Demons bait talent hooks

MELBOURNE will pursue another senior player in this year’s exchange period to help bolster its push for a droughtbreaking premiership.

The Demons landed Jake Lever from Adelaide in one of the biggest deals of last year’s trade period and have the capacity to reload in October.

Superstar talls Tom Lynch (Gold Coast) and Jeremy McGovern (West Coast) and gun midfielders Andrew Gaff (West Coast) and Rory Sloane (Adelaide) headline this year’s bumper free-agency pool.

Former Gold Coast coach Rodney Eade yesterday said he believed Lynch was more likely to leave at season’s end.

“I think it will depend a lot on how his team is going [but] my gut feel is that he probably — with a heavy heart — would go,” Eade said.

Melbourne football manager Josh Mahoney said the Demons would be active in the exchange period for a secondstraight year.

“Our plan overall probably for three or four years ago when we were down the bottom of the ladder was to really hit the draft hard and get a lot of good draft picks in,” Mahoney said.

“Those guys have now come through and they are about 21 to 23. We went after Jake Lever last year, [from the] same age bracket and certainly we are in the market for another one come the end of this year.”

Asked if they would target a big fish, Mahoney said on Triple M: “You go out there with a rod and good bait and see what you land.”

Adelaide goalkicker Tom Lynch is also out of contract and generating interest from rivals after rebuffing Mel- bourne’s advances three years ago.

Melbourne already has an abundance of young midfield talent and could push for another versatile big man to support key forward Jesse Hogan or a vulnerable defence.

The Demons are desperate to break their 10-year finals drought but the defence, in particular, was exposed in a 67point loss to Hawthorn on Sunday at the MCG.