AS THE 2021 Continental Tyres AFL Trade Period gets into full swing, many are asking, ‘What is the next step for the Demons?’

Following a successful AFL season that saw the club claim a drought-breaking premiership win, Melbourne List Manager Tim Lamb said there was one primary focus heading into this year’s period.

“We’ve obviously gone through a long list build, so our genuine focus has been on retention,” Lamb told Melbourne Media.

“We think we’re going to be entering a time of relative stability within the playing list.”

Melbourne has made some key moves in recent years, with players from its premiership side coming across during, what many deem, the ‘silly season’.

Ben Brown (2020) is the newest Demon to join during a trade period, while Ed Langdon (2019), Steven May (2018) and Jake Lever (2017) have also opted for the red and blue as their new colours.

“We’ve been really active for a number of years in trade,” Lamb said.

“But with the age and experience of our list and where we’re positioned now, our focus is retention.

“We’re going to look at every opportunity to try and improve our list, but we don’t think we’re necessarily going to be very active during this period.”

This focus on list stability has been evident in recent weeks, with the club announcing new deals for multiple players, including Tom McDonald, Sam Weideman and Joel Smith.

However, despite these re-signings, the club has seen a number of list changes with the retirement of experienced duo Nathan Jones and Neville Jetta, and the departure of Aaron Vandenberg.

Lamb said there was the opportunity during the upcoming period to fill those gaps left within the side.

“The one area we will potentially look to address is where we have lost some experience in our midfield group.

“If an opportunity arises to add some experience to that midfield group, that would be our number one priority heading into this period.

“People might think we’ve got this terrific midfield, which we do, but we’re still actually quite young.

“We’re a contest-based team and we’ve got to make sure we’ve got depth in that area of the ground and competition for spots in that area.”

In previous trade periods, Melbourne has been active in retaining draft picks that have led to drafting the likes of premiership players Kysaiah Pickett and Trent Rivers – something that Lamb said they would look to do again, if possible.

“We’ll look at every opportunity to improve our draft hand,” he said.

“We’ve been quite active in that space over the past few years, and we’ll do our best to do that again in this period.”

Following the Demons’ recent success, being crowned 2021 AFL Premiers, Lamb reflected on the behind-the-scenes work that led the club to this achievement.

“It’s been a long journey and there’s been a lot of people involved in this list that deserve a lot of credit,” Lamb said.

“We’re a genuine team in our department. We’ve got Jason Taylor, Todd Patterson and Kelly O’Donnell who have all been really instrumental over a long period of time.

“In COVID times, in particular, we’ve had less opportunity to travel and to see players across the country, so we’ve relied heavily on our part time staff that we have stationed throughout the country.

“There are also people who are no longer at the club who deserve credit including Darren Farrugia, who was with our recruiting team for a really long time and was outstanding in his time with us.

“Todd Viney was also instrumental in really helping us form the basis of how we looked at players and what we were trying to build. Josh Mahoney also played a huge role during the recent period.

“We’re just one part of the organisation. Yes, you have to have the right players come in, but they have to come into the right environment.

“It’s about getting the coaching, high performance, welfare, development, and culture right. All that had to come together for us to be successful.”