MELBOURNE list manager Tim Lamb says an improved draft position and the inclusion of battle-hardened senior talent leaves the Demons in a strong position as the 2022 Continental Tyres AFL Trade Period comes to a close.
The Demons brought two club best and fairest winners to AAMI Park with Bulldog Lachie Hunter following All Australian ruckman Brodie Grundy through the doors late on Wednesday night.
“We’re pumped to have Lachie come on board. We think he's going to be an outstanding addition to our footy club,” Lamb told Trade Radio.
“We wanted to add some more run, ball use and real high footy IQ into our group and Lachie’s an elite runner, he's an elite decision maker and his ball use is outstanding.
“We felt that connection piece inside 50 had troubled us at times. To bring in another 27-year-old who's played in a premiership and won a best and fairest… to add them to our club was was really exciting for us.”
Melbourne now boasts a bumper 2023 draft hand, as well as another first round selection this November.
“We’ve now got pick 13, pick 37 in the second round (this year), two first round selections next year and two second round selections next year,” Lamb said.
“We’ve not only improved our list, but we've improved our ability to improve our list through the draft.
“So yeah, we're really, really happy.”
Bulldog Josh Schache will also be making the move from the Whitten Oval to Melbourne, enabling the club to complete Sam Weideman’s trade request.
“Last Thursday Sam came and had a chat to me and spoke about potentially looking to explore an opportunity to play more senior footy and we were really open to that with Sam but we said to him, if we can replace you then we'll be able to facilitate that,” Lamb said.
“We thought Josh was a really good replacement for Sam.”
There were moves aplenty both in and out of the club in a busy trade period for the Demons.
“We look at the net result of the trade period,” Lamb said.
“We don't get tied up in the minutiae of every little deal, which I think is an approach that we take, which allows us to get deals done generally in a timely fashion.
“If you look at Luke (Jackson) going out, Brodie’s come in. We've lost Jayden Hunt as a free agent and Lachie Hunter comes in. Kade Chandler will come up from the rookie list to replace Toby Bedford, who we lost. Sam Weideman goes out, Josh Schache comes in. Then we've got a much-improved draft hand.”
