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The surprise forward is out of contract and a free agent at the end of the year, but Mahoney said the club was in talks with his manager, Alex McDonald of Hemisphere (no relation to Tom), and closing in on a new deal.
"We have been in discussions and I don't think we are far away (from a new deal)," Mahoney said.
Former Suns, Bulldogs and Swans coach Rodney Eade suggested on his podcast that McDonald's value now that he was proven as a forward was close to the top echelon of earners.
The Demons have been linked with keen interest in free agent Andrew Gaff from West Coast but are keen not to lose the versatile key-position player.
More immediately Melbourne has to decide what to do with McDonald and how to replace Lever for the clash with Collingwood on Queen's Birthday Monday, which is currently forecast to break the record for a Queen's Birthday fixture.
Sorely missed: star defender Jake Lever.
Photo: AAPThe MCG is expecting a crowd of about 80,000 for the match. The biggest Queen's Birthday crowd was 78,773 in 2006 when Nathan Buckley was still playing for Collingwood, not coaching. The Demons won that game by 47 points with Adem Yze kicking four goals.
With both teams on a run of wins with Collingwood in the eight and Melbourne in the top four the game suddenly is a genuine blockbuster.
Melbourne will most likely look at players such as Sam Frost, Joel Smith, Josh Wagner or Jayden Hunt to come in and play the rebounding defender role.
"All of those guys' names will be raised with match committee," Mahoney said. "We play a system with the way we defend, and with Jake going out we need someone to come in and and play that role.
"Josh Wagner, Sam Frost, Jayden Hunt, they all played well in the VFL at the weekend, so they will all be considered – or we could look at moving someone (else) back into defence."
Mahoney said Lever would have a regular reconstruction of the knee and not a LARS treatment.
It is the second reconstruction of that knee for Lever, but the club believes he can make a full recovery. He had a reconstruction in 2013 when he was 17 years old.
Lever is in the first year of a five-year deal worth about $800,000 a year since moving across from Adelaide.
Michael Gleeson is a senior AFL football writer and Fairfax Media's athletics writer. He also covers tennis, cricket and other sports. He won the AFL Players Association Grant Hattam Trophy for excellence in journalism for the second time in 2014 and was a finalist in the 2014 Quill Awards for best sports feature writer. He was also a finalist in the 2014 Australian Sports Commission awards for his work on ‘Boots for Kids’. He is a winner of the AFL Media Association award for best news reporter and a two-time winner of Cricket Victoria’s cricket writer of the year award. Michael has covered multiple Olympics, Commonwealth Games and world championships and 15 seasons of AFL, He has also written seven books - five sports books and two true crime books.
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