Essendon* cheated, simple as that

We lost our best 3 players.

Am I right in saying we currently only have 2 list spots open for ND selections?

By my count, we’ve moved out 8 players and brought in 5 players. And assuming HoK needs to be elevated to the primary list, I think that leaves only two open spots.

I don’t think delisting F.Young, White & Monahan would open spots for ND selections because those guys are on the rookie list. I think the only primary list player without a contract is McGovern, but surely he gets a one year deal after we missed out on Khamis.

Is there a way we can move two of Binns, Boyd or E.Hollands (all contracted for 2026) to the rookie list? That would create spots for another ND pick and a DFA/SSP.

I’m hoping we walk away from draft night with Dean, Ison and a ‘live’ pick, with a spot up our sleeve for a DFA/SSP selection.

Am I right in saying we currently only have 2 list spots open for ND selections?

By my count, we’ve moved out 8 players and brought in 5 players. And assuming HoK needs to be elevated to the primary list, I think that leaves only two open spots.

I don’t think delisting F.Young, White & Monahan would open spots for ND selections because those guys are on the rookie list. I think the only primary list player without a contract is McGovern, but surely he gets a one year deal after we missed out on Khamis.

Is there a way we can move two of Binns, Boyd or E.Hollands (all contracted for 2026) to the rookie list? That would create spots for another ND pick and a DFA/SSP.

I’m hoping we walk away from draft night with Dean, Ison and a ‘live’ pick, with a spot up our sleeve for a DFA/SSP selection.

Yep. I understand people are sad to see Charlie go but the future looks bright IMHO.
6 first round picks over 3 seasons. The possibility to bring in 2 top 10 quality picks this year if we want, plus Ison. A top 3 pick from last year who hasn't played a game yet and arguably the best junior in the country walking in our door in 12 months. Add HOF who will be a gun as well, returning next year. We're well stocked with junior talent to propel the club in the next few years IMO.

My gosh you all. Jack and TDK are no loss. Charlie will be, but it’s a catch 22 as he didnt chase and tackle and basically stopped when he didnt get the ball.

The last few games in which we won albeit against teams that didnt care showed more unpredictability going forward. McKay and the smalls better performed than if we had the two talls that ran into eachother all the time.

Jack was always injured. Yes he was better playing back but he is very slow but he was good a marking and actually defending. How long do you reckon he would have been that good playing back? Teams would be putting someone quick on him and show him up.

TDK good at roving the tap in the middle. Occasionally taking a spectacular mark. Was he good at tap work. ? Not really so much.

We have faster, more hardworking, and dynamic players coming. Who we need to wait to see if they gel.

Jaggy back in addition, and hopefully more run, run, run. Hopefully Reidy is hungry to take ruck 1 spot. That’s what he has been waiting for after all.

We haven’t performed for years. I think the senior players would be happy with our additions. And wont miss the ones that left.

Fingers crossed. It’s logical and what im hoping for.

We had 36 on the primary list. We lost 7 and gained 5 over the last few months. So that leaves 34. We have room for two more. McGovern is without a contract and E Hollands was told to explore his options. Binns and Boyd would be nervous. If any of these go we will open up more list spots.

We have Picks 9, 11, 43 and 54. Dean will largely be covered by Pick 9. Ison won't be Pick 11. So we have an opportunity to draft another top 15 pick (depending on when Dean is bid on). Ison should be covered by Picks 43 and 54. So we need to delist one more player if we want to pick up three players in the ND.

We had 10 on the rookie list (8 Cat A and 2 Cat B). We only lost one in Cincotta. Ordinarily we would need to lose one more to get down to 8 in total. However, HOF will be on LTI list for most of year. So F Young, White and Charleson that are without contracts could all stay unless they wanted to open up a list spot for someone else in the PSD. I imagine they will delist one here or an extra one in the primary list. So that will leave four open spots in total.

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They had their opportunity and it was the players who weren't capable of seeing it through. Docherty is a sook and Charlie has shown himself to be ones as well.
Good riddance. The club is here to build sustainable success. Giving players a chance to participate in finals isn't our mission. It's to build for premierships.
Personally I'm happy to see the back of a few of them.

Hayward will be great value. He'll play the Jack Martin role we missed badly this year. A mid sized forward who can impact in the air and is dangerous on the ground. People can talk him down but he's averaged over 30 goals per season the last 5 years. How many of our players have done that?
Wing has been an issue for us for a number of years and Florent/Chesser will be a great combination if Chesser can stay fit.
Ainsworth will be great value as well.
Put Ainsworth, Hayward, Florent, Chesser, Jagga, Newman, a fit Cerra, a fit Walshy, a stronger HOK and Dean into our 2025 team and it's significantly better IMHO.

The unpredictability ahead of the ball will be a huge bonus. People forget we were a top 4 scoring team in 2024. The capability is there. We didn't lose the ability to be a high scoring team overnight. It was structure.
We were too busy using our forwards to protect our leaky midfield which impacted our ability to have a strong, effective forward set up.
Get Jagga, a fit Walsh and a fit Cerra with quality and quick wingers around them, and our scoring power will quickly return.
I don't buy the doom. I'm hanging to see what we can produce in 2026.

So the bottom line is that we only have two spots available going into the ND and SSP?

It’s not sounding good for McGovern and E.Hollands then. Unfortunately it’s sounding like they will get delisted to open two more spots on the primary list heading into the ND/SSP.

Is that a fair assessment?

Thanks for that.

Is there a mechanism by which we can move contracted players from our primary list to our rookie list (thereby opening additional spots on our primary list for ND & SSP)? It would be great if we could do this with Binns, Boyd & E.Hollands.

The young defender was rewarded for strong VFL form in his first year at the club by playing four senior games. And he didn’t look out of place when he got his chance, averaging 15 disposals, five marks and 317 metres gained. Was a standout contributor for Sandringham, averaging 26 touches and six grabs per match. Heads into the final year of his contract on an upward trajectory.

One of the best and longest kicks in this year's draft pool, Schoenmaker has a clear favourite weapon in his arsenal. His distribution off the last line of defence is as penetrative as anyone, able to clear the 50m arc with ease and hit targets at long-range. Especially in slow play, his ability to craft switch kicks or launch over the opposition zone is a real asset.