Demons put pick five on the market
1:23:21 PM Fri 10 October, 2003
Barry Levinson
afl.com.au
Melbourne is prepared to trade its valuable fifth pick in the National AFL Draft during next week’s trading frenzy, if the right player wants to join the Demons.
Coach Neale Daniher said the Demons are looking for someone who can offer the club at least five years of senior football.
“We’re looking to improve really quickly and we’ve got a great opportunity over the next seven days to make some really good decisions to improve our team,” Daniher said.
“We’re looking for any quality key position player, but it has to be at a certain age. We won’t be going after anyone over the age of 26. We’re actually looking for younger players.”
Football operations manager Danny Corcoran will handle most of the negotiations for the Demons next week.
He confirmed that Melbourne was one of a number of clubs to meet with Port Adelaide’s Nick Stevens on Thursday and said he had spoken with the manager of Essendon’s Dean Solomon ‘at length’.
The Demons have also had ‘ongoing discussions’ with Richmond over key defender Ben Holland.
But Corcoran said enticing a player across is only one part of the negotiations; appeasing their current club with a suitable swap is often the difficult element of the equation.
“What we’ve seen happen this year is players nominate clubs (they wish to move to),” Corcoran said.
“But if we use Stevens as an example, someone’s got to satisfy Port Adelaide because if they can’t, the player won’t be going to that club.
“Usually it’s about early draft picks and that’s why the opportunity is there for Melbourne footy club this year.”
After winning only five games in 2003, Melbourne has a strong position in this year’s draft, with their first three picks coming at three, five and 20.
Asked if the Demons were prepared to trade their first two picks, rather than keep them to recruit an under-age talent, Corcoran replied: “For a quality player we’ll look at trading one of those picks.
“I would think pick three would be off limits, but pick five is a possibility, depending on the player and the deal that can be struck.”
Melbourne is keen to secure Solomon, who quit the Bombers on Thursday, but faces stiff opposition from the Tigers who are believed to have offered Solomon a four-year contract worth $400,000 a season.
Despite the hefty price tag, Corcoran said a player is worth whatever one club is prepared to pay.
“The market will pay what the market can afford,” he said.
“If that’s the market price, someone will pay that. Someone has put that on the table already.”
Daniher stated that the Demons were looking for players that would help push the club back into finals contention in 2004.
“We won’t be looking for blokes that just want to come and play for money,” he said.
“We want them to be excited about the challenge to come and play for the Melbourne Football Club and take a leadership role at our club and looking for the challenge of getting us back in the finals.”
After suffering a salary cap squeeze last year, that led the club into trading vice-captain Shane Woewodin to Collingwood, Corcoran said the Demons have significantly more room in their cap this year.
“We’re talking to every club and… we’ve got an opportunity to pick up a quality player, perhaps two quality players depending how the trading goes."
“No-one knows when the frenzy starts next week where it’s going to end up, but we’ll certainly have enough room to acquire a quality player."
“We think we can now attract players because of Neale’s successful track record over the past six years in finals. We can now attract players to come here because they believe we’re going to play in finals.”
Corcoran added that the extra room in the salary cap means that there is unlikely to be a repeat of the Woewodin-type trade this year, with the Demons reluctant to lose any of their bigger name players.
“We’re not looking this year to trade a lot of our players,” he said. “We’ve made some decisions, we’ve signed our key players. You can never say never in this business, but we’re looking to acquire players rather than trade out.
“I’m not saying that won’t happen, but we’re not trying to preserve our cap in the position we were last year.”
1:23:21 PM Fri 10 October, 2003
Barry Levinson
afl.com.au
Melbourne is prepared to trade its valuable fifth pick in the National AFL Draft during next week’s trading frenzy, if the right player wants to join the Demons.
Coach Neale Daniher said the Demons are looking for someone who can offer the club at least five years of senior football.
“We’re looking to improve really quickly and we’ve got a great opportunity over the next seven days to make some really good decisions to improve our team,” Daniher said.
“We’re looking for any quality key position player, but it has to be at a certain age. We won’t be going after anyone over the age of 26. We’re actually looking for younger players.”
Football operations manager Danny Corcoran will handle most of the negotiations for the Demons next week.
He confirmed that Melbourne was one of a number of clubs to meet with Port Adelaide’s Nick Stevens on Thursday and said he had spoken with the manager of Essendon’s Dean Solomon ‘at length’.
The Demons have also had ‘ongoing discussions’ with Richmond over key defender Ben Holland.
But Corcoran said enticing a player across is only one part of the negotiations; appeasing their current club with a suitable swap is often the difficult element of the equation.
“What we’ve seen happen this year is players nominate clubs (they wish to move to),” Corcoran said.
“But if we use Stevens as an example, someone’s got to satisfy Port Adelaide because if they can’t, the player won’t be going to that club.
“Usually it’s about early draft picks and that’s why the opportunity is there for Melbourne footy club this year.”
After winning only five games in 2003, Melbourne has a strong position in this year’s draft, with their first three picks coming at three, five and 20.
Asked if the Demons were prepared to trade their first two picks, rather than keep them to recruit an under-age talent, Corcoran replied: “For a quality player we’ll look at trading one of those picks.
“I would think pick three would be off limits, but pick five is a possibility, depending on the player and the deal that can be struck.”
Melbourne is keen to secure Solomon, who quit the Bombers on Thursday, but faces stiff opposition from the Tigers who are believed to have offered Solomon a four-year contract worth $400,000 a season.
Despite the hefty price tag, Corcoran said a player is worth whatever one club is prepared to pay.
“The market will pay what the market can afford,” he said.
“If that’s the market price, someone will pay that. Someone has put that on the table already.”
Daniher stated that the Demons were looking for players that would help push the club back into finals contention in 2004.
“We won’t be looking for blokes that just want to come and play for money,” he said.
“We want them to be excited about the challenge to come and play for the Melbourne Football Club and take a leadership role at our club and looking for the challenge of getting us back in the finals.”
After suffering a salary cap squeeze last year, that led the club into trading vice-captain Shane Woewodin to Collingwood, Corcoran said the Demons have significantly more room in their cap this year.
“We’re talking to every club and… we’ve got an opportunity to pick up a quality player, perhaps two quality players depending how the trading goes."
“No-one knows when the frenzy starts next week where it’s going to end up, but we’ll certainly have enough room to acquire a quality player."
“We think we can now attract players because of Neale’s successful track record over the past six years in finals. We can now attract players to come here because they believe we’re going to play in finals.”
Corcoran added that the extra room in the salary cap means that there is unlikely to be a repeat of the Woewodin-type trade this year, with the Demons reluctant to lose any of their bigger name players.
“We’re not looking this year to trade a lot of our players,” he said. “We’ve made some decisions, we’ve signed our key players. You can never say never in this business, but we’re looking to acquire players rather than trade out.
“I’m not saying that won’t happen, but we’re not trying to preserve our cap in the position we were last year.”
