The proposition that Essendon need better players than we have is not exactly controversial.
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Leadership is important. Iām not sure there is any evidence that Merrett is good at providing it. Heās been a star of the competition almost from when he walked in the door in 2013. A good chunk of that our player culture has, from the outside, appeared to suck.
My suggested changes would still leave older players. McGrath, Redman, McKay, Duursma, Caldwell, and slightly younger Bryan, Durham and Martin. Iād be more than open to getting a near-the-end senior player from a successful program in to provide guidance, similar to the roles Hodge and Lewis provided. Someone from Richmond, Geelong, Sydney, Brisbane etc.
But Merrett both gets us good picks, and pushes up our ladder position if he doesnāt go. It also sends a message āweāre not just getting rid of players who are brokenā. Which may improve the trade value of other players.
Hell, if weāre trading enough contracted players out Iām happy to keep Goldy as back-up and tutor to Bryan, Visentini and Blackiston.
I think this is a bit of a furphy. The only players Scott let āgoā were ones who retired/delisted and never played elsewhere (2016: Harvey, Dal Santo, Farren Ray, Firrito, 2017: Hansen, Lindsay Thomas, Andrew Swallow, 2018: Waite, Hartung), left as a free agent (Wells in 2016 but retired 2019), and traded Petrie out in 2016 (played one more year in 2017 then retired). Ben Brown left a year after Scott did, in 2020.
I donāt think any of those names staying on moves the āleadershipā needle much except Harvey, and then he would hardly have been able to continue more than a year or two after he left (2016). Scott could have kept Harvey and Petrie for another year or two, but would having them in 2017 and Harvey in 2018 really change the outcome across 2020-2025?
I think the much bigger problem was what Scott and North did across 2017 to 2019 after those first players left. North finished 15th, 9th and 12th in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively and brought in Polec and Pittard in 2018. Lower mid-table finishes, trading for mediocre talent. Sounds familiar? That delayed their rebuild by 3 years.
Therein lies a problem.
Essendon have very scarce senior talent that would yield meaningful trade value.
No.
All we can do is draft with the picks we have then bottom out and hope we get it right with the one or two we do get.
Or ask for priority picks like North.
We are half a step away from North and West Coasts hurt locker.
Iām expecting it to happen next year. You canāt rebuild fully by ditching all your senior players.
because you canāt build a side with picks 1, 19, 39 etc and nothing else.
The tiges have a swag of early picks in. Be interesting to see if they got it right
Iād say richmond, due to the recency of their success, kind of got to do both. They lost a lot of talent last year to get picks, but theyāve still got fair chunk of experienced mature multiple premiership players playing for them every week, plus the hindsight oopsy-daisy of Taranto and Hopper still leaves them with two pretty decent centre square mids to put in a lot of grunt work. Whether those senior players are enough of a trellis for all the green shoots (as weāre apparently calling the kids these days) is yet to be seen, but Essendon doesnāt have the talent for the first part, or the previous eraās relics for the second part.
We have players who would have value, especially if weāre picking up their salaries thus the receiving team would have no salary cap hit. Merrett, Langford, Wright, Ridley would all get good and/or useful picks. Especially if weāre willing to take some of it as 2027 picks.
And yet if we traded out a number of the older players, we could still have our own trellis of McGrath, Durham, Caldwell and Martin in the centre, and McKay and Redman down back. Bryan doesnāt have much AFL experience, but he has been on the list and in the system 6 years. And thatās assuming ALL the other older players were traded out.
Trade value is the least of our problems.
Cultural reset is priority. Senior players need to be dragged out of the club before their bad habits become our young players bad habits.
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I think thatās where we are heading at the end of 2026.
Itās how we will load into that draft.
We will trade out senior talent for draft picks from sides on the cusp of finals. Like the tigers did with Gold Coast.
It would be just like this club. Even when the writing is on the wall, wait at least one more year for the playersā values to drop further before doing anything.
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We donāt really need to do it this year. For one half the players need to up their trade value with a years worth of footy.
For their sake ($ and a quality destination) and our clubs(draft haul)
And two we will already have plenty of intake this offseason with our existing picks/academy.
Most supporters are hanging onto hope that we keep senior players around, so we can have 2-3 more wins.
Absolutely pointless. When senior players arent good enough to step it up against the top sidesā¦.. how do you expect this club to break past the shackles, of 9th-12th?
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Have a look at the ages of Merret, Langford, Wright. If we want to get value, they need to be traded now. And if Langford, Ridley, McKay had another injury wrecked year, their value would also plummet, not increase.
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Letās call these players for what they areā¦ā¦.
List cloggers.
If youāre 27-28 years old, and canāt perform against top 8 teamsā¦.. they are simply list cloggers and a waste of space.
But player loyalty is a potent drug.
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Do they though? We have dished up these sort of limp pathetic showings for years with these guys present.
I think so, but I did concede they donāt take us that much further. The comment was made in response to how bad we were last night and could we be a little better if some of our injured players were playing.
I should add, a fit Setterfield would have nullified Rowell like earlier in the season, but itās a moot point as I very much doubt we will ever see Will again
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This is one of the biggest reasons I believe they should have moved on scott this year, because barring a miracle, we arenāt going to be much better off table wise, so what are you ultimately hoping to get from keeping him in charge of these players.
like you say assuming draper goes, and without data of who they potentially bring in, next year you are hoping and relying on
backline
mckay has only played 2 full seasons out of 10. Reid has 0 out of 5, and ridley has been a constant injured the last few years. youāre 3 main key backman are no certainty to play large chunks of the season. and at this stage, the only real back up you have is hayes, whoās not due be til mid season, and only has 1 game to his name.
The smaller backs you have better coverage for, and assuming prior stays you have him, mcgrath redman and roberts as the main stays, and a couple of other kids with potential to cover down there.
The forwardline faces a similar problem, you have wright whoās simply soft as butter and his game suffers greatly when expected to share ruck duties. you have jones whoās failed as a forward, tried elsewhere and now have to rely on him as a forward. Langford is a decent 3rd tall. Caddy is still a long way off it, will be a highlight reel, but not a consistently high output just yet.
smalls you have kako, a second year kid, and as you say unless draftees overtake gresham and guelfi the forwardline will look a shambles just like this year.
The midfield, well itās the same midfield as this year, merrett, durham, caldwall, durrsma etc caldwall is still injury prone to a degree, and the rest, well theyāve struggled this year to match other teams midfield. without again data of new recruits, youāre going in with Bryan as the mainstay ruck, which like it or not is going to not be conducive to winning.
you then still have the issue of do you trust the coaches to pick the right players, in the right positions etc.
you then have to also rely on them being able to figure out a gameplan to implement, which if scott is sacked next year means they have to unlearn.
and then as mentioned they need to get bigger, fitter and stronger.
Itās going to take a full on miracle to not be in the same boat this time next year, which would seem a massive waste of time for all involved.
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We donāt have many in that age bracket on the list
That all depends entirely on whether you ( not you specifically, but rather the generic Essendon fanbase) think that Scott will be the answer in two or three years. Whoever coaches next year will face the same problem of a young list , a lack of quality in the 100-200 games range and an uncertain skill / fitness level. So in that sense, itās only a wasted year if you think the wrong person is in charge when looking at 2027 and beyond.
I do have some concerns , after listening to his post-game from last night , that he doesnāt fully grasp that even the near future is reliant on the kids we blooded this year, and the non selection of Johnson still ā ā ā ā ā ā me off mightily , but in his defence he did also say that we canāt assume that players returning from injury will fix everything and āwe have to improve the list, and we have to improve those already hereā . So maybe thatās his way of saying what I want to hear. But Iām not confident of that.
I know that the club, from top to bottom, probably feels worn out by this year. Mentally and physically. Iām near on certain that a third of last nights team were also playing injured. But I do think we missed a trick in terms of the messaging via the selection process, and even in the aftermath. Iād like to think that Iād have been singing the positives last night - we think weāve really found some kids, Roberts has flourished, Clarke and Kako have been great to get through this season as first years, thatās huge , the mid season guys have been tremendous, we think weāve found two in Nguyen and Johnston as they mature blah blah. Whatever. Drive the narrative and set the scene for both club and supporters. I dunno, maybe after watching so many players succumb to serious and devastating injuries everyone is flat and just need a chance to breathe. I do think they worked a small miracle in that I donāt feel like the group ever imploded. Yeah, we got hammered a few times, but in plenty of other games where notionally we should have, we didnāt. You have to think that that is largely a product of the natural optimism and excitement of young players, so again, emphasize that to the broader Essendon family.
Hmm, I suspect all of this post has wandered off topic. 
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I honestly donāt count on any of them (bar Caddy) to put forward a better performance. Theyāve put up worse and will do so again.
A whole new guard needs to take over before we will have players who can be reliably called on to stand tall