I honestly think that ends up being most likely
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Still have Caldwell, McGrath, Duzz, Roberts, Robey, Sharp, Kako and Martin.
Huss, Nguyen, Day-Wicks, Farrow, and even Caddy also rotated through the midfield as juniors. Some with some real success imo.
Getting in a few mature senior bodies and drafting another at the top ender would be ideal if we do lose those mentioned as leaving
Unwin is a watch for me. Yeah, he hasnāt shown a lot of production so far, but:
He has a few tricks, genuine footspeed and gives us small forward depth in an era where you need a fleet of them.
He also has quietly built a footballers body whilst rehabbing soft tissue injuries- which I think demonstrates some decent commitment to improve as a player.
I dunno, am I being too generous? We have a fair bit of dross to purge from the list and I think there is a pathway for him to survive.
Might need a late season pulse of form to get him across the line. I like him.
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Feel a bit more positive about our list at the moment, I think weāve got some fantastic young talent. Keen to see how we go with Kako, Sharp and Clarke available after the bye.
I think Merrett is out the door (obviously) and hopefully open to several clubs to give us greater flexibility to negotiate the best picks and/or players for us. Ridley likely out the door pending on his back end of the season and ability to play games I suspect.
I do wonder if anyone would be interested in Parish at this point.
We definitely need to bring experience in to the club - North getting a player like Parker was ideal. Who is possibly available this season?
With our current core group of young players, and high end picks this year, think weāre building a great list to be honest.
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He might be saved if we are allowed extra rookie spots
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Isnāt there talk that Gresham wants to head interstate? The problem is Iām not sure another team would pick him up.
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Na. They are clearly managing this VERY carefully.
Brought him in for dream time then one more so it didnāt look token and then straight out.
Itās a ā ā ā ā ā situation for Jade tbh.
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A big element is list spots and picks. I can easily see us trading our second and priority pick into 2027 to match top end kids. If we trade out 2-4 senior players, do we have the picks to cut too deep without starting to pick up guys in the 80s?
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If we get the extra rookie list spots, weād probably delist players and re-rookie them hoping someone else picks them up.
Blakiston and Harry Jones come to mind.
And I doubt we delist and pay them both out (even though we have the salary cap space).
Itās our own fault that we somehow got punked in to extending both these guys, let alone offering them multi year contracts.
It wont be news to many people, though having a look at next yearās Tassie concessions, apart from our first pick being double what it should be (ie. Pick 1 becomes pick 2, pick 2 would become pick 4 etc.), the second round first live pick for the club that finishes 18th is pick 27 rather than pick 19.
I am assuming we will be a bottom 4 club next year so fingers crossed Bewick looks top 5 quality to get a top liner in the 1st round next year but anything after that becomes incredibly hard to use too much as a basis for our youth led rebuild.
Pray that we get an assistance package which slots in an extra pick in the āmiddleā of next years first round ie. Somewhere before the top 10 start picking.
https://x.com/footyonnine/status/2063952212527813059?s=46
jimmy Bartels plan to turn Bombers around.
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Blitzers are hoping we can get Darwish, Rodan and maybe Caracella or another academy option as our picks to avoid the issue with late picks and missing players. Even then we may need AFL assistance to get them all.
It does raise the issue that next year we may be taking 2-3 midfielders as our primary picks.
Nice of him to regurgitate what many Blitzers have said for years. However, doesnāt mention how to get additional talent onto the list.
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I think would be a mistake to offer more than 1 year on what heās shown so far - but donāt mind offering that.
The only other realistic path for us (outside of the obvious mechanisms available to all) is to try and leverage pre-existing relationships.
Some clubs are clearly far more adept at this than others and it is something we absolutely need to get better at. Iād say having personnel involved like Longmire and or Bartel (and even Richards) would help with this to some degree.
Unless we can somehow get some future firsts for Merrett, Ridley etc I think itās going to be very hard to get Bewick, Darwish and Rodan. Iād love us to try and pry Rodan out somehow as Iāve got a feeling he could be a super important link going forward
Trying to think of some ācheaperā options to add to the side.
Donāt mind Luke Pedlar as an option and would think if Adelaide are after Zac Bailey, he would have a harder chance to break into the side. He has had some difficulties with hamstring dramas but is a contested type up forward. Will be watching his form for the rest of the season.
Jake Rogers and Jhye Clark are other midfielders playing small forward types. Rogers still seems to be finding some form but Clark is one who I donāt mind at all. He seems to find the ball enough and doesnāt mind getting physical. There is probably some similarity there in how we use Day-Wicks. I also looked at George Stevens at Geelong, and he does the job to win clearances and be a big dude, but outside of that he can be quite slow.
Essendon list management strategy prioritiesā¦
Free Agents:
1. Zak Butters* (restricted)
2. Zac Bailey (restricted)
3. Toby Greene (unrestricted)
4. Jack Crisp (unrestricted)
5. Christian Salem (unrestricted)
6. Mitch Hinge (unrestricted)
*As unlikely it would be, weād be negligent if we didnāt at least have a crack.
Trade Targets (uncontracted/ Preseason Draft):
1. Darcy Wilson*
2. Jed Walter*
3. Zane Duursma*
4. Jake Riccardi (underrated utility who I think could make it as a more than handy defender)
* Maximising the likely no.1 Preseason pick, need to retain all our top 25 draft picks and 2027 first & second round picks (Bewick/ NGA).
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I see three sources:
- Getting additional 2027 picks from trading players
- Trading our 2026 second pick and priority pick for 2027 firsts.
- Getting increased discounts when matching as part of any AFL support package
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If we get an end of first round pick from the AFL, that we must trade for a player.
It might be an opportunity for us to trade this yearās (letās say) pick 19 to the Gold Coast for Walters and a future first rounderā¦. Then negotiate any later picks aswell as part of the deal.
That would be a good option for us.