The multimillion-dollar decision: How Demons missed the boat on Oliver

Clayton Oliver met with Geelong and the Cats’ leaders in the post-season of last year, in what shaped as an opportunity that, if it worked out, could benefit all parties.

The Cats would gain a four-time best and fairest, who had been afflicted with health and other issues but who was precisely the kind of midfielder they lacked. Further, a revived Oliver would be a distributor to Max Holmes and the incoming Bailey Smith – their version of Greg “Diesel” Williams shovelling it out to runners.

Clayton Oliver was on the trade table the past couple of seasons. Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

Melbourne would gain either draft return for a player who had been high maintenance – and whose form in 2024 had been greatly diminished – or significant salary cap relief on a contract worth close to $1.3 million a year for six years, or nearly $8 million over that term.

Oliver would get a refresh in the relative quiet of Geelong, the Cats having chosen a low-key bucolic setting – Rhys Stanley’s farm – to sell their wares to the Mooroopna lad. At 27, Oliver still had years of decent football ahead if he could regain some semblance of his peak.

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