Melbourne Demons' list for 2019 after AFL trade and draft periods

Mick Stirling

Melbourne Demons' list for 2019 after AFL trade and draft periods image

The dust has finally settled on AFL post-season activity and all 18 clubs have completed their lists for 2019.

Who’s come in via trades, free agency and the national and rookie drafts? Who’s gone out the other way?

And, most importantly, how does the list look after all the changes?

MORE: AFL draft: every pick, every player, every club

This week, Sporting News is going through each club’s changes to analyse whether steps have been taken forwards, backwards or if they’re just treading water.

Melbourne Demons

In

Trade:

Steven May (Gold Coast), Kade Kolodjashnij (Gold Coast), Braydon Preuss (North Melbourne)

Free agency:

NA

Draft:

Tom Sparrow (27 – South Adelaide), James Jordan (33 – Oakleigh Chargers), Aaron Nietschke (53 – Central District), Marty Hore (56 – Collingwood VFL), Toby Bedford (75 – Dandenong Stingrays)


 

Rookie:

Kade Chandler (Norwood)

Out

Traded:

Dom Tyson (North Melbourne), Dean Kent (St Kilda), Jesse Hogan (Fremantle)

Delisted:

Tom Bugg, Lochie Filipovic, Dion Johnstone, Mitch King, Pat McKenna, Cameron Pedersen

Retired:

Harley Balic, Bernie Vince

Melbourne’s 2019 list

The Demons already had arguably the best-balanced list in the league in 2018 but identified the defence as needing improvement, so the addition of May and Kolodjashnij is perfect.

It would also be hard to find a better back-up ruckman than Preuss, so that’s another massive tick.

Steven May Braydon Preuss

Nothing amazing fell through in the draft although Sparrow could find himself playing early as a small forward.

The one question mark is whether Melbourne has overrated the strengths of Tom McDonald and Sam Weideman, but then it would be just as fair to ask if Fremantle has overrated Jesse Hogan.

Verdict

It’s debatable as to whether the Demons had a problem to begin with, but if so then they fixed it. A very smart off-season has seen Melbourne’s already powerful list get stronger.

Mick Stirling