I like this from St Kilda but would love to see the ability to make one automatic upgrade, like you mention. If there’s only one player from Sandy pushing to be on an AFL list then it signals to other clubs with an earlier rookie pick to get in first. With talk of a national reserves comp again it would make sense to have these sorts of changes as part of it.
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AFL doesn’t need to consider it.
Clubs should just do it. Hawthorn, Geelong and the Western Bulldogs use the VFL as a way to get talent in, learn the style and then given a chance on the senior list.
As you say though, the barrier is that EDFL pays more than VFL. And most clubs prioritise development and time towards AFL listed players than VFL listed players.
You need to be mindful that VFL training doesn’t even include AFL listed players. So there’s little crossover to integrate into an AFL list type environment.
We did it in a way, we got Narkle, Lynch and Cleaver as VFL players with the promise to consider them as SSP or midseason picks in 2023. Narkle got picked by Port and the other 2 left after we went another way in the mid season period.
There is a bit of integration in the pre-season with many VFL listed players involved in match play throughout January.
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Dodoro’s final Roll of the dice, and his whole 20 year legacy will be defined by what we get out of the 6 first round picks in 3 years (Perkins, Cox, Reid, Hobbs, Tsatas & this years first).
The club’s success rides on these 6 individuals.
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Pre-season is the easy part to integrate.
Once the season began, there was very little cross over at all.
And from what I could tell, a majority of the players knew that AFL listed players were going to be prioritised over them even if they were being ‘played to gain some form of fitness’. I also seem to recall that some players were playing EDFL pretty early on in the year. Narkle didn’t though.
It’s a similar problem at VFLW level. There’s more money at EDFLW level than at VFLW. So some prefer playing at that level. They also don’t have to play to a particular system. They usually free wheel and dominate midfield simply because they are used to a higher standard of footy.
I’d like to see us do this more often. But there are problems with the VFL system that really need to be ironed out.
Specifically Perkins, Cox and Tsatas. They are the ones with the higher upside potential to be real difference makers. Still not losing hope on Cox after his first year
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Could some one post?
I could post that.
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Oh you actually want me to post it?
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AFL 2023: How Essendon turmoil around Ben Rutten, Andrew Thorburn gave birth to new life
Late last year the Bombers were a disaster as key decision makers were shed left and right. As the club hits 7000 days without a finals win, here is how a reset has them pointing up again.
Josh Barnes
October 27, 2023 12:00 pm
Having sifted through the rubble at ground zero last year, Essendon has now built a ground floor.
Another torrid few months enveloped the Bombers starting in August last year, not the first time in recent memory the club has shot itself in the foot.
There was the disastrously handled sacking of Ben Rutten, which came a week after president Paul Brasher fell on his sword.
Rutten’s axing caused ripples through the Hangar – CEO Xavier Campbell went three days later along with board members Sean Wellman, Simon Madden and Peter Allen.
Campbell’s replacement marked another disaster,with Andrew Thorburn lasting one day in October.
The Dons entered 2023 with a new coach, president, CEO (again), trio of board members and captain, when Dyson Heppell was replaced by Zach Merrett.
And then the noise of take offs from Tullamarine went silent.
For some who bleed red and black, it was the implosion the club needed to have.
Brad Scott arrived as coach and Craig Vozzo as CEO, two of the surest hands in the business, as president Dave Barham quelled any board noise.
Vozzo is as solid as they come after a long stint at West Coast, while Scott came from the AFL with a hard edge and coaching experience.
Madden, a bona fide club great who played 378 games in the sash, stepped away after arguing the Bombers should have let Rutten see through his vision as coach.
Just over 12 months on, he had no worry about the direction of his club.
“Whether you like it or not, change happens,” he said.
“As long as after that you say, ‘right, now we have to build a time of stability and build on it’. Then you have a chance.
“From the outside, the CEO is very good and he is working on that stability, the coach has a good game plan, the list is being developed. It is being added to and they are picking up a few mature blokes, which you have to do all the time to keep the group together.
“If the club keeps going down this path, there is a real chance.”
You don’t have to ask Essendon fans about the wait since a finals win – the infamous streak will hit 7000 days on Wednesday.
Essendon’s major changes since August 2022
And this might make Dons fans wince: Madden believes patience is still the key, as he sees 2024 as a “consolidation year” and 2025 as “a good year”.
“Unfortunately for some, Essendon people need to have another couple of years of patience,” he said.
“You have to develop more players. You have to let the coach do his job and give him time to do that job and build on what has happened and then you might start to see some results.
“If you think it is going to happen overnight, you are kidding yourself.”
Insiders believe, not for the first time in the last decade or so, that the club is on the other side of its struggles.
One bemoaned an inability to secure in past seasons, a trend that was reversed this off-season.
Ben McKay knocked back offers from across the league to sign with the Dons as a free agent, as he could see the potential in the list and is confident the club is in an upswing.
Holding cap space to front-end his huge deal also didn’t hurt.
St Kilda’s Jade Gresham chose the Dons and Todd Goldstein went to the Hangar even though he will clearly be behind Sam Draper in the ruck pecking order.
As winger Xavier Duursma realised his future may lie elsewhere, his manager David Trotter began testing the waters and within 24 hours Brad Scott and recruiting boss Adrian Dodoro were meeting the Power youngster and on the way to securing his commitment.
Ball magnet Darcy Parish and rebound ace Mason Redman turned their backs on other offers to sign long extensions with the club after Scott publicly said the Dons wouldn’t bow to hefty demands from the duo.
“Who is going to come to a club that has no stability? I think those changes had to be made, we had to make those changes and as a result, what are you seeing now?,” a club staffer said.
“The club is stable and everyone is on the same page. It is positive.”
Essendon will still have room in the cap to target big names in coming years and will need some big swings to come off to suddenly leap into premiership contention, with the club aiming to stay out of the pointy end of the draft.
Football boss Josh Mahoney departed this season in a much smoother transition than last year’s chaos, with Daniel McPherson to take over his AFL responsibilities and Aysha Ward to carry the job as head of AFLW.
The only notable off-field change coming at this stage is the fade-out of Dodoro, who will guide Matt Rosa in to take his role after two decades at the club.
But the recruiting doyen told the media at the end of this month’s trade period that he will still be around in some form and may not step away as quickly as expected.
The quick bounce to contender status has been a theme of the last 24 months in the AFL, as Collingwood and the GWS Giants came from seemingly nowhere.
And Essendon fans were watching jealously as Carlton dropped from the clouds to make a preliminary final.
For a while this year, it was the Bombers who were set to have a say in September – as late as July the Bombers sat sixth and the Blues 15th.
Instead, it was Carlton that shook the MCG in the finals.
“I want to see an MCG full of 90,000 Essendon supporters and nobody else can get in, I would love to see that and be part of it,” Madden said.
“I would love to see another side do it as soon as possible but as soon as possible doesn’t mean sometime next week or even next year. It is when all the bits come together.”
The Bombers fell in a heap and fell out of the eight in the final rounds of the season, causing Scott to demand his players take the off-season seriously and premiership player Adam Ramanauskas to declare in August that the club “wasted” its final games.
While Ramanauskas the commentator wasn’t happy then, two months later Ramanuskas the player agent saw his client McKay happily choose the Dons.
Essendon Player Movement
On ABC Radio in August, he also questioned why the club couldn’t keep its players on the field when it mattered and several players thought to be a big part of the future face prove-it pre-seasons.
Most of the club’s future spine, Draper, Zach Reid, Harry Jones, Nik Cox, Peter Wright, all were smashed by injuries in 2023.
Looking back now, Madden is still unsure whether Rutten should have been booted but he is sure the club has to back Scott and Vozzo’s new regime for the long haul.
“I thought stability would have been better (last year) but it doesn’t really matter now,” Madden said.
“You can’t change the past, you can only really learn from it and look to the future. I would expect them to honour the coach’s contract for the full four years and hopefully he might get a couple more and you might see something really good happening.”
Now the foundations have been laid over the top of ground zero, the Dons have to build skyward.
Dying Rose
True Crime Australia
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Thanks
Managed to update the paywall extension for chrome locked articles are working now
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AFL contract news: Port Adelaide ruckman Scott Lycett weighing up Victorian interest, Nic Martin set to recommit to Bombers
Nic Martin has been playing on a contract of about $250,000 per season for the past two years. But that’s all about to change as the Dons hide him away from a West Australian raid.
Essendon has progressed talks on a new deal to keep star midfielder Nic Martin at the club for at least two more years.
Martin, 22, is out of contract at the end of next season but the Bombers have already engaged in discussions with his manager, Jason Dover from TLA, on an improved deal.
The gun wingman has been an outstanding pick-up for the Bombers since the club swooped on him for nothing in the supplemental selection period two years ago.
He has played on a deal worth about $250,000 a season, but his pay packet is certain to double on his next contract which could be finalised over summer, thwarting any prospect of a poaching raid from cashed-up Fremantle and West Coast.
Martin is certain to stay at Tullamarine and in part reward the club for showing faith in the goal kicking midfielder after he was overlooked by West Coast following a training stint there.
The West Australia has averaged 21 possessions and almost a goal a game over his first 44 matches, placing sixth and eighth in the club’s best and fairest awards in that time.
The Subiaco product will be a key plank in Brad Scott’s plans to play finals next year following an excellent exchange period picking up free agents Ben McKay, Jade Gresham and Todd Goldstein for nothing, as well as Xavier Duursma for Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and two future fourth-round picks.
McKay will provide the crucial strong-body the club needed down back, after signing a six-year deal worth an average $780,000 a season.
The deal is heavily-front ended which hands McKay as much as $1.3 million in his first season, which was part of an agreement which helped pip Hawthorn in the race for his services.
The front-ended deal will make McKay one of the highest-paid players in the AFL next season, although his wage drops off substantially in the last three years of the term.
But superstar captain Zach Merrett, who this year won his fourth Crichton Medal, will remain the club’s highest-paid player on a deal worth about $850,000 a season.
In total, Essendon’s contract offer to McKay was believed to have been less than the Hawks, meaning McKay left money on the table to join his former coach, Scott, in the red and black.
Goldstein, 35, is also expected to make a strong bid to start in the senior team from the season-opener next year as No. 1 ruckman Sam Draper recovers from post-season groin surgery.
Midfielder Dylan Shiel, 30, has also undergone foot and knee surgery and will be in a fight to play regular senior footy in a midfield featuring Zach Merrett, Darcy Parish, Jye Caldwell, Ben Hobbs, Archie Perkins and wingmen Duursma, Sam Durham and Martin.
Shiel’s six-year contract will expire at the end of next season, after St Kilda showed interest but failed to follow through in its attempts to trade him in this month.
Top-10 draft picks Nik Cox and Zach Reid, who has overcome some nightmare back injuries, are on track to start pre-season on time next month after injury-riddled starts to their careers.
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I’m always filled with an overwhelming sense of confidence whenever Simon man opens his mouth…
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Go ■■■■ yourself Josh you lowlife
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Anytime I’ve mentioned what would be needed to really rebuild most Blitzers lose their ■■■■. They’re happy to trade out Shiel or Stringer. Even Parish. Trading out Merrett, Ridley, Draper, Wright, let alone multiple of them isn’t seen as acceptable.
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Yep, I Suggested trading Hurley after suspension year and was shot down on here, would have been a great move if we got decent draft capital in return.
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There have been plenty of opportunities to do a full rebuild, but it hasn’t been the EFC way. I think the only good player Essendon has voluntarily traded since Jacobs left is Lovett, who was a mess off field.
Who wanted to keep Rutten because… “stability”
It’s no wonder we have been as bad as have over journey when board members are so inept
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What you get wrong about this is that with that whole group, our last 4 end of season finishes have been:
11th (4th worst percentage)
15th (3rd worst percentage)
8th (7th best percentage)
13th (3rd worst percentage)
We’ve been pretty bad with them all. This means you’d only have to trade one or two key players to be really bad
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