Yes, Scully is a young man with a bright future and, yes, he will be a big loss if he does choose to leave, but 16 other clubs are faced with the same harsh reality.
The fact that he's a No.1 draft pick makes it a sexier story, but it won't make the Demons' loss greater than that felt by any other club.
Growing pains will be felt by all as the AFL enters a new era. The Demons have been patiently rebuilding in recent years, but even club legend Ron Barassi, never one to sit on the fence, recognises they shouldn't be excused from all the heavy lifting as the AFL works to establish a foothold in two important new markets.
There's been a lot of comment about the absurdity of the AFL giving the Demons a priority draft pick one year only to effectively take it back two years later. To be fair to Demon sympathisers, it is a strange one and probably not a situation AFL lawmakers saw coming when they formulated the list-building rules for the new clubs.
But it's not like Melbourne won't be compensated if the young man does make the tough decision to depart. Given the size of the contract it would take to lure him to the AFL's newest club, the Demons would surely recoup at least one first-round compensation pick for him.
Scully's potential is undoubted, but at this stage in his career, he's not in the same echelon as Gary Ablett or some of the other uncontracted players who left their clubs for the Gold Coast sun late last year.
Losing the best player in the competition was a bitter pill for the Cats to swallow, but once it came to pass, they handled it in a manner that said, 'Our club is bigger than any individual player and we will prosper regardless'.
There's a lot of water to go under the bridge, but a similar test could await Melbourne.
Once the gossip has started, as it has courtesy of Eddie McGuire, the Scully ‘will he or won’t he?’ debate will remain pub talk all year or until he publicly commits one way or the other. The club will need to work through this very carefully.
Many media commentators have come out in sympathy for the club's predicament, but that reservoir of support won't run quite as deep with the rest of the competition and non-Melbourne supporters.
Long memories will recall that another pick one, Jeff White, left Fremantle for - yes, Melbourne - and was a ten-year player for the Demons.
Consider, also, the clubs who have already given to the AFL expansion cause.
Having lost All-Australian centre-half back Nathan Bock to the Suns, Adelaide is now faced with the very real possibility that exciting key forward Taylor Walker will pack his bags and head to GWS.
Six other clubs - Melbourne wasn't one of them - also lost players to Gold Coast and are in the same boat again as the cashed-up Giants go about building their list.
Walker, like Scully, has put off contract talks with his club until the end of the season and there is an argument to be made that his loss would sting the Crows more than than Scully's would Melbourne.
In 2006, Adelaide went out and found Walker in Broken Hill where he was playing as a 16-year-old, signing him to a New South Wales Scholarship and then drafting him outright a year later.
Like most big fellas, Walker had a lot of rough edges that the Crows' coaching staff has worked hard to smooth over. Approaching his 21st birthday with 32 games under his belt, he's finally on the cusp of making the impact the club could see in his teenage years.
Compare his loss at the end of the season to that of Scully, who the Demons essentially plucked from their own backyard and inserted into their midfield. Same, same? Hardly.
After all the work the club has done to regain the respect of the football world after a dark period in its history, to attempt to cast itself as a victim in this process would be highly counter-productive.
If the Demons truly want to set themselves up as one of the power clubs of the next decade, they'll have to take the prospect of losing a promising and important player on the chin.
Just like everyone else.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL
