Zach Merrett is likely to get his wish and be traded to Hawthorn<\/a> a year after a deal fell through, while Jordan Ridley is also expected to be on the move amid links to North Melbourne. <\/p>\nMeanwhile, former first-round picks Archie Perkins and Nik Cox are still waiting on new deals along with Will Setterfield.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real challenge for the Dons here \u2013 we know they\u2019ve drafted well the last couple of years post-Tsatas \u2013 but they won two games this year. One of them was against Melbourne at Gather Round, Tsatas had 29 touches and showed he can play. Jordan Ridley was outstanding, we understand he\u2019s more than likely off to North Melbourne,\u201d Ralph continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd (Zach) Merrett was outstanding \u2013 all three will be gone by the end of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201c44 players turned over in five years \u2013 and that\u2019s the challenge when they\u2019re high draft picks that you\u2019ve just got to get right to build your list.\u201d<\/p>\n
BUT MERRETT DEAL TO YIELD SMALLER RETURN AS ASSISTANCE PACKAGE VERDICT LOOMS<\/p>\n
And Merrett is expected to get traded for a much cheaper price this time round after Essendon rejected Hawthorn\u2019s offer of three first-round picks a year out from the ex-skipper being eligible for free agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had three first rounders (on the table from Hawthorn) \u2026 but if he left next year as a free agent and the club gets the wooden spoon again, they\u2019d secure a top three pick as free agency compensation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are getting the least they could ever get from him.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut let\u2019s face it, this could be a draft in which they get six or seven elite picks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lions star snubs rivals for new deal | 01:23<\/p>\n
It comes as the Bombers prepare to find out whether they will receive an assistance package from the AFL commission.<\/p>\n
According to reports, Essendon had been eyeing a similar handout to what West Coast received last year; an end-of-first-round draft pick and extra rookie spots.<\/p>\n
The Bombers reportedly also proposed for Tasmania to not be able to bid on their tied players including father-son prospect Koby Bewick, but it\u2019s understood that\u2019s unlikely.<\/p>\n
So, what should Essendon get?<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re helping teams that are their own worst enemies,\u201d Gullan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA second-round pick, maybe. But there comes a point where we\u2019ve got to turn the tap off, don\u2019t we? Let Essendon try and get their way out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201cblack hole\u201d in Essendon\u2019s list has left the club in one of its murkiest ever periods as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-893745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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