Melbourne list manager Tim Lamb has outlined how the club sold the dream to Brodie Grundy.
The star ruckman joined the Demons from Collingwood earlier this week in a trade which saw pick 27 go the other way.
The deal was in the works for a while and Lamb has given some insight into how the Dees were able to lure him next door from the AIA Centre to AAMI Park despite the presence of premiership captain Max Gawn as the number one ruckman.
He said the 2021 premiers were concerned they would lose Luke Jackson to Fremantle so opted to go chips-in given the Magpies were looking to cut Grundy’s salary from their cap.
“There was significant interest from multiple clubs in Brodie,” Lamb said on AFL Trade Radio.
“He didn’t just meet with us, he met wth a number of others.
“We were starting to get quite concerned about Luke, we’re really wedded to the two-ruck option. The coach (Simon Goodwin) and the footy department think that’s the way to go for us.
“When we meet with Brodie, our philosophy was not just to dip the toe in the water, let’s have a proper crack.
“We rolled out the skipper (Gawn) as well, I think he was a fair bit more excited to meet him than me.”
Lamb insists Gawn and the leadership group were always invested in recruiting Grundy.
“We’re really cognisant of keeping our leaders aware of what’s going on, we want them invested in our footy club,” he added.
“We didn’t just say, ‘Hey Max, we want to get Brodie’. We had some good discussions with Max about how it would look and he was really onboard from the start, he was super excited and happy to be involved in it.”
Two-time All-Australian and two-time Copeland Trophy winner Grundy will now partner up with six-time All-Australian ruckman and twice Demons best and fairest Gawn in what looms as a formidable one-two ruck punch in season 2023.
Image courtesy Melbourne FC on Twitter