Opinion Essendon - where are they at?

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

Langford was a bloke who was travelling well a few years back, who happened to him? Looks bog ordinary now.

Injuries same with Parish

Never seen a club being cursed with injury as much as Essendon we now have Kako missing a chunk of footy with a back stress injury

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

Not trading Merrett was a ****ing stupid call. I get the ego f not wanting to have your captain go to Hawthorn but they really should have just embraced him as a Villan and traitor, its not like it was going to make any premiership reunions awkward...

They have some elite young talent but are such a basket case off the field that they cannot and will not get any good mid level free agents that they can use to bolster their list. Why would ANYONE go to Essendon instead of Collingwood, Geelong, Western Bulldogs, St Kilda, etc. They have no competitive advantage as a 'big club' and with Tasmania slated to come in and be able to inflate the salaries of good role players the Bombers needed to be signing up strong role players and mature recruits instead of wasting cash on McKay.

If they actually extend Merretts contract just fold the club.

AFL should give bottom four clubs extra sign on bonus to bring in players

 

[dave10]

Merrett aside, who has draft currency at the minute?

It’s not relevant. Essendon is focussing on the draft in 2026/27. It’s not genuinely in the FA / trading market.

It’s focussed on getting more high end youth in the door. It’s drafted well in 23/24/25 so it’s building a good foundation as a rebuilding club.

It will look to fill list gaps and secure elite talent via FA / trading in 2028>. Thsts the list management plan and they’re sticking to it aware they have 2-3 more years of pain on the scoreboard.

 

[dave10]

Did Laverde get pushed out because he's got some mongrel in him?

Seems to be in really short supply.

Laverde was pushed out because he’s nearly 30 and won’t be part of its next era. They’ve prioritised blooding youth (Farrow / Roberts) into the defensive group. They want Lewis Hayes to join the defence as a key defender.

 

[jdstorm]

Merrett aside, who has draft currency at the minute?

Great question. don’t have a very good answer tbh

Assuming they are looking at bringing in say 5 picks. Essendon have their first (currently 2) 2nd (currently 20) and will get another end of first round pick when pick 2 gets pushed back by a bid match.

So that’s 3x top 30 picks. Could add a pick to that for Merrett but I think Essendon will want 2027 firsts to potentially match a Kobe Bewick bid at the pointy end of the draft.

Assuming a bottom 4 finish the players I’d suspect McKay, Redman Parish, Tsatas, Gresham, Guelfi, Perkins would be the list of available players. Ridley and Peter Wright i think it would need to be a good offer.

suspect Perkins and Tsatsas gets you at minimum a 3rd/4th each from a team interested in a rehab project. Gresham and Guelfi likely nothing but a list spot.

Redman? No idea. If John Nobel/Caleb Daniel is worth a pick in the 20s Redman definitely is. Could See Port Adelaide being interested.

Mckay. Teams tend to talk themselves into talls. Likely more then what he’s worth but far less then what North got for him

Supercoach Bargain believe Laverde was pushed out because Blackison played KPD better than him last season.