AFL CLUB LANDS LATEST ADDITION AS STEVEN MAY DEBATE RAGES
GOLD Coast will sign Werribee intercept defender Sam Collins as their third state-league player despite preparing to keep Steven May for a final season.
The Suns are fully prepared to trade May for the No.5 pick in the next three days, but an impasse over deals for Lachie Neale and Jesse Hogan means that deal is in jeopardy.
May would prefer to be traded to Melbourne, but accepts that if the Demons cannot find an early pick there is no way the Suns will trade him.
Instead he would have to earn his free agency rights by playing out a final year for the Suns – most likely not as the captain – with a mature attitude to his pending departure.
Instead of declaring he is desperate to leave the Suns while under contract, May has stayed quiet while his management has declared his intent to the club’s hierarchy in case he has to remain.
The Suns had investigated 194cm defender Collins, 24, as a replacement for May but are now expected to sign him regardless of that trade.
He played 14 games for Fremantle before being delisted at the end of 2017, and played an excellent season for Werribee, finishing equal third in the Liston Medal.
He will join Tigers teammate, key forward Josh Corbett, the Fothergill-Round-Mitchell medallist for most promising VFL player under 23, and West Adelaide swingman Chris Burgess as state league signings for the Suns.
Gold Coast will trade pacy midfielder Aaron Hall (North Melbourne), No.5 draft pick Kade Kolodjashnij (Melbourne) and No.7 selection Jack Scrimshaw (Hawthorn) as part of a list overhaul.
They will be moved on for 2019 draft selections because the Suns already have five top 30 picks this year, with May to possibly bring a sixth.
The Suns have also recruited Richmond’s Anthony Miles and Corey Ellis and will secure Geelong’s George Horlin-Smith for a late pick.
They might consider a pick swap with an Adelaide club to push them to scoot up the draft order for highly rated Adelaide teens Izak Rankine and Jack Lukosius, who will likely be gone by pick 5.
They are just two of a batch of exciting South Australians at the top of the draft.