.... how many days until trade week and the draft again?And with the first pick in the national draft, pre-season draft and as the only club with salary cap room, picks and a real inclination for Jaeger O’Meara it must be the warm favourite for his services.
Essendon can afford to take the chance on O’Meara’s injury status given its stocks of kids, especially if he can be landed in the pre-season draft.
Then either of the options with the no. 1 pick appeal — taking Warrnambool midfielder Hugh McCluggage or trading it for a pair of top-15 selections.
With a potential second-round pick in exchange for Michael Hibberd, Essendon could march into the draft with four picks inside 25 to boost their stocks.
Oh, Ralph also reports:
Look forward to it if true. What's the parking like up at Tulla???IN another time with less forgiving insurers and no TV rights bounty, Essendon might have been bankrupted by its four-year ASADA scandal.
If the resilient playing group that had splintered rather than bound even tighter together, the Dons might have taken a decade to rebuild a competitive list.
Finally, 1204 days and a million headlines after Essendon self-reported in February 2013, it will all be over next Wednesday.
On that day — September 14 according to ASADA advice — Essendon players are permitted to begin trickling back into the club before a November 7 start to the pre-season.
And in a development expected by absolutely no one this January, the Bombers will enter 2017 as optimistic as any club about their fortunes.
Those players will have medicals and meet with club staff before mid-November returns, with the club planning a later welcome home function that will be open to its fans.
It has tapped into the excitement, set to bring forward its membership campaign a full six weeks as it hopes to stir the fans ahead of a potential Round 1 blockbuster against Melbourne
s'd