AFL Trades 2023: Essendon could wait for pre-season draft to land Saint Gresham
Saint Jade Gresham’s move to Essendon appears to have hit a snag, with the Bombers preparing to wade out the Saints in order to land the small forward for free.
Essendon
Don't miss out on the headlines from Essendon. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Essendon could attempt to snare St Kilda’s Jade Gresham in the pre-season draft in the event the Saints match a bid for the free agent goal kicker.
The Bombers could front-end Gresham’s contract to snare him in the draft in a similar manner to the way Carlton landed Jack Martin in 2019.
Importantly, Essendon has significant salary cap space to be able to put a price on Gresham’s head to help ward off rival clubs, such as Hawthorn and Fremantle, earlier in the draft order.
The Blues landed Martin for nothing with a heavily front-ended seven-figure first-year salary after Gold Coast baulked at a second-round pick trade offer from Carlton.
But the Bombers’ preference is to secure Gresham as a free agent as part of a move which could generate either an end-of-first-round or second-round compensation pick for the Saints.
St Kilda on Wednesday said the club would consider keeping Gresham at the club due to his strong relationship with Ross Lyon if the compensation pick was not end-of-first-round.
The Saints could also match a bid in an effort to strike a better trade deal – similar to GWS Giants with Geelong on Jeremy Cameron – but Essendon does not want to trade, raising the prospect of a pre-season draft bailout.
The Bombers may be only willing to pay Gresham $600,000 a year, which would likely result in a second-round compensation pick, instead of $700,000, which could trigger end-of-first-round compensation.
St Kilda lost gun onballer Luke Ball to the draft to Collingwood for nothing in 2009 after the Saints’ trade talks with Collingwood broke down. Martin followed in 2019 in a huge coup for the Blues where Stephen Silvagni (now at St Kilda) was list manager until December that year.
Essendon has about a $2.5 million war chest to spend on its four targets – Ben McKay, Todd Goldstein, Gresham and Xavier Duursma – although Duursma will have to be traded.
St Kilda has pick 13 in next month’s draft and have been in talks with clubs, including North Melbourne, about potentially swapping its pick either up or down the draft order.
Another top-25 pick could give the Saints some flexibility to target either pick eight from Geelong or Essendon’s pick nine to get into the top-10 where the best players are.
Recruiters are convinced there is a considerable talent drop-off after pick nine or 10, making picks in the teens a trickier prospect in this year’s talent pool.
Essendon list boss Adrian Dodoro said the Bombers, who have begun a successful trade period already snaring two key players, would lodge a bid for Gresham by Thursday afternoon.
“We are probably going to lodge documentation in the next 24 hours,” Dodoro said on AFL Trade Radio.
“We haven’t discussed anything with St Kilda (regards a trade) we are just talking to his management (Matt Bain from TLA) at the present time.”
The Bombers have picks nine and 30 and could hold on to them until draft night when the club could be open for talks about a pick swap.
Remarkably, key defender Daniel Curtin could slide to the bottom half of the top-10 as rivals zero in on some other exciting playmakers amid concerns Curtin may want to return home to Western Australia.
St Kilda head of football David Misson said the Saints may match an offer for Gresham to either keep him or force Essendon to stump up more in a trade.
The Saints are also looking to bring in Carlton onballer Paddy Dow and Fremantle playmaker Liam Henry.
But the Saints need a pick for Gresham.
“The ball is really in Essendon’s court to lodge an offer for Jade and his management is working with Essendon to get that going,” Misson said.
“Once that is done we need to decide whether we are going to match that offer or potentially facilitate a trade there.
“If we decided to match there would be a trade, but depending on the offer Essendon made that would obviously drive that compensation for us.
“We are hoping for as good a compensation pick as we can there but it is totally dependent on the offer that Essendon makes.
“Jade is a very high-level player, he kicked 20 goals for us this year and he has been a really established player at St Kilda and we are hoping to get an end-of-first-round pick is what we would be after there.”
Dons eye Duursma-BZT straight swap
Essendon is intent on upgrading each third of the ground as part of its four-pronged trade period plan which may not cost it a single draft pick.
The Bombers are progressing with moves for free agent Jade Gresham and Port Adelaide wingman Xavier Duursma after landing key defender Ben McKay and ruckman Todd Goldstein.
The Bombers will lose Brandon Zerk-Thatcher to the Power but will improve its ability to stop strong-bodied key forwards after snaring fullback McKay for nothing as a free agent from North Melbourne.
Essendon has struggled to contain key forwards, but at 202cm McKay is excited by the capabilities of the Bombers’ back line featuring Jayden Laverde, Zach Reid, Jordan Ridley and Andrew McGrath.
McKay had a meeting with the Essendon defenders and was left impressed after choosing Essendon over Hawthorn, despite more money on the table from the Hawks.
Essendon is eyeing the potential of a straight-swap with Port Adelaide, landing Duursma for Zerk-Thatcher, although those talks are yet to really ramp up.
The arrival of Duursma could send wingman Sam Durham into the forward half of the ground in a new partnership alongside Saints’ goal kicker Gresham.
Gresham’s manager, Matthew Bain from TLA, has been in detailed discussions with the Bombers and the Saints over the past week.
The Saints want his move to secure the club a first round or end-of-first round free agency compensation pick.
The Bombers also have high hopes for exciting youngsters Alwyn and Jayden Davey in the forward half.
Essendon want Gresham to add an instinctive and skilful edge to the Bombers’ forward half operations as well as another onball option.
Duursma has stagnated at Port Adelaide and is keen to add more run and polish to the wing role at Essendon.
The Bombers have capitalised on their significant salary cap space to bring in as many as four players without sacrificing any early draft picks.
Essendon has picks nine and 30 and could look to try and get higher up the order in talks with rivals in the lead-up to next month’s national draft.
McKay had an average season for North Melbourne in 2023 but kept Essendon forward Sam Weideman goalless in the six-point loss to the Bombers in Round 12.
And the Bombers didn’t have to pay McKay a gigantic salary to win his signature as he is believed to have been offered less than $800,000 to come to Tullamarine.
The Bombers couldn’t pay McKay more than its superstar captain and best player Zach Merrett.
The club has confidence Reid will be able to become a regular in the senior side next season after dealing with some nightmare back issues over his career.
Reid, who is 202cm, is on track to start pre-season training on time.
Scott has demanded the Bombers return in top shape after missing finals this year despite a promising start to the season.
Originally published as AFL Trades 2023: Essendon could wait for pre-season draft to land Saint Gresham
‘He’s our captain’: Bombers, Saints shut down Merrett trade rumour
Zach Merrett has been linked to a monster offer from St Kilda in recent days, but JON RALPH reports the Saints and Bombers have denied any chance of the detail being done.
Star Blue axed in mass cull
Carlton has taken a quick axe to its list after failing to win a final and an injury-prone star has felt the cut.