Josh Kelly’s blazing season continues to spark debate on whether Melbourne did the right thing in 2013

PAUL Roos said those who dared question Melbourne’s decision to give away the draft pick that snared Josh Kelly should have been sacked. What do they make of the call three years on?

GWS Giants star Josh Kelly. Picture: Phil Hillyard

PAUL Roos said those who dared question Melbourne’s decision to give away the pick that snared Josh Kelly should have been sacked.

But they’re still employed and their opinion hasn’t changed.

The then-Demons coach was irritated in 2014 by anonymous talent experts who accused his club of committing another draft crime.

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Melbourne shocked the footy world in late 2013 by trading pick 2 to GWS for Dom Tyson and pick 9, which the Dees used on Christian Salem.

The Giants snaffled Kelly. If we’re going to include Melbourne landing Jayden Hunt in the deal via the draft then we should state the Giants did the same with Rory Lobb.

Tyson made an immediate impact and has been a good pick-up, and while Salem has shown promise, injuries have cruelled him thus far.

Instead, it has been Kelly’s scintillating 2017 that has brought one of the most debated trade deals of recent times back to the surface.

Is it a win-win, as Roos has maintained? Or did GWS get the upper hand in a deal that appears to be getting better for them by the week?

Josh Kelly shows almost limitless potential. Picture: Michael Klein

The former Melbourne coach went on the offensive after the Herald Sun gave voice to three “gobsmacked” recruiters who spoke on the condition of anonymity in April, 2014.

One said the decision had potential to get “nasty”, while another argued “it’s a blunder because Kelly is going to be a star and Dom Tyson isn’t.”

The day the story appeared, Roos told Triple M it was a “pretty weak” move.

“People get caught up in what someone else has got, but that doesn’t worry me at all. Dom Tyson has been outstanding for us,” Roos told listeners.

After Tyson had 30 touches and two goals against Port Adelaide the following month, Roos went further.

“I hope that unnamed recruiting officer that questioned the deal ... maybe he wants to come out and tell us who he is because he probably should get sacked,” he said.

“I would have thought it’s a pretty good deal and a good deal for GWS. So let’s identify that bloke and sack him.”

With Kelly on the fourth line of betting for this year’s Brownlow Medal and seemingly capable of anything, the Herald Sun went back to those unnamed recruiting officers.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt it was the wrong call,” one said.

“Every time you push back in the same draft it’s prone to error and Kelly has been awesome. His change of pace, which people often think is accelerating, but it’s actually slowing down often — you slow down because you don’t want to run out of space and you go when the time is right.”

Melbourne midfielder Dom Tyson had an immediate impact. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

Paul Roos and Christian Salem on draft night 2013. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

Roos has consistently argued how even the pointy end of the 2013 draft was and, desperate for midfield depth in a battling side at the start of his tenure, nabbing two players for one was too good to pass up.

In trumpeting the trade, Melbourne said it loved the fact Tyson could “come in and play straight away”.

But one of those recruiters this week said: “It was a very shortsighted decision”.

“Roosy announced in his first press conference as Melbourne coach that they would give away their first pick. That was more, ‘I’ll come in, but I need some power and I need players straight away’ and I think that is flawed.

“It just showed from the first minute that the coach had more power than he should have.

“As soon as you base list management on a coach’s tenure — and I know there was a succession plan and all that and there was a lot of positives — but at the end of the day the No.2 pick was clearly going to be a once-in-a-decade player.”

Roos last spoke of the trade in May this year, revealing a new twist on the deal by admitting the Demons wouldn’t have taken Kelly with pick 2, but gone with Jack Billings.

“I know the Melbourne recruiters rated Jack Billings very, very highly,” Roos said on Fox Footy.

“Our guys had Billings ahead of Kelly. He (Billings) was an enormously talented kid and now we’re starting to see that talent blossom. It’s a little bit later than Kelly and some of the others, but that’s OK. I really rate the kid — he brings real class.”