#45 - Tom Edwards thru 2026

Was nice to hear Hirdy say you can’t cut him now, you throw your arms around him and give him another year

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Absolutely gutted for him. I thought to my self yesterday when I saw him during player sponsorship event, how his body going to cope in AFL. Tall but slightly build.
We are truly cursed!

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Bit surprised with some of the sentiment - he’s definitely showed something at both pre-season and official match level as a forward

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I am devastated for him. Was really looking forward to seeing him play this year after already having easily proved he’s up to the level. Here’s hoping for a relatively speedy recovery.

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I like you Nino.

My goodnes folks, of course he gets at least 1 more year on form alone.

Hit the gym, get stronger, build up and get ready for 2026.

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Well they have history of actually signing people who were in recovery with ACLs and who had far less talent so you think it’s a no brainer they sign him up but remember this is essendumb

Anyone remember gumbleton? We had him on our list for…2 decades or something? :wink:

Gotta be up there as the poster child of holding on too long, except he was pick 2 and 18yo.

Edwards is 25. Surely there are other mature age kids running around in the secondary leagues that we could pick up instead? He will take 2 years to come good, and we may only get 50 games out of him.

Cant think of another club that wouldn’t continue his contract until the end of next year, I want us to be ruthless but that would be a bit of a **** act if we threw him out.

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Not sure why anyone thinks he’s entitled to get another contract. He’s a mid-aged, marginal AFL talent. No real difference to Jaiden Hunter who did his knee within 6 months of being drafted before being delisted without getting a chance to prove himself. Rotten luck for both. Good luck to him either way.

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Jaiden Hunter hurt his back, got an additional 12 months, did his knee.

Honestly, I think we have lower hanging fruit than Edwards. We can afford to give him another 12 months. It’s not like we are busting at the seams with elite talent.

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We can’t afford to be nursing, “what if’s” in our current state.

Essendon needs to be a little more ruthless.

Another year without a preseason at his age? Honour his contract and delist.
And I am very sorry for Tom.

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I think it’s tragic (in a football sense) what has happened to Tom but I don’t reckon he should be an auto extension. See where everything lands with the list and potential incomings and go from there.

The same people who are saying yeah definitely keep him on are probably also some of the same people who wouldn’t want us to make a call on Davey. And right now, if we are needing to turnover about 8-10 list spots which seems about average then you’d struggle to do so without including those two, or certainly one of them.

You’d say aside from them 7 are likely to go or in real jeopardy as things stand - Goldy, Menzie, Lav, Shiel, Setterfield, Lual, Prior.

Jones as someone who is OOC is an interesting one I guess.

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We don’t need to make any decision at all now. He can rehab, get himself ready for pre-season, and be measured against a number of other prospects. If he comes good and shows he’s worth a spot there’s no reason why he couldn’t be signed for 2026. It might be hard but you wouldn’t cross him out now.

In fact he could have a whole year of working with the fitness guys to adjust his upper body as well as his leg rehab. Might work out in the long run for him.

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You’re right we don’t need to decided right now. He has until preseason to get his knee right, but if he’s not rolling through preseason and ready to go by early next year, then we need to cut him.

It’d be a real shame, but it’s in the best interest of the club.

Question. Would Edwards being in the starting 22 for any other side in the AFL right now?

Pay out his contract…support his rehabilitation…

Then he’s best off going straight back into teaching. Like immediately. He can earn two incomes for this year.

What’s to cut? He won’t be contracted.

How could anyone make the assessment for a starting 22 role for any club, he played a couple of games. That’s very much unfair, he could have worked into a position where he could have shown himself to be gold dust at AFL level.

There have been some idiotic posts on Blitz in the past, the suggestion that Edwards should be cut is up with the best of them.

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