Buyer Beware

key forward, because if he is going to play a part in Melbourne’s push for the finals, it won’t be as a ruckman.

On paper, it seemed like a grand idea.

Melbourne had won the premiership just 12 months beforehand with a ruck tandem that was the talk of the game.

Max Gawn was already the best ruckman in the competition in the eyes of many, yet along came Luke Jackson, in just his second season, as the perfect foil.

Gawn did most of the heavy lifting, but Jackson gave the team plenty as a relief ruckman and mobile midfielder.

Memorably, it was Jackson who was taking the centre bounces late in the third quarter of the 2021 Grand Final as the Demons went on that unforgettable surge that broke the game open and sealed the premiership.

Gawn was resting on the bench and when asked whether he was ready to go back on, he was happy for Jackson to continue.

So, when Jackson elected to return to Western Australia at the end of last season, Brodie Grundy was the shiny toy on the top shelf of the department store that the Demons could not resist reaching for.

If Gawn wasn’t the rest ruckman in the competition these past few years, it was Grundy, yet if Collingwood was happy to keep paying a chunk of the remaining five years on his contract to move him on, then that was the cherry on the top of the cake for Melbourne.

Yet here we are with the run home to the finals and Grundy is in the VFL, taking a crash course in becoming a

His quest started in front of, reportedly, “30 people and a dog” in a 15-a-side hit-out against St Kilda’s leftovers last weekend and will continue in the VFL this week.

At 29, having been the No. 1 ruckman his entire career, Grundy is leaving it until quite late in his career to be reprogrammed and as his long-time coach Nathan Buckley said on SEN 1116 last Monday: “Brodie Grundy is not a forward and he never will be. He never will be.”

If the Demons are experiencing any sort of buyer’s remorse, they are not about to say so.

But they only have to look at the massive influence Gawn had in the dying stages of Melbourne’s magnificent comeback win over Brisbane last Friday to know in their heart of hearts that Grundy is unlikely to play again this year at senior level unless he can somehow reincarnate himself as Tony Lockett.

A similar story is playing out at Whitten Oval.

Rory Lobb and the Western Bulldogs had been flirting with each other for months and the trade with Fremantle was consummated moments before the closing deadline last October. But did the Bulldogs really need him?

Jamarra Ugle-Hagan had been a slow burn, but his undeniable talent came to the fore towards the end of last season.

The spring-heeled Aaron Naughton had already established his bona fides as one of the most exciting key forwards in the AFL.

And father-son selection Sam Darcy has been added to the Bulldogs’ enviable collection of key forwards.

There was some fleeting excitement after a big pre-season win over North Melbourne in which the quartet combined for 10 goals, that the four-talls arrangement could work.

But it hasn’t really translated to the regular season and Lobb spent last Friday in the VFL where he played well. But at AFL level, he and the club have work to do.

The AFL trade period consumes everyone, and it even has its own radio station.

Grundy to Melbourne had been flagged for a considerable period in the lead-up, but such were the credits that the Demons and their excellent list management team had in the bank, there was little critical commentary around their move to sign the Magpie big man.

The same with Lobb.

The AFL trade media industrial complex need to barrack less for the trades to happen and work harder on explaining their merits and otherwise.

The Grundy and Lobb trades were questionable at the time and warranted more scrutiny than they received.

So, my wish for the forthcoming trade period is less of, “How good is this?” and more of, “How is this going to work?”