{"id":90483,"date":"2026-09-07T23:58:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T23:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/90483\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T23:58:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T23:58:21","slug":"north-melbourne-talent-requests-trade-as-premiership-contender-looms-as-destination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/90483\/","title":{"rendered":"North Melbourne talent requests trade as premiership contender looms as destination"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Melbourne youngster Zane Duursma<\/a> wants to play for Melbourne in 2027.<\/p>\n

Duursma has been linked to the Demons during the back end of the season, and has bypassed a two-year offer from the Kangaroos in a bid to join Steven King’s roster.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0AFL Media, the former Pick 4 informed the Arden Street club of his desire to cross to Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Duursma has struggled to cement his spot in the senior side under\u00a0Alastair Clarkson<\/a>, playing 38 games, including 15 this year. However, he has failed to showcase his impressive scoring prowess, slotting only 28 majors in the top flight.<\/p>\n

Related Coverage<\/p>\n

Clarkson’s sacking last week has the club on the hunt for a new senior coach<\/a>, which adds uncertainty regarding the futures of some players.<\/p>\n

North Melbourne will begin to put together a selection committee before undergoing a process of determining the best fit, but unlike Essendon and Mark McVeigh<\/a>, the Kangaroos’ new coach won’t oversee player exit meetings.<\/p>\n

Melbourne has quickly become a destination club after its shock rise to premiership contention under the new direction of\u00a0Steven King<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Demons are also considering making a play for Hawthorn duo Calsher Dear and Bailey Macdonald<\/a>, as the pair weigh up their futures.<\/p>\n

Melbourne’s season finished abruptly in the Wildcard Round slots after looking like claiming a top-six spot.<\/p>\n

But the improvement under King has the club better poised to attack the trade and free agency, as well as retain some key pieces of their future, such as Tom Sparrow<\/a>, Koltyn Tholstrup<\/a> and Kade Chandler<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Club champion Jack Viney has been encouraged to explore his options elsewhere<\/a> as King and the Demons want to continue prioritising youth. He is contracted until the end of 2028.<\/p>\n

Premiership winger Trent Rivers<\/a> has been floated as a potential departure, with West Coast looming as an option to bring home the Western Australian talent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Melbourne youngster Zane Duursma wants to play for Melbourne in 2027. Duursma has been linked to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-90483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-melbourne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}