{"id":940891,"date":"2026-10-25T23:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T23:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/940891\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T23:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T23:00:10","slug":"essendon-hold-big-incentive-to-do-one-thing-on-afl-draft-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/940891\/","title":{"rendered":"Essendon hold big ‘incentive’ to do one thing on AFL Draft night"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon<\/a> will enter the AFL Draft next month with the prized No. 1 overall pick, and everyone is wondering how the club will use it.<\/p>\n

Two prospects stand out as potential No. 1 options: Cody Walker and Dougie Cochrane, but Carlton and Port Adelaide<\/a> will snap up both, respectively.<\/p>\n

But there is a big question that everyone wants to know about Essendon and its plans for the No. 1 pick.<\/p>\n

Will they go after Walker or Cochrane, force the Blues<\/a> or Port to match, and then grab an extra pick?<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Where is Zach Merrett’s best position for Hawthorn after offseason move?<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, draft expert Kevin Sheenan, who was a guest on Dwayne’s World, thinks there is a big incentive for Essendon to go after one or the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that’s up to the clubs,\u201d Sheehan said via SEN<\/a>. \u201cThose boys are right there in the mix in the top five. There’s an incentive for Essendon to do it because this year, for the first time, they’ll get a pick at the start of the 2nd round if they’re pushed back in that top five and if they’ve finished in the bottom five the previous year as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cEssendon qualify for that. So, there’s an incentive to call one of those names early, and you can get an extra pick, as I say at the start of the second night.\u201d<\/p>\n

What should Bombers do?<\/p>\n

Well, given the Bombers’ need to get more talent into the club, it seems like going after Walker or Cochrane and forcing Port or Carlton to match, and then grabbing an extra pick, is the way to go.<\/p>\n

It just remains to be seen who the Bombers will say they are going to select.<\/p>\n

With reports that Carlton will have a tough time matching a bid for Walker unless they do some serious wheeling and dealing before draft night, the Bombers could go after Walker and make the Blues sweat.<\/p>\n

So, there are plenty of options on the table, and with the draft still a couple of weeks away, the Bombers will no doubt go over every possible option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon will enter the AFL Draft next month with the prized No. 1 overall pick, and everyone is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-940891","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\/940891","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=940891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}