AFL Trade: Is Jesse Hogan move the key to Melbourne Demons 2019 flag tilt?

Mick Stirling

AFL Trade: Is Jesse Hogan move the key to Melbourne Demons 2019 flag tilt? image

Year-long whispers of Melbourne full forward Jesse Hogan moving to Fremantle gained strength overnight with reports Hogan has told the club he is happy to be traded.

The West Australian is contracted until the end of next season, but with Tom McDonald taking to a key forward role like a duck to water, and the exciting glimpses shown by Sam Weideman towards the end of the season, the Demons may pull the trigger now.

At the moment the Dockers hold pick five at the draft and look like getting Brisbane’s pick four in exchange for Lachie Neale, whereas Melbourne’s highest selection isn’t until 33.

If the Demons can get an early first-round pick in exchange for Hogan it will see them able to outbid Hawthorn and Collingwood in the race for Gold Coast defender Steven May.

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As a great year finished on a low in the preliminary final against West Coast, the one obvious area for improvement at Melbourne is in the key defensive posts, especially since McDonald moved forward.

May would shore up that deficiency and be a major component in the Demon’s bid to go one week better in 2019.

For Hogan the desire to go home is strong, heightened last year by the death of his father and his own cancer scare.



However, former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon isn’t sure about the strength of sources reporting Hogan’s desire to leave, and says he believes the club is keen to keep the 23-year-old in red and blue.

“My understanding is they won’t do it…this is all at the feet of Jesse,” Lyon told SEN Breakfast on Wednesday morning.

 “I’m giving you the Melbourne view, they’re saying he loves Melbourne, he doesn’t want to go anywhere.

“If Jesse comes in and says, ‘I don’t love Melbourne anymore and I do want to go somewhere’, well that changes things.

“I think it would be a different story (if Hogan asked for a trade).”

 

Mick Stirling