AFL trade: Melbourne’s handling of Clayton Oliver, Christian Petracca putting off prospective trade targets

Melbourne’s handling of Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca is making it harder to recruit big names to the club, after years of being able to land big names like Steven May and Jake Lever.

Melbourne has conceded the swirling uncertainty surrounding the future of its two superstar midfielders has hurt the club’s ability to attract more top-line talent.

After a series of brilliant trades for premiership stars Jake Lever, Steven May and Ed Langdon in recent years, Melbourne’s status as a destination club is under considerable threat due to the bungled handling of prized duo Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver.

Port Adelaide’s Dan Houston initially wanted to come to Melbourne but pulled out due to the concerns around the club’s off-field issues, opening the door for Collingwood to swoop on the jet playmaker.

The Demons were adamant on Monday Oliver would not be traded to Geelong despite calls from chief executive Gary Pert to rivals about Oliver’s future.

Geelong football boss Andrew Mackie on Monday confirmed the Cats had heard “some chatter that Clayton might need to look at something else”.

Clayton Oliver is staying at Melbourne. Picture: Mark Stewart

The Demons admitted conversations were had, but denied Oliver was “shopped around”.

Oliver, 27, remains unhappy with his own club’s embarrassing backflip which has led the four-time best and fairest winner to pursue a move to Geelong over the past week.

While the Demons said Oliver would stay in red and blue, Melbourne list boss Tim Lamb conceded the ongoing controversy had impacted the club’s recruiting efforts this year.

Asked whether the club remained an attractive proposition for potential targets, Lamb said “Attractive? It’s a good question … hard to answer.”

“If you are a player who has got choice, and there is noise around the club which there was at that time (when Houston pulled out), then obviously that can have an impact,” Lamb said.

“As for Dan specifically I can’t answer that, but it is a fair point you raise.

“One hundred per cent we don’t want to be a club players don’t want to come to. We want to be a really attractive place to come to.”

But it remains clear Melbourne has significant ground to make up as Lamb was left to try and clean up the mess of the past fortnight.

Melbourne list manager Tim Lamb at Marvel Stadium. Picture: Josh Chadwick/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

Remarkably, the club’s two best midfielders have explored moves out of the club this year.

Lamb tried to downplay the damage caused by Pert’s call to rivals about Oliver.

“This time of the year a lot of things get spoken about, and unfortunately sometimes they get out into the public,” Lamb said.

“We are comfortable with where we sit.”

Mackie said on Monday there was a suggestion Oliver’s future was under a cloud at Melbourne.

“I won’t get too far into the detail but yeah, I think there was some chatter that Clayton might need to look at something else,” Mackie said.

“There’s management involved in all that.”

Asked if Oliver was disaffected, Lamb said: “Any player would rather their name not be in the public arena”.

“Obviously Clayton felt at some point he wanted to have a conversation with Geelong,” Lamb said.

“Andrew has already expressed that and I spoke to Geelong before that happened on the day and said that Clayton wouldn’t be going anywhere and they were really happy with that.”

Lamb said the Demons “thought we were” in a strong position to snare Houston after some “positive conversations” but was unsure “why that changed” two months ago.

“I think that (interest) would be very hard to rekindle,” Lamb said.

The club does have interest in GWS tall utility Wade Derksen but the Giants on Monday said they would not trade him.

Originally published as AFL trade: Melbourne’s handling of Clayton Oliver, Christian Petracca putting off prospective trade targets