He was given a second chance at the start of the following year, when Melbourne recruited him as a replacement for Troy Broadbridge, who had died during the Boxing Day tsunami. But despite being a stalwart for the club's aligned Victorian Football League side, Sandringham Zebras, during their successful 2005 and 2006 premiership campaigns, Motlop failed to break into the first team, playing just ten times before being delisted once more at the end of his second season and returning to North Adelaide for a third spell.