NORTH Melbourne believes it has room to accommodate two players on about $1 million per season — Giant Josh Kelly and Richmond’s free agent Dustin Martin.

While North has made a nine-year offer of close to $9 million to Kelly, the Kangaroos are also among the bidders for Martin, who is a restricted free agent and whose management has suggested that contract talks would be on hold until the end of the season.

Normally a club would not be in a position to make simultaneous bids for players who would likely command around $1 million per season, but the Kangaroos — as a result of the sudden loss of veterans and with a number of other older players exiting soon — have the scope to land both Kelly and a player such as Martin.

Richmond remains confident of securing Martin, having already offered him a significant five-year deal that could potentially be revised upwards from the $800,000-plus per year it has put to his management.

Round 18

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While clubs bid for various players recognising that they might only land one, North knew it could not proceed with a pursuit of the Richmond star without having enough room to fit both Martin and Kelly.

North’s chances of securing Kelly, who is weighing up his future, are considered far better than its prospects of persuading Martin to leave Punt Road for Arden Street.

Kelly, as a Victorian, would be moving home if he left Greater Western Sydney and his father Phil played for North in the 1980s.

Martin has been happy with Richmond and in the unlikely event that he moved, the industry view is that it would be almost entirely a financial decision.

The Roos shed a number of veterans during 2016 — opening up significant space in their salary cap — and they will have even greater room when the cap on player payments increases by 20 per cent in 2018.

They axed decorated veterans Brent Harvey, Nick Dal Santo, Drew Petrie and Michael Firrito last year and lost well-paid free agent Daniel Wells to Collingwood.

The Roos also have a number of players — Jarrad Waite, Scott Thompson, Sam Gibson, Andrew Swallow — who are either 30-plus or soon to turn 30 and market forces have not forced them to pay excessive amounts for younger players. Swallow is contracted for 2018.

North is far from the only Victorian club keen on Kelly — Carlton and especially St Kilda would like the opportunity to pursue the smooth midfielder — but the massive North offer has put the Roos at the front of the queue if he decides to move back to Melbourne.

No club has ever recruited two players on more than $1 million in a short time frame, though the Swans recruited both Kurt Tippett and then Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin on massive contracts that came close to an aggregate of $2 million across two years.

North Melbourne has previously unsuccessfully bid for Sydney pair Isaac Heeney and Dan Hannebery, as well as Port Adelaide’s Hamish Hartlett.