Hawthorn great Jordan Lewis has revealed he nearly orchestrated a move to Carlton when he departed the Hawks at the end of 2016.
The four-time premiership player nominated Melbourne as his preferred destination and played out the final three years of his career at the club before retiring at the end of 2019.
Speaking to SEN Breakfast, Lewis recalled phoning Demons official Todd Viney in his bid to join the red and blue.
“I did call Todd (Viney); I did say I needed a new home,” Lewis told SEN Breakfast.
“Todd and I have a really good relationship but he didn’t hang up, he nearly hung up thinking it was a joke … but thankfully he held on the line.
“I just wanted to go to a club that I thought I could probably add value and I remember we played Melbourne that year … they physically went after us, and I liked that.
“I immediately called Roughy (Jarryd Roughead) and said this is the situation I’ve been put in – my time here is done, let’s together try and think about where I could go, and he mentioned Melbourne as well.”
Had the deal with Melbourne fallen through, Lewis said he would have reached out to then Carlton coach Brendon Bolton, who was a former assistant coach at Hawthorn.
“If Melbourne had have said we don’t necessarily want you or need you, I probably would have then called Bolts (Brendon Bolton) at Carlton,” he said.
“But thankfully I didn’t have to get that far.
The 319-gamer also revealed that he had an hour-long conversation with coach Alastair Clarkson, who suggested he explored a move to the Gold Coast Suns.
However, Lewis said it was very much a one-way conversation.
“There was an hour conversation on the phone with Clarko (Alastair Clarkson) about how Gold Coast would be a great proposition for me … I spoke all one minute of the hour.”
