Thoughts on the value of Essendon players such as Hibberd & Hurley that are coming off 12 month suspensions? Surely their value has diminished with time away from the club and an elite sporting environment? We saw Mitch Clarke's value go down after time away from footy. Cam McCarthy value will likely considerably decline. Surely the suspended Essendon players are in this same category?
Will there be a change in their price? Probably. Will it be material? Probably not. Plenty of players have had serious injury concerns over their heads and still got value. Burgoyne would be a good example.
Clarke is a poor example. In the two years before he left the game he played 11 and 4 games. Any player who has played 15 games in three years due to injury/illness, is going to see their trade price plummet. Same with O'Meara, missing two full years counts against him. The big element here is that there will be concerns over if it will happen again. The concerns over Burgoyne, Clark, and now O'Meara isn't so much what has happened before, but will they be available to play for the new team?
In the case of the Essendon players the driver of missing year won't happen again. So clubs don't have to worry about that. There only concern will be fitness and that shouldn't be any different to any player coming off an injury. Possibly less. Hell, the year off could help some of them (e.g. Myers).
On values, I'd say that Hurley should go for slightly more than Carlisle. So equivalent of #5 + #30 => #36. About 2300 to 2600 points, maybe with some salary cap relief going back the other way.
Hibberd I would rate at about 900 to 1000 points (#18 to #21).