Bombers draft Sullivan Robey, Jacob Farrow and Dyson Sharp in first round of 2025 AFL Draft
The Bombers could be forgiven for being gun-shy after how their last draft with three top picks turned out. But the future foundation has been set — albeit at the cost of one of their own.
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
After Essendon armed itself with three top-10 picks for the first time in club history in the 2020 draft – and then got it wrong – the club could have been forgiven for turning gun-shy when there was a third high pick on the table five years later.
But instead, at what could be the most crucial stage in the rebuild, the Bombers pulled the trigger on a pick swap with Carlton and brought in a trio each with glittering 2025 campaigns under their belts.
Essendon sent picks 21, 27 and 30 to the Blues for nine and 43. Before the early bids came, it briefly gave the Bombers a hand of 6, 7 and 9.
With their first two picks, the Bombers took the top 10’s biggest bolters – Sullivan Robey and Jacob Farrow – neither of whom started the year in an elite under-18s program after being overlooked by the pathways systems.
Matt Rosa and Rob Forster-Knight, at the wheel for their second draft in the post-Dodoro era, surprised many by opting for the left-footed Farrow and leaving fellow rebounding defender Xavier Taylor to be snapped up by Melbourne.
They had clearly banked on Larke medallist and South Australian captain Dyson Sharp being available at 13, and landed the most ready-made player in their haul.
The move for Sharp effectively cost the Bombers their academy product Adam Sweid, who they allowed to go to Fremantle at pick 25 to avoid entering a draft points deficit next season.
“That was a tough one, because we really rate Adam (Sweid). We’re really proud of what he’s done, and that he’s found his way onto an AFL list ... it would have been nice to see him in the red and black, but unfortunately it didn’t work out that way,” Rosa said.
Sharp had been touted earlier in the year as a potential No. 1 pick but slid behind other midfield talent due to perceptions of a lower ceiling and concern over his kicking.
But similar draft-year assessments have not stopped the pair of dual Brownlow medallists currently running around in the AFL – one of them being Patrick Cripps, the star Sharp says he has modelled his game on.
He could slot straight into the centre-bounce midfield rotation alongside Zach Merrett, Sam Durham and Jye Caldwell after two years of senior SANFL football.
All three Bombers recruits already owned an Essendon guernsey – Robey is a lifelong Bomber, Dyson Heppell caught Sharp’s attention as a child, and Farrow, a self-confessed “footy head”, had one from every club in his wardrobe.
Unlike the 2020 picks Zach Reid, Nik Cox and Archie Perkins, the Bombers were able to watch this trio dominate at under-18 level in their draft years.
It capped an enormous year for Robey after he had been overlooked by the Dandenong Stingrays leading into the season.
“Sull started the year captaining the U19s for Rowville, he was looking to try and snare a few senior games in the EFNL. Coates League sort of left him out in the cold, so he was just focused on the next best thing,” his dad, Chris Robey said.
Farrow also rocketed up draft boards in the second half of the season, forcing his way into the West Perth seniors for three impressive games at halfback to seal his place on an AFL list in 2026.
“It shows that if you don’t get picked into academies or interstate sides and stuff like that, it’s never (the end),” Sharp said about his new teammates.
‘These boys have come from not really being touted early on, to becoming top-10 draft picks.
“It just shows that you can come from anywhere … just put your head down, get the hard work done and anything can happen. I’m so stoked for these fellas.”
Originally published as Bombers draft Sullivan Robey, Jacob Farrow and Dyson Sharp in first round of 2025 AFL Draft
South Australian bolter joins ‘big brother’ Kozzy in draft fairytale
