DEMON PLAN A MIGHTY SUCCESS

ALL Melbourne’s big guns were there.

Coach Simon Goodwin, cocaptains Jack Viney and Nathan Jones, the man who would eventually succeed them, Max Gawn, as well as Jake Lever, the star recruit from a year earlier.

They were gathering for a good reason. The Dees were trying to convince Gold Coast’s Steven May – another co-captain – to join them as the final piece of their defensive master plan.

The opportunity presented when prolific spearhead Jesse Hogan requested a trade home to play for Fremantle.

That decision coincided with Sam Weideman’s breakout finals series in Hogan’s injury ab

sence and Tom McDonald becoming a 50-goal forward.

Lever and May share the same agent, Hemisphere Management Group’s Alex McDonald, whose brothers, James and Anthony, played for Melbourne.

McDonald helped orchestrate the blockbuster deal for Lever to cross to the Demons at the end of 2017, in a package that resulted in them boldly giving up two first-round draft picks.

After years of mediocrity, Melbourne was eyeing success.

But May had a major choice to make.

His fellow Suns skipper, Tom Lynch, had already revealed he was exercising his free agency rights to join powerhouse club Richmond,

May was contracted for 2019.

Lever had a similar dilemma about whether to leave Adelaide, but became enamoured with the Demons’ emerging group, including Christian Petracca and Angus Brayshaw from his draft class.

The pitch to May was the same as the one made to Lever.

In short, Melbourne felt it had transformed a oncepained club’s culture, established great camaraderie between the players and was building something special.

Lever had only been there for one season but was already making his mark. He was the Demons’ trump card and the enticement for what May could achieve in red and blue.

Fast forward three years –

and plenty of water flowing under the bridge – and they are both All-Australians and backline linchpins for grand finalbound Melbourne.

In between, critics questioned why the Demons used the pick six on May that it gained from the Dockers for Hogan and traded to Gold Coast rather than drafting Ben King.

That external debate is long over despite King’s vast promise. Winning silences everything, as Melbourne and Goodwin know all too well.

“I could see Steve was very passionate about the culture side of things,” Lever said. “Then when we spoke about myself and him coming together, he was as rapt as I was.”

The idea was the yin-andwhereas