in Victoria).”
Following the release of a snapshot picturing Humphrey with Melbourne Demon executives Steven King (coach) and Nathan Jones (assistant coach), the floodgates opened up, with Oakes hearing from a number of Victorian clubs expressing interest.
“Aside the infamous stroll around the Tan, it’s all run through. Trade period, as we know, moves at a fairly rapid rate.
“I’m not going to go into a detailed timeline, but it’s fair to say that the stance shifted in regard to Bailey’s situation pretty quickly with club enquiries after that.
“It’s been a lot more informal, this process, than has been speculated and reported. I’ve heard from most Victorian clubs in one way or another. There’s a couple I haven’t spoken to, but it’s all been fairly consistently inbound.
“When I say fairly consistently inbound, I haven’t had to make any calls in regard to Bailey. Clubs are checking in, and they’ve checked in on a semi-regular basis since his draft year.
“We all know ‘Lamby’ (Tim Lamb, Demons’ list boss) has been keen on him since his draft year, and they tried to manipulate their way up the draft board on the night, and that hasn’t changed.”
So, with Humphrey evidently eager to return home, where does he stand with the Gold Coast Suns ahead of next season?
“We’ve seen this happen in the past, where players are denied trades and then play out their careers at those clubs,” Oakes said.
“We’ve also seen it happen where trades have affected the following season. In Bailey’s case, the fact that he is a pillar for his family, and he’s got strong ties in the community down there, that’s not going to change.
“It’s more whether he further adapts. What is probably going to be a successful season at the Suns is probably going to dictate that movement forward.”
