Best 22: The big on and off-field questions facing Essendon in 2021

Essendon’s biggest off-field task next year is to re-sign free agent Zach Merrett. But what happens on the field will go a long way to achieving that goal.

How will Zach Merrett feel about the Bombers at the end of 2021?

Essendon’s season will be fought on two fronts next year.

There will be the attempt to bed down a game plan without the conflict and difficulty of having two senior coaches preach different philosophies.

And there will also be the fight to keep Zach Merrett.

As much as Bomber fans bemoan the backward steps taken in 2020 and the departures of three senior players, could anyone really blame Joe Daniher, Orazio Fantasia or Adam Saad considering the findings of the football department review in the Herald Sun this week?

Next season represents a clean slate for a young team and, make no mistake, it will be baby steps with three new players plus three high draft picks in 2021.

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The Bombers have a chance to build the foundation of their future with picks 6, 7 and 8 in next month’s national draft and the talent is rich around that mark.

But finals next season is a long shot. They didn’t give away their future first-round pick for Bulldog Josh Dunkley because there’s every chance it will be a top-four or five pick next year.

They’ve got to play the kids, the Bombers. That’s Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and Harry Jones, if his body is ready.

But there will be another key tug-of-war which plays out next year – and that is the fight to keep Merrett from joining, specifically, Carlton and Collingwood as a free agent in 12 months’ time.

Zach Merrett will be a free agent at the end of next season. Picture: Michael Klein

Merrett and Giant Josh Kelly will be the two most sought-after players in the game next year because they have that run and silken touch. The precision and balance.

Merrett will have tempting long-term offers from genuine contenders after eight years at Essendon, and it will be an incredible show of loyalty if he stays in red and black.

Travis Boak (Port Adelaide) and Stephen Coniglio (GWS Giants) resisted the temptation of free agency, and credit to them.

But to land Merrett’s signature, Essendon has six or seven months to turn the club around. To fix the environment and culture. To get back on the same page.

Otherwise, that revolving door at Tullamarine will simply keep spinning. Collingwood has cleared the decks for a free agent, and who is the second-best midfielder alongside Patty Cripps at Carlton?

The Blues are still looking for him.

There is great upside at Essendon, of course, and Port Adelaide showed how clubs can complete a rebuild on the run by nailing three high-end talents in the draft.

Essendon list boss Adrian Dodoro did exceptionally well making sure Essendon got a first-round pick for Daniher, and then landing talented midfielder Jye Caldwell, as well as full-forward Peter Wright and ex-Saint Nick Hind on the cheap.

Highly-rated young midfielder Jye Caldwell joined Essendon in the trade period.

But the bleeding has to stop, and that responsibility rests on everyone at Essendon. It’s been 16 years since they’ve won a final.

Wright has the capability and reach to fill a key void at full-forward, while Hind adds some much-needed speed and Caldwell has some excitement and x-factor about him.

Darcy Parish can continue to flourish with more permanent midfield time, Jordan Ridley looks a future All-Australian, Kyle Langford has developed into a one-goal-a game forward and this is the year Aaron Francis can become a prime intercepting backman.

Francis is one of those players who didn’t love the hub, and it will be interesting to see if veteran tall Cale Hooker can get his body right in 2021.

But without Dunkley, they still need someone to strap on their onball cape in a way which can help release Dylan Shiel, who had a disappointing season finishing 10th in the best-and-fairest behind Will Snelling this year.

When it is not Merrett and Shiel, the onball duties might have to go to Devon Smith, who won the B&F two years ago swapping between midfield and forward lines.

Smith was a star onballer as a junior, but has since gone forward, and ended up in the backline this year which contributed to Adam Saad’s departure.

After two years wrecked by injury, Dyson Heppell could shift to a wing and a back flank to help take some of the enormous load off his shoulders.

Without Saad and Conor McKenna, the Bombers will look to half-back Hind and potentially Heppell to help steer traffic.

MORE AFL NEWS:

Gary Buckenara analyses Essendon’s list after the 2020 season

AFL list changes: Retirements and delistings from every club in 2020

AFL free agents: See the biggest free agents for the 2021 season

The top 10 delisted players who deserve a second chance at AFL level

ESSENDON’S BEST 22 IN 2021

B: Matt Guelfi, Michael Hurley, Aaron Francis

HB: Mason Redman, Brandon Zerk-Thatcher, Jordan Ridley

C: Dyson Heppell, Andrew McGrath, Jye Caldwell

HF: Darcy Parish, Jake Stringer, Kyle Langford

F: Devon Smith, Peter Wright, Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti

Foll: Sam Draper, Dylan Shiel, Zach Merrett

Inter: David Zaharakis, Patrick Ambrose, Jayden Laverde, Nick Hind

Emerg: Cale Hooker, Tom Cutler, James Stewart, Harrison Jones

Originally published as Best 22: The big on and off-field questions facing Essendon in 2021