MELBOURNE is already focused on its list management for 2016 and beyond, despite the fact the club has just locked in its 44 players for next year, according to Josh Mahoney.
The manager of football operations said it was imperative the club kept a close eye on the next few seasons, given the changed landscape in player recruitment and retention in recent years.
“It doesn’t stop and we’re looking at it all the time. Even internally, we’re looking at 2017 now and what our list looks like and who’s contracted and who we go to, to extend out,” he told Dee TV.
“You have to be on your feet and nimble all the time because as we’ve already seen in the last trade period, things can change unexpectedly.
“A player can be in contract and decide to leave and a club can ring you with an offer, so you’ve got to be ready to move on all sorts of players.”
Mahoney highlighted Melbourne’s preparation into Greater Western Sydney defender Sam Frost as an example of honing in on players a fair way out from trade time.
“The more work you can do to get set up for that time – the better it can be. For example, Sam Frost for this year – we were going through the James Frawley situation and we didn’t know if he was going to stay or go,” he said.
“Then amount of work that [pro scout] Kelly O’Donnell and [manager of player personnel] Todd Viney did in their roles – to be able to make sure Sam Frost was our target … it gets to the trade period and then we got the deal done.
“All that leg work that goes before hand that a lot of people don’t know about – that’s why you get the deal done in the end. Hopefully we’ve got a player who can be a key defensive player for the next 10 years.”
Mahoney said it had been “a really clear strategy” of coach Paul Roos to build a list through a variety of options.
“[We didn’t want to build] just through the draft. We wanted to go through trade and free agency … [we had] a good balance between looking at getting results immediately, but also with one eye on the future.
“We’ve been able to bring in three to four young draftees in [2013-14], but top it up with experienced players. To be able to bring in guys last year like Bernie Vince, who came in and performed really well, and Daniel Cross, as a veteran … [they’ve] added a lot to our group … we see a lot of advantages to that as well.
“Again, this year to be able to bring in Heritier Lumumba, Jeff Garlett and experienced guys with 200 to 100-plus games, who are going to play a role for us straight away. It takes a little bit of the heat off the young guys.
“It allows them to come in and get used to the environment of being an AFL footballer and their training loads and their playing loads and not to put too much pressure on them and we think that’s the best way to develop the players.”
