A pulsating off-season at Melbourne continued in dramatic fashion on Thursday, with the club confirming superstar midfielder Clayton Oliver is welcome to explore his options in the upcoming trade period after being told his role would change significantly under Steven King.
It is believed that Oliver would like to continue playing as an inside midfielder, where he has enjoyed elite levels of success, including a 31.6-disposal and 7.4-clearance per game season in 2021, where the Demons famously broke their 57-year premiership drought.
Oliver's last two seasons have been down years to his standards, however, as he was pushed out of the midfield, attending 70.7% of centre bounces in 2024 and 72.3% in 2025. He failed to tally any Brownlow votes in 2025 as a result, with Melbourne falling to a miserable seven wins and 16 losses.
It has been reported that the Demons are willing to pay as much as $700,000 of Oliver's yearly salary on his monster contract which expires in 2030 in order to engineer a trade for the 28-year-old, which could be to the benefit of a number of interested clubs.
So, which teams should be willing to take the gamble on the controversial talent?
We look at five potential landing spots for Clayton Oliver.
2Collingwood Magpies
Collingwood face a similar predicament to Geelong, being in search of a bigger, stronger midfield presence around the ball.
While Nick Daicos has been an exceptional clearance winner at centre bounces and in the stoppage battles, leading Collingwood's midfield in first possessions and clearances per game, he thrives on the run as a receiver. Getting a player with the ball-winning capacity of Oliver would help establish greater opportunity for Daicos to get those runs.
Furthermore, the unavoidable doubts over Collingwood's aging list will continue into next season if the midfield remains as is. Five Magpies averaged at least 20 disposals per game this season and three of them are at least 32 years old; Crisp (32), Sidebottom (34) and Pendlebury (37).
That's simply not sustainable. The addition of Oliver, therefore, can help cover some of that workload on the elder members of the club and reduced the pressure on the Daicos brothers in the congested areas of the ground.
