MELBOURNE will enter November’s NAB AFL Draft with two top 10 choices, after it secured selections No.3, No.10 and No.43 from the Gold Coast Suns in a trade involving just picks.

In gaining these selections, the Demons handed the Suns picks No.6, No.29 and a future first round draft selection.

It means Melbourne now has picks No.3, No.10, No.43, No.46 and No.50 in this year’s draft, as opposed to No.6, No.29, No.46, No.50 and No.64, which it had at the start of the second last day of the trade period on Wednesday.

General manager of football operations Josh Mahoney said “this deal is a great result for the Melbourne Football Club”.

“It significantly strengthens our drafting position for 2015 and access to elite top end talent in this year’s National Draft,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“Importantly, the deal signed this morning was the original deal proposed with Gold Coast involving Jeremy Howe. We have just replaced the Howe to Gold Coast component with pick No.29 – the pick we received from Collingwood in the Howe trade.

“By trading our future first round selection, we have opted to bring in two players now and will back in our program to develop these players into elite AFL footballers.”

It continues a recent trend by the club at bringing in elite young talent, via several recruiting methods, but particularly early in the draft. 

In 2012, the Demons claimed Jesse Hogan and Jack Viney, and in 2013 it added Dom Tyson and Christian Salem.

Last year, the Dees recruited Christian Petracca and Angus Brayshaw at No.2 and No.3 respectively in the draft.

Mahoney said the club was determined to add further elite young talent in this year’s draft.

“We are confident that with the picks we have acquired in this year’s draft, we can secure another two A-grade players with picks No.3 and No.10, which will continue to take this club forward,” he said.