Heritier Lumumba nominates Melbourne as next destination after leaving Collingwood

MELBOURNE will negotiate a trade for disgruntled Collingwood utility Heritier Lumumba after the Magpie indicated his desire to join the club.

Photo: Hamish Blair Harry Lumumba of Collingwood runs down the wing during the the Round 1 AFL match between the Collingwood Magpies and the Fremantle Dockers played at Etihad Stadium on Friday, March 14, 2014 in Melbourne, Australia.

MELBOURNE will negotiate a trade for disgruntled Collingwood utility Heritier Lumumba after the Magpie indicated his desire to join the club.

“We’ve been talking to him (Lumumba) over the last couple of weeks and he’s had a lot of interest - as he would be a 27-year-old ex-All-Australian - we are really pleased he has chosen us as his preferred club,” Melbourne football manager Josh Mahoney told AFL Trade Radio.

“Obviously there is a lot of work to be done now, but we’ll sit down with Collingwood to try and get an appropriate deal.”

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Earlier today Lumumba’s manager Ben Niall suggested a late second round pick would satisfy Collingwood’s demands and pointed to Melbourne’s deal with Adelaide to gain Bernie Vince in exchange for Pick 23, as precedent.

Melbourne’s second round selection is currently No. 20, but Mahoney would not be drawn on whether the club were willing to depart with that selection for Lumumba.

“They’re all the things that we need to talk through with Collingwood, we think at the moment he fits in with our profile and so that’s where the comparison with Bernie Vince — both being experienced players — that’s where the comparison certainly is.

“It’s really about what Collingwood want and what we want to give up and that’s what we are going to do over the next few weeks.”

Mitch Clark is eyeing a return to football, with Collingwood and Geelong the most likely destination.

Mahoney revealed the Demons would be willing to negotiate a deal that included returning forward Mitch Clark, but regardless the club is committed to landing Clark at his club of choice.

“They are one of the clubs who have expressed interest among a number of clubs so if it turned out to be that was the best deal for the footy club and for Mitch, then it would be something we would look at,” he said.

Clark remains on the Melbourne list until October 31 and Mahoney said the club would negotiate with Clark’s club of choice to ensure he is not placed at the mercy of the draft.

“Mitch has had discussions with us, based off medical advice he should be going to a different club. We feel it would be inconsistent on the track we’ve taken on Mitch from earlier in the year if we were to go against that. With that in mind we are willing to do a deal to find him a new home,” Mahoney said.

“For both parties we’d like to do it through the trade period and if that can be done it would be the ideal result.”

Mahoney said Demons will be in a better position to explore trade options once James Frawley makes a decision on his future and compensation is announced.

This could be as soon as Saturday morning with the free agency window opening on Friday, however Mahoney said the club was still hopeful of retaining the All-Australian defender.

“James has all the information from us, he’s got our deal in place. We sat down with him to go through the strategy of the club and where we are headed. He’s had that information for a while now. I think he is gathering a lot of information from other clubs and hopefully we find out as soon as we can so we can start to move on.”

Mahoney confirmed the Demons had also approached the management of Adelaide superstar Patrick Dangerfield and homesick GWS defender Sam Frost.

The Demons believe Frost has the potential to fill the void left by Frawley in the club’s premiership model, while the club’s first round selections - potentiall two and three - are on the table for the right deal.

“The top three are really high end talent and it would have to be a really attractive proposition to move those picks.”

Originally published as Heritier Lumumba nominates Melbourne as next destination after leaving Collingwood