THE FINAL moves have been made and the 2019 Telstra AFL Trade Period has drawn to a close.
After a busy few days, Melbourne walked away from Marvel Stadium on Wednesday night with a pair of wingmen and two first round picks in hand, leaving General Manger of Football Operations Josh Mahoney very pleased with the club’s dealings.
“We’re really happy in the end,” Mahoney told Melbourne Media.
“We targeted two players in the Trade Period – Ed Langdon and Adam Tomlinson.
“We got those deals done reasonably early and then after that it was about improving our draft position.
“Right now, we’ve got pick three and eight – two top-10 picks in the draft. We haven’t been in the top-10 now for three years.
“It’s really important to maximise the poor season that we had and to really make the most of the opportunity at the draft.”
The Demons, who already had pick No.3 in the 2019 National Draft, secured their second top-10 selection (pick No.8) on Tuesday when they completed a deal with North Melbourne.
Melbourne receives second top-10 pick
This leaves the Dees in a strong position heading into the draft on November 27.
“We know the type of players that will be around that range and the quality that’s going to be there,” Mahoney said.
“To be able to add a player at pick three and then add that as well at pick eight, we think [it was] worthwhile to do that trade.
“There are some discussions that have been had already about our picks late in this Trade Period, and with the AFL rules, you can trade your picks right up until the draft and even on draft night.
“We’ll assess that, but our recruiters will keep going through the quality of the list and talk through the quality of players we’ll get at three and eight.”
While the Dees are now well placed to bring some elite young talent into the club, Mahoney was also delighted by the acquisition of two ready-made players this off-season.
Tomlinson was Melbourne’s first recruit for 2020, with the former Giant joining the club during the Free Agency Period.
At 26 years of age, Tomlinson is in the prime of his career and will offer plenty of versatility for Melbourne around the ground.
Langdon is an equally as impressive addition to the red and blue and will patrol the wing for his new side.
The 23-year-old has placed in the top five of Fremantle’s Best and Fairest Award for the past two seasons and has 68 games of experience under his belt.
“Both of those guys can come in straight away and have immediate impact on our team,” Mahoney said.
“It’s been an area of the ground we’ve wanted to fill for a little while now – our outside run – and now we’ve got two locks that can play on the wing, and are really going to add some flexibility in our midfield and some variety of what we can do in there.”
With plenty of talent coming into the club, Melbourne was forced to let defender Sam Frost go, in an exchange that saw the club secure Hawthorn’s future second round pick.
Frost secures trade to Hawthorn
Check out all of Melbourne’s ins and outs in the graphic below:
