Bloods first SANFL port of call as Bombers look for top-up players

ESSENDON has contacted reigning SANFL premier West Adelaide as it begins its nationwide search for 10 top-up players to bolster its depleted list this year.

AFL Brisbane Lions v Carlton. Zac O'Brien gets his handball away. Pic Mark Calleja

ESSENDON has contacted reigning SANFL premier West Adelaide as it begins its nationwide search for 10 top-up players to bolster its depleted list this year.

The AFL Commission granted the Bombers permission to add to its squad after the Court of Arbitration for Sport handed down season-long anti-doping bans to 12 Essendon players this week.

West football manager Andrew Marks said a Bombers official called him on Wednesday night to “touch base” about three players.

Marks would not reveal the identity of the players.

But with Essendon tipped to target players who were recently on AFL lists, captain Chris Schmidt (ex-Brisbane/Adelaide) and recruits Trent Stubbs (Collingwood) and Zac O’Brien (Brisbane) might come under consideration.

“They were just inquiring about some of our players ... and how they were training,” Marks said.

“There was nothing in concrete, nothing definite, just ‘how are they going?’”

Officials from Central District, Glenelg, Sturt, North Adelaide, Norwood, South Adelaide and Woodville-West Torrens yesterday told The Advertiser they had not been contacted by the Bombers.

. AFL spokesman Patrick Keane said Essendon would be allowed to sign only one player from any club, though it could recruit multiple players from the Bombers’ VFL side.

The league has not set a timeline for Essendon to sign the 10 players but the club was expected to do so in the next fortnight.

Marks said the Bloods had not yet discussed the prospect of losing one of its best players midway through pre-season.

“It’s all happened so quickly,” he said.

Player manager Michael Doughty, of Elite Sports Properties, expected Essendon to recruit mature footballers with AFL experience.

He identified Sturt’s Brodie Martin, Scott McMahon and Aidan Riley, North’s Matt McDonough and Central’s Nick Holman as players who met that criteria.

All five were on AFL lists last season.

Roosters chief executive Greg Edwards said his club had not heard from Essendon and was unsure if it would.

“Fingers crossed we can keep our squad together,” Edwards said.

Earlier this week, the SANFL released a statement saying Essendon needed to contact the league or clubs during the recruitment process, rather than players directly.

Essendon recruited the Eagles’ Jared Petrenko and North’s Mitch Clisby among 13 its top-up players for the 2015 NAB Cup while 26 Bombers sat out the competition amid the drugs saga.