MELBOURNE’s bumper draft hand has AFL List Manager Tim Lamb champing at the bit for November’s draft with two selections inside the top 10.
The 2024 draft is touted as one of the strongest in a long time, with a broad range of player types and depth at the top end exciting list managers across the league.
A pick swap with Essendon has secured the Demons picks five and nine in the draft, leaving the club in a strong position to improve on its already impressive young group.
“This year having that early selection in a really strong draft class, we were really open into being as aggressive as we could to get as high up the order as we could,” Lamb told Trade Radio.
“Now we have four picks inside the top 12 over the next two years which will help us, we believe in the short, medium and long term.
“We’re open to everything [pick swaps], there’s obviously a fair bit going on at the moment with other deals and other clubs, so there’s a lot of calls going on in the background.
“There’s a lot of scenarios getting raised and we’re happy to be involved in anything which we think will help us.”
Looking at who the Dees are looking to bring in, Harry Sharp from the Brisbane Lions has requested a trade to Melboure Melbourne but is still contracted to the Lions as well as the Giants holding strong on swingman Wade Derksen.
The Demons are still targeting Brisbane running machine Harry Sharp, with talks needing to reach a resolution by 7:30pm Wednesday night.
“We’re still working through that scenario, they [Brisbane] are in a unique situation with their father son coming in,” Lamb told the media.
“We’re hopeful we can bring Harry in as part of the next few days... he is contracted to Brisbane which is something to keep in mind.
“Harry holds the record for the combine 2k time-trial but got stuck in the queue of some really good players, we’ve lost some running power with Neal-Bullen leaving and Lachie Hunter retiring so he would be a good fit.
Lamb was nothing but effusive in his praise of the Adelaide-bound Neal-Bullen.
“Alex is an unbelievable servant for our club, pick 40 in the 2014 draft, a premiership player, a ten-year player and an outstanding human.
“I’d really like to say Justin Reid from Adelaide was really fair in the dealings, so we were able to get that done pretty quickly.”
The Giants are holding fast on swingman Wade Derksen, with Lamb not filled with confidence that the 194cm prospect will end up in red and blue.
“To be honest I think that is an unlikely scenario [Wade Dersken], the Giants are being very resolute that they won’t be trading a player who is again contracted.
“We’d like to bring him to the club but the way things are tracking it’s going to be difficult.”
Melbourne have made two trades during this years year’s trade period one being the arrival of ruckman Tom Campbell from St Kilda and the other being the departure of premiership Demon, Alex Neal-Bullen.
Lamb has revealed where inbound ruckman Tom Campbell will sit in the ruck pecking order, when he arrives at AAMI Park in November.
“He’s a star Tommy, he is one of the great humans in the competition, but more importantly he’s a big tough man who will be great to come in and work with Max [Gawn].” Lamb added.
“He understands that Max is the big dog, Tom and Max actually played at Sandringham together back in 2014 so they know each other.
“We know he can come in if needed so he’ll provide a valuable option at AFL level for us, it’ll also be great for Will Verrall, a young guy who he’ll be outstanding with.
