Melbourne coach Dean Bailey has all but ruled out his club progressing with its bold bid to snatch Brisbane powerhouse Jonathan Brown from the Lions.
Bailey, speaking at the Junction Oval on Thursday afternoon, said stockpiling talent via the national draft was his preferred method of resurrecting the flagging Demons.
Sacked CEO Paul McNamee - who was terminated by president Jim Stynes on Tuesday night - had met with the management of the out-of-contract Brown.
Bailey said he had been involved in preliminary talks about luring the triple-premiership forward back to Victoria but was more interested in claiming the cream of this year's young talent.
"Paul put forward a commercial proposition in regards to Jonathan Brown. We put forward the football situation and the discussion was still going," Bailey explained.
"There was nothing more in it than that to be honest."
"We intend to use our national draft for our first pick and the proceeding picks to try and get the best players we can."
"I think there is enough talent in the draft for our first two picks or three picks to come out of the draft."
"I think that is a clear indication from our recruiting and a clear direction I have said for most of the year."
Bailey said he was 'surprised to some degree' that McNamee had been axed just four months into the role but refused to agree the off-field drama would impact his side come game day.
"My association with Paul was good. I found him an easy bloke to get along with," Bailey said.
"We spoke about football issues and he spoke about his vision but as far as we're concerned the focus for us is on Sunday against North Melbourne."
"We've got an important game ahead of us."
The first-year coach has been through the quintessential year from hell.
Bailey has lost skipper David Neitz to a career-ending neck injury and been without key players Russell Robertson, Jared Rivers, Brock McLean for much of the campaign.
Paul Gardner was replaced by Stynes partway through the season while McNamee became the eighth CEO to depart the club in the past 12 years.
His side sits rooted to the bottom of the ladder with a pair of wins in 16 games to date.
Bailey said he was hopeful the wild initiation was over and progress could be made on and off the field for the game's oldest club.
"I think it's important that we have stability," he said.
"I think we have an exceptional president, Jim Stynes. He has brought a lot of momentum with him."
"He is very passionate and, again, this is the start of a very exciting future with the Melbourne Footy Club."
"I think we have some really exciting players who are just starting to show some good signs for us."