Dustin Martin or Josh Kelly? Which out of contact midfield star would you take?

UPDATE: INCREDIBLE games by Dustin Martin and Josh Kelly have only made the job of picking who to target in a trade more difficult. But North Melbourne’s Todd Goldstein has revealed his choice. VOTE

Richmond's Dustin Martin and GWS Giant Josh Kelly.

YOU’RE list manager at a mid-tier club with a million bucks to spend and two superstars potentially available. So who do you throw the cash at?

That’s the position clubs like St Kilda and North Melbourne find themselves in — and events yesterday didn’t help clear up the situation.

ADAM COONEY: MY ADVICE FOR DUSTY, KELLY, FYFE

CLINIC: DUSTY SHOWS ROOS HOW MUCH HE’S WORTH

Dustin Martin and Josh Kelly blitzed the Kangaroos and Essendon respectively to potentially add more figures to their soaring contracts.

Dustin Martin during his best afield display against North Melbourne. Picture: Michael Klein

Their situations are slightly different — Martin is a restricted free agent and Kelly is coming out of contract after four years at the Giants. And they play different styles. But both are matchwinning midfielders.

WHO WOULD YOU BE CHASING? SCROLL DOWN TO CAST YOUR VOTE

Geelong premiership captain Cameron Ling said Martin was a superstar, but Kelly would be a better fit for a club like St Kilda.

“He finds it on the inside but he’s just that Rolls Royce on the outside,” Ling said on 3AW.

“If they could land Kelly, the Saints, their next five or six years is unbelievably bright.”

Kangaroos ruckman Todd Goldstein concurred even after watching Martin up close last night.

“Maybe we didn’t run with him (and were) a bit nicer to him so he’d come to us,” he joked on Fox Sports’ AFL Today.

“He’s a really good player, he’s so strong in the contest ... he’s just so smart so any team would be lucky to have him and obviously our club would love to have him.”

Asked to split Martin and Kelly, Goldstein said: “It’s a pretty tough one ... maybe Josh because of his age, he’s a couple of years younger so if you’re going to sign him to a long deal you might get a bit more out of him.

“Either of them would be great assets to our footy club and we’re pretty keen to get hopefully both of them.”

Josh Kelly had seven more disposals than any other player at Spotless Stadium. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Kelly had a career-high 38 disposals and a career-high 10 inside-50s as he tore the Bombers to ribbons at Spotless Stadium.

That morning, Herald Sun chief football writer Mark Robinson declared the Kangaroos had to up their offer to Kelly to $12 million over nine years to lure him from the Giants.

“It’s not hard up here in Sydney (to ignore the noise),” Kelly said on Fox Footy post-game.

“If you want to listen to all the noise, you go searching for it.

“But I’m keeping my mind clearly off that, I’m well and truly with the Giants at the minute and I’m absolutely loving it.”

Hours later, Martin torched the Kangaroos after a week in which Essendon was forced to deny it had offered him a contract worth $1.6 million a year.

In typical Dusty style, he wasn’t saying much after the game except that he had a “good night” and laughing off a sign in the North Melbourne cheer squad that read: “Come to North Dusty!” before saying he was off to New Zealand to visit his dad during the bye.

	DUSTIN MARTIN v NM	JOSH KELLY v ESS
Disposals	38	38
Cont poss	15	14
Disp efficiency	76.3%	86.8%
Clearances	9	6
Tackles	6	10
Score	2.1	1.1
SuperCoach	165	176

Then there’s Nat Fyfe, who is also yet to re-sign and will take centre stage against Collingwood on Sunday afternoon.

So put yourself in Ameet Bains’ shoes. Who would you be chasing?

DUSTIN MARTIN

Club: Richmond

Age: 25

Draft: Pick 3, 2009

Recruited from: Castlemaine

Games: 163. Goals: 164

2017 av disposals: 29.9 (No. 13 in AFL)

2017 score: 14.13

2017 SuperCoach average: 118 (No. 4)

Brownlow odds: $3.75 (TAB)

The lowdown: Raging bull midfielder who barges through tackles and is almost unstoppable when isolated one-out in the forward line. In his prime after eight years in the system. Probably not the first choice for a corporate speaking gig.

JOSH KELLY

Club: GWS Giants

Age: 22

Draft: Pick 2, 2013

Recruited from: East Brighton

Games: 70. Goals: 40

2017 av disposals: 29.4 (No. 16 in AFL)

2017 score: 6.7

2017 SuperCoach average: 114 (No. 8)

Brownlow odds: $12 (TAB)

The lowdown: Smooth moving midfielder who rarely misses a target. Model citizen and potential future captain. If he’s this good after four seasons, they sky’s the limit.

Originally published as Dustin Martin or Josh Kelly? Which out of contact midfield star would you take?