Jon Ralph: Dees will want Fyfe or Kennedy if they lose Hogan

If Jesse Hogan is to ask to be traded back home to Western Australia from Melbourne, the Dees will ask for an established superstar in return says Jon Ralph.

The Herald Sun football writer says that considering the Demons gave away two first round picks to secure Hogan, they will ask for a mega deal in return from the two Western Australian clubs.

“West Coast are in the picture, Fremantle are in the picture. You’ve got to remember that they gave up picks three and 13 for him a few years ago, they got pick 20 back and the rights to Dom Barry, but they gave up a heck of a lot for him,” Ralph said on SEN’s The Run Home.

“So they would want Nathan Fyfe or they would want Josh Kennedy or potentially West Coast’s first round pick and also (Jack) Darling. They would want so much for him.”

Ralph says regardless of the potential trade value the young forward has, Melbourne never expected this to happen.

“This was never part of the plan for Melbourne,” he said.

“I think some of the back story is that he might have a sick relative over there, potentially his father has been quite sick so maybe that might factor in and as Paul Roos once said, we can provide a great platform for him to play here but if he’s really homesick, we can’t really change that.

“I just think, everything that Melbourne has said is that he’s certain to stay and the new coach has a great relationship with him… but right at the moment he is so far from that. It’s got to be worrying for Melbourne fans.”

Daniel Harford says that it will be difficult to squeeze Hogan into the West Coast forward line, and that the Eagles should instead focus on finding new midfielders and not key forwards.

“I think it’s going to be difficult, difficult to fit into that forward line with the way they play with Kennedy and Darling…you’re going to have to tweak it. You squeeze him in, you jam him in and they’ll deal with that. I don’t know if you’d mess with it,” he said.

“If I’m West Coast, I’m doing all I can to bring in some real quality midfielders to help. Key forwards generally aren’t what I’m looking at.”