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Hogan is happy at Demons, for now

Hogan is happy at Demons, for now

Boom young forward Jesse Hogan has no plans to leave Melbourne in the foreseeable future, despite already attracting serious attention from rivals, including Fremantle.

Hogan, 20, has overcome a persistent back injury to emerge as a key plank in the Demons’ rebuild during the first eight games of his fledgling career and has attracted a growing legion of admirers.

The Claremont product was handed a seemingly inevitable Rising Star nomination on Monday after impressing in Melbourne’s 61-point loss to Port Adelaide last Saturday, when he kicked two goals from 16 possessions and eight marks.

Hogan is out of contract at the end of 2017 and has already been allowed by the Demons to return to Perth several times due to homesickness since joining the club via the 2012 mini draft.

Fremantle are among a host of suitors understood to be closely monitoring Hogan, who shapes as a logical long-term replacement for Matthew Pavlich in attack.

Pavlich is expected to retire at the end of the season and the Dockers have already made regular inquiries to Hogan’s management. But Hogan sees a positive future at Melbourne, as evidenced in his decision to sign a two-year contract extension last July.

“I’d like to think that I’m going to be a one-club player, but you never know what’s going to happen,” Hogan said.

“But at this stage I’m extremely happy where we are and the future’s looking bright, so there’s no reason to leave at the moment.”

Hogan admitted he had been homesick during his stint with the Demons, but said he was now relishing life in Melbourne after a solid pre-season helped him break into the side for round one.

“Last year was pretty difficult, being injured and having to watch the boys run out every week,” Hogan said.

“You try and get away from footy when you’re injured as much as you possibly can, but when you’re in Melbourne it’s pretty hard to escape the footy scene. But the club’s been really good, you know, whenever I’ve been injured or homesick they’ve sent me home.

“But when I’m playing, I’m really enjoying Melbourne.

“As long as you’re playing footy and enjoying yourself then everything just comes off that.”

Melbourne are wary of placing too much weight on Hogan’s shoulders, having learnt how to handle expectations through the mistakes made with 2008 No.1 draft pick Jack Watts.

Hogan, who has drawn comparisons with triple Brisbane premiership forward Jonathan Brown, has tried to ignore the external hype.

“I think it takes a lot of time for players to develop and each week I learn something new,” he said. “I play on an All-Australian defender every few weeks and all these good defenders, so you learn something different every week basically.”