Collingwood’s All-Australian ruckman Brodie Grundy has signalled that he will take a pay cut when he becomes a Melbourne player in the coming days.
Sources with a knowledge of the talks between the Grundy camp, Collingwood and Melbourne said Grundy would accept a small reduction, probably annually, over the remaining five years of the contract he signed with the Magpies, who will also pay a portion of the contract.
Ruckman Brodie Grundy will take a pay cut when he joins the Demons.Credit:Getty Images
Collingwood want a pick inside 25 for the 2018-19 All-Australian. He had signed a seven-year deal (before he became a free agent) in 2020 that would pay him an average between $920,000-$950,000 with the Demons picking up the lion’s share of the five-year deal, which is understood to be lower in the final two years. There have been reports that Collingwood were willing to pay up to $300,000 a season to facilitate a Grundy deal.
Collingwood football boss Graham Wright said on Monday – the opening of the trading period – that he expected Grundy to become a Demon. “We’ve had good dialogue with them and we feel that’s where that’ll head.”
Luke Jackson wants a trade home to WA.Credit:Getty
The deal for Grundy is contingent on a deal being agreed between the Demons to trade versatile young ruckman and forward Luke Jackson home to Western Australia.
The Dockers have offered their first-round pick this year – currently 13 – and next year’s first-round pick for Jackson, but Melbourne want more than that for the premiership player, whom they selected at pick three in the 2019 draft.
The Demons are monitoring what picks come in to the Dockers for Blake Acres, who will be traded to Carlton, Griffin Logue, who has requested a trade to North Melbourne, and the contracted Rory Lobb, who has asked to move to the Western Bulldogs. North has offered their future second-round pick for Logue.
West Coast remain interested observers to the Jackson trade discussions but currently are not prepared to offer pick two as part of any exchange for the Demon, who also currently favours a move to the Dockers.
The Demons remain confident they can secure a pick in the early twenties to satisfy Collingwood.
Melbourne have out-of-contract forward Toby Bedford, who has asked to be traded to GWS. Discussions on Monday centred around a deal for a pick in the third round.
The Demons could also potentially offer Bedford and their pick 33 to GWS for pick 21, an exchange that would bring in a suitable pick to do the Grundy deal.
Jayden Hunt has left to join West Coast as a free agent, with Melbourne receiving 52 as compensation.
The Magpies are among the busiest clubs in the trading period. On Monday, they acquired Bobby Hill from the Giants for a future second-round pick and an exchange of GWS’ pick 40 for Collingwood’s pick 43 in this year’s draft. They are in talks with Geelong about out-of-contract young forward Ollie Henry, who wants to join his brother Jack at the Cats.
Collingwood will gain unrestricted free agent key forward Dan McStay from Brisbane, tall back Billy Frampton from the Crows and have been in discussions about both Gold Coast midfielder Brayden Fiorini and Hawthorn’s 2018 Brownlow medallist Tom Mitchell.
Fiorini would be a salary cap dump by the Suns if he went to Collingwood, while Wright said Mitchell was “a chance but it’s probably unlikely”.
One arrangement for a Fiorini deal would result in Collingwood improving their third-round selection slightly and receiving the Suns wingman, who is due to earn about $600,000 next year in the last year of his heavily back-ended contract. He would agree to a new multi-year deal at Collingwood and spread that money out.
The interest in Mitchell is contingent on Grundy being traded out.
The Magpies and Geelong have some distance to travel to reach a deal on Henry, as Geelong list manager Andrew Mackie acknowledged on Monday; the Magpies have been seeking a first-round pick for Henry, or a comparable player, and have told him that he might not get to Geelong.
Collingwood want to keep the 19-year-old, who has played 25 games in his first two seasons at the club, including 15 this year.
“Ollie is a young, second-year player from Geelong. His brother plays at Geelong. There is a bit of a pull down the highway, even though it’s only an hour or 40 minutes up here,” football manager Wright said at Marvel Stadium on Monday.
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