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You wouldn’t have thought it possible before this trade period kicked off, but Jordan Lewis has officially left the Hawthorn Hawks.
The veteran midfielder has joined the Melbourne Demons after handing in a trade request on Monday afternoon.
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Going with Lewis to the Demons are two draft picks for this years draft (picks 57 and 68) while the Hawks have received picks 48 and 66 in return.
In a career with Hawthorn which stretches back to his selection in the 2004 draft, Lewis has played 264 games for the Hawks. He departs the club as a four-time premiership player and was named as the Hawks’ best and fairest player in 2014.
Lewis will no doubt provide Melbourne with some much-needed, valuable experience for a young playing group which struggled for consistency in 2016.
“Jordan is a fierce competitor who is driven to win, and those are qualities that you can’t have enough of at our footy Club,” Melbourne’s general manager of football, Josh Mahoney, said.
“Clearly he is an elite AFL player and his footballing resume speaks for itself, but we also see Jordan as a leader who can play a major role in the development and mentoring of our younger players both on and off the field.
“We know we are still a very young team. We are projecting to have half of our best 22 under the age of 23 next season and that’s why bringing in a player of Jordan’s experience and calibre was important to us.”
The trade eventuated after Lewis and Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson had a “really honest chat” a few weeks ago.
“My decision to come to Melbourne started when Clarko and I caught up a couple of weeks ago for what was a really honest chat,” Lewis said.
“We spoke about what my future could look like beyond my current contract and following that catch-up I sat down and looked at my options. I looked at every club in the competition and after going through every list, Melbourne was the one that stood out – if I wasn’t going to be at Hawthorn.
“It was clear to me that I wanted to play for the Melbourne Football Club.”
Lewis is the second big-name player to leave Hawthorn, after Sam Mitchell was traded to the West Coast Eagles last week.
The moves have freed up plenty of salary cap space for the Hawks, who have already brought in Ty Vickery from Richmond and Tom Mitchell from Sydney, and are still looking to secure the services of Jaeger O’Meara from the Gold Coast Suns.
Roarers, who do you think wins this trade? For every trade this off-season, we’re asking you to rate the trade – vote below, and we’ll release all the results at the end of trade period.
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