These senior Essendon Bombers players should be on notice
Idea
Not all purges create successful rebuilds, but all successful rebuilds begin with purging players who are not seen as part of the future.
Chris Fagan took a season to evaluate his stake at the Brisbane Lions, Graham Wright made a move to the Magpies in a bid to ease the salary cap crunch and fill needs, Alastair Clarkson abandoned some of his favorite sons for the Hawks and Luke Beveridge found himself dealing with a new crop after his departure lounge was full before arriving at the Bulldogs. Melbourne’s Steven King was early on the Demons.
They built the Hotel California in Essendon, where you can check out whenever you want but never leave.
Two free agents have left since 2020, Sam Draper and Joe Daniher.
Five players, Orazio Fantasia, Adam Saad, Aaron Francis, Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and Jake Stringer, were traded. Massimo D’Ambrosio lost out to Hawthorn after the club found him caught sleeping on his contract and realized he could walk as a delisted free agent unless he was traded. Jayden Laverde was taken off the roster as he went to the Giants.
Daniher’s first attempt to reach Sydney in 2019 was thwarted. Fantasia flirted with a move to Port Adelaide in 2019 before requesting a trade next season. Even Dylan Shiel’s path to St Kilda has become more difficult than it could be at the end of 2024. Jordan was again persuaded to let Ridley stay. We all know what happened to Merrett.
After each failed escape plan, the same old stories were told about the actor being professional enough to fit in seamlessly.
But it’s time for Essendon to cut their losses and trade as much as they got. There is no important statement from the presidents. No short-term survival tactics. If you are underperforming and have doubts, you are out.
The names whose contracts expired at the end of this season were Elijah Tsatas, Archie Perkins, Matt Guelfi and Jade Gresham. Perkins is the only player who should cause pause at this point, but after 103 games he’s either getting a bump or a raise while he still has value.
To be fair, he’s the least of their problems. The senior players were hopeless on Sunday. Mason Redman was injured early but Merrett, Darcy Parish, Peter Wright, Jye Caldwell, Sam Durham, Ben McKay, Kyle Langford, Xavier Duursma and captain Andy McGrath were below average.
Anyone who watched Hawthorn’s Jai Newcombe struggle to reverse his team’s momentum against Sydney on Thursday night can understand what Essendon are missing.
Compare Newcombe’s effort, or Elliot Yeo’s effort, or Marcus Bontempelli’s final 15 minutes of this tour, to the performances of a group of tried-and-true Bombers when the chips were down early in the game against a similarly equipped Port Adelaide.
Merrett is being offered a contract extension in part to give players targeted at the trading table the feeling that they’re not going to a ghost town when it comes to talent.
I understand them not trading him for a first-round pick that turned out to be in the 20s and worse and will likely happen again later this season, but an extension offer seems like a safe option repeating past mistakes, especially when it’s clear to everyone that the rebuild is ongoing.
Durham signed a four-year extension last month to keep him at the club until 2032. McGrath has locked himself in from 2024 until 2030. Parish and Ridley were given long-term contracts that were controversial at the time and now seem average. McKay needed a long-term deal as there is competition for his services, but he has failed to prove that he is a player that will take the club in a new direction. This trio has contracts until the end of 2029.
The salary cap needs to be filled, but Essendon’s crop of senior players have shown what they are capable of over many years under various regimes.
Conversely, look at players traded by other clubs who have often been subjected to harsh criticism in order to reshuffle the roster.
Western Bulldogs traded Caleb Daniel and Jack Macrae, St Kilda traded Jack Steele, Sydney traded Will Hayward and Ollie Florent, Hawthorn traded Tom Mitchell and Jaeger O’Meara, and Collingwood traded Brodie Grundy, Adam Treloar and Jaidyn Stephenson.
Essendon turned towards Stringer.
No one is claiming that every decision made by other clubs has been perfect, but risky decisions have been made that have resulted in players leaving.
For not being able to create an effective defense structure, the current segment may blame Brad Scott, Dean Solomon in charge of defense, the previous fitness boss, the new fitness boss, the previous CEO or the new CEO, the previous president or the new president.
Scott is not blameless, as defensive flaws continue in his fourth year on the job. Each strike of the opponent remains a repetition of the parting of the red (and black) sea. He must fix these or face the inevitable calls for change.
The coach could have listed a dozen things that needed to be fixed, as he said after Sunday’s game, but that would have left out a dozen more.
One item that should be on both dozen’s lists is going beyond retaining Essendon as the default position. This is true both at the selection table and in list management meetings.
It’s still early in the season but Bomber’s simple message might be that if you can’t defend, no one at the club will defend you.
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