Melbourne CEO Gary Pert has suggested they won’t increase their offer to young ruckman Luke Jackson in a bid to stave off a reported big money deal from the Dockers.
Jackson, the West Australian kid who became the highest selected ruckman since Nic Naitanui when snapped up by the Demons with pick three in 2019, looms as the big mover this trade period.
Despite warnings of the “big gamble” on Jackson’s potential, it’s believed Fremantle have offered the young premiership player a long-term deal that could fetch up to $900,000 per season.
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“(Melbourne) are about to lose their young emerging ruckman,” journalist Jon Ralph said on Fox Footy.
“Luke Jackson’s trade request is likely to come mid-week – a deal that could run to seven years on as much as $900,000 a season.”
Both Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin and Dees CEO Gary Pert said they didn’t yet know where Jackson’s future was.
“We’ll have those conversations during the week with Luke,” Goodwin said after the reigning premiers were bundled out of the finals in straight sets.
“We said we’d give him as much time as we can before he made a decision and I’m sure in the next few days, we’ll find out then you’ll find out.”
Jackson’s looming departure is set to free up the Demons to make a bold play for Collingwood ruck Brodie Grundy, after he fell out of favour on a big-money deal as Mason Cox and Darcy Cameron formed a formidable combo this season for the Magpies.
Goodwin declined to confirm his club’s interest in Grundy, only responding to questions with: “I’ve just left that over to the list manager to look at all the contingencies in that space. As I said, until we get all the information in the next few days, I’ll make sure I’ll ring you and let you know.”
Commentator Matthew Lloyd this week said he “didn’t buy” claims Melbourne weren’t aware of Jackson’s decision.
“I don’t buy that – surely you need to know because you’re going all in on Brodie Grundy,” he said on 3AW.
“So you can’t sit back and go, ‘oh yeah we’ll let you go’. They know.”
“Of course they know!” Mark Robinson added. “How are they finding money, $800,000 for Brodie Grundy in a salary cap of $12 million and they’re thinking they are going to keep Luke Jackson on what? Seven to eight (hundred thousand a season)?”
Pert confirmed an offer had been put on the table for Jackson – but a decision had been put on hold until post-season.
“It’s a difficult one – we’d love of all of our players to sign up during the season so we know and can plan, but there are occasions where a player and their management say: ‘We don’t want to deal with this until the end of the season’,” he said on 3AW.
“There was a point where we sat down with Jacko and we said, ‘that’s fine – we now just want to concentrate on you playing the best footy you can and giving us the best chance during the finals and we’ll deal with this when the season finishes’.
“I’ve felt since we’ve had that conversations that Jacko’s been a bit more freed up – it’s been one less thing on his mind.
“I think it was an important conversation for us to have.
“We’ve put an offer to Jacko and it won’t be anything to do to with the money or that (rival) offer – there won’t be an expectation that will change.”
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir didn’t confirm his club’s interest in the former East Fremantle junior, but was waiting until the “dust settles”.
“These things will work itself out,” he said after the semi final loss to Collingwood.
“I don’t know whether now is the right time to be talking about it I’m sure there will be opportunities once the dust settles to talk about list management decisions, getting my head around the loss tonight first.”
Ralph said the likely Jackson departure would “trigger” a host of changes at the Demons.
“The expectation is they’d get two first rounders back from Fremantle (for Jackson) and they’d likely hand one of those picks on to Collingwood for Brodie Grundy,” Ralph explained.
“(They are) set to recontract Jayden Hunt. Decisions ahead on (Michael) Hibberd and (Jake) Melksham.
“Multiple clubs have interest in Toby Bedford – he hasn’t signed yet.”
