Melbourne have ignited a trade frenzy after accepting a late trade offer from Fremantle just hours before the trade deadline - but who came out on top?
The Player
Jesse Hogan
Date of birth: 12/2/95 (24 at round one 2019)
Games: 71
NAB Rising Star winner 2015
Melbourne leading goalkicker 2015 (44), 2016 (41)
The Deal
Melbourne
In - Picks 6 and 23
Out - Jesse Hogan, pick 65
Fremantle
In - Jesse Hogan, pick 65
Out - Picks 6 and 23
The needs
Melbourne Demons
The speculation over Hogan going home has been floating around for a couple of years now and if he wasn’t out the door this year, he would have been gone when his contract ran out at the end of 2019.
The emergence of Tom McDonald as a key forward lowered the Demons’ reliance on Hogan as their goalkicking saviour for the next decade, and Sam Weideman’s late-season form only added to Melbourne’s belief it has enough firepower for the future.
With the front half sorted and a class-filled midfield, the Demons have turned their focus to defence and they know it’s a case of ‘now or never’ if they’re going to have a shot at securing Steven May from Gold Coast.
Fremantle Dockers
There’s a few holes around the Dockers’ team sheet, but none bigger than in front of goal.
Cam McCarthy has fallen well short of expectations, Matt Taberner is limited and Brennan Cox will take time, so to bring in Hogan as the focal point is a huge step forward in Ross Lyon’s rebuild.
No doubt Freo has more work to do and Hogan isn’t about to take them back to September on his own, but he’s young and, fitness permitting, he at least ticks off one big box for the next decade.
The winner
Both teams get what they want, but there are question marks over the result in both directions.
Melbourne gets May, but he’ll be 27 by round one next year, they were pretty well served by Oscar McDonald and Sam Frost this season and they seem to have forgotten Jake Lever is waiting in the wings to come back. Do they even need another key defender?
Fremantle gets Hogan but he comes with a huge contract, dodgy foot and a failure to have kicked 50 or more goals in a season so far. Will he be the player they need or a more expensive and only slightly better version of Cam McCarthy?
Ultimately the Dockers have now got what they didn’t have and, should Hogan at least stay fit and get on the park, he’ll give the team a much stronger structure.
Fremantle the winner.
