Heritier Lumumba to reduce media presence at Melbourne, determined to play best football

HERITIER Lumumba has pledged to Melbourne his troublemaking days are over and will concentrate his focus on performing on the field.

HERITIER Lumumba has pledged to Melbourne his troublemaking days are over, determined to let his football do the talking next year.

Lumumba has acknowledged he became a distracting presence at Collingwood, culminating in a bizarre Copeland Trophy speech where he labelled himself as “The Prince”.

BILLY FULFILLS DREAM MOVE TO DEMONS

Melbourne coach Paul Roos yesterday told the Herald Sun that Lumumba wanted to finish his career in a blaze of glory, not as a polarising publicity machine.

At the Demons he won’t do media interviews, has already shut down his twitter site and will this week also close his facebook page.

The ex-Collingwood veteran has signed a three-year deal with a fourth-year trigger and will earn nearly $500,000 a season.

It might be good money but Lumumba is just what Melbourne need: a line-breaking, hard-running defender who has averaged an incredible 23 games a season in the past eight years.

He was traded in a three-way swap that saw Travis Varcoe move to Collingwood and Mitch Clark head to Geelong.

“I genuinely believe him when he says I wants to make the most out of my career and I want to let my footy do the talking,’’ Roos said told the Herald Sun from Hawaii yesterday.

“I trust and believe him and look forward to working with him. We think he has between 3-5 years to go and he adds a skill set we haven’t got — size and speed and run and he straightens us up.

“We worked really hard on the defensive stuff all year but struggled to do both. So adding him and Jeff Garlett, it brings a nice mix of attack and defence. In the post-season we looked to add some speed and we heard he might be available and we jumped all over it.”

Lumumba’s manager Ben Niall acknowledged some of Lumumba’s antics had taken the gloss off an outstanding football career.

At that Copeland Trophy presentation he recorded his fourth top-five finish in six years, with Champion Data labelling him above average in disposals, contested possessions and metres gained and elite in uncontested possessions.

“He’s excited about turning a fresh page and having a big impact at the Melbourne footy club and trying to help them improve and he will let his football do the talking from here,” Niall said.

The Demons will almost certainly take picks 2 and 3 at the draft with Roos untroubled by ex-Carlton forward Garlett’s late-season incident where he deceived coach Mick Malthouse about an incident where he was charged with affray.

“From what we gathered it was an isolated incident and he is not a serial offender,’’ Roos said.

“From Carlton’s point of view they needed to move him on and we believe it’s a one-off incident. We are really comfortable with him coming to our club.”

Originally published as Heritier Lumumba to reduce media presence at Melbourne, determined to play best football