Melbourne recruit Brodie Grundy has been left out of the Demons’ line-up for Friday’s huge clash against Brisbane at the MCG.
While the former Magpie was sold the vision to join Melbourne in the trade period to play alongside Max Gawn, the club are set to play with just one specialist ruck, with Grundy to miss out.
SEN’s Tom Morris confirmed the news that the Demons weren’t going with Grundy for the big clash on Thursday morning and he spoke about the awkward situation the 29-year-old finds himself in.
“The glass-half-empty approach is that there are four years to go after this, they're paying him $650,000 a year or thereabouts, and they gave up pick 27 for him,” Morris told SEN Sportsday.
“It's a pretty awkward situation, as Braydon Preuss found it on a slightly lesser level - it's hard to sit behind an all-time great in the ruck in a specialist position.”
While it’s costing the Demons roughly $650,000 a year for Grundy to play for them, they’re not paying the entirety of his contract, with the Magpies reportedly forking out up to $300,000 a year for him to suit up for one of their premiership rivals.
Getting the bulk of Grundy’s money off the books was a bold call made by Collingwood, but Morris revealed a reason why the club decided to make that call mid-last year as he was coming back from a knee injury.
“I've done a bit of more research today on what took place at Collingwood last year,” Morris said.
“What I found out was that the Pies were more than happy to keep Brodie Grundy about partway through the season.
“Then he had a knee injury in about Round 6 that led to a stress fracture in his ankle after playing in the VFL.
“Now, if you speak to people at the Pies, they will tell you that his attitude could have been better in the rehab group at the time.
“He was clearly deflated with his injury, but it was noted by the coaches at the time, and that's when the club decided, ‘Ok, maybe Grundy can be a valuable player for us, but we're not quite sure whether his mind is in the right place still at Collingwood to be the superstar that he was in 2018 and 2019’.
“There were clearly more considerations and he wouldn’t be the first player to struggle day to day with long term injuries, but that’s when they made the decision to trade him.
“Rightly or wrongly, the coaches felt his attitude in rehab could have been stronger.
“Before then, they were happy to keep him on this lucrative deal, but that shifted halfway through last year.”
As Grundy was said to be deflated by his injury last season, Morris pondered how he’ll cope with this new adversity that faces him at his second club.
“You just wonder how he'll go in times of adversity now,” Morris said.
“We know that he is not happy not playing this weekend, and nor should he be.
“How will he be able to get over that and get back into the senior team alongside Max Gawn? Especially given there are four years left on his contract.
“So, there is a big question mark there.”
Even though Grundy has been left out of Melbourne’s side, his performances this season in the red and blue have still shown that he has what it takes to be a number-one ruckman at AFL-level.
Morris was asked by Kane Cornes whether he felt rival clubs might target Grundy in another trade if he fails to break back into Melbourne’s team.
“Well, surely,” Morris replied.
“If we didn't think this was a brutal business eight months ago when Grundy was traded, we know now, don't we?
“What’s the point of Grundy staying there if they're not going to play him? “Clearly, there is a bit to play out there for the rest of the season.
“If he's not in the team, what’s to stop Melbourne and Grundy saying, ‘Well, hang on, let's see if we can get you to another place with four years remaining on this contract that you signed at Collingwood’.
“It would be slightly unprecedented to have Collingwood pay for some of his contract at Melbourne and continue to pay for some of it somewhere else.
“In fact, I guess there's a mechanism where Collingwood and Melbourne could both pay for him to play at another club.
“That would be highly unusual, but it's not completely impossible to envisage given what we've seen in the last 24 hours.”
Grundy won’t play any football this weekend, with Melbourne’s VFL affiliate Casey having the week off with the bye.