By Jake Niall, Peter Ryan and Hannah Kennelly
Essendon will have only four fit players left on their playing list who will not be selected in their squad to take on Greater Western Sydney on Thursday night.
Alwyn Davey jnr, and teenagers Kayle Gerreyn, Rhys Unwin and Jayden Nguyen are the only available players not chosen for the Bombers, who lost a further four players to injury in their horror loss to Richmond on Saturday night.
Elijah Tsatas has joined Essendon’s casualty ward.Credit: AFL Photos
A total of 17 players are unavailable for selection, including veteran Todd Goldstein, who has been managed due to a five-day break.
Eight of those 17 have been ruled out for the season.
The Bombers have been forced to make another six changes, due to the injury crisis which has seen the team reach the point where they are probably the most-depleted side, in terms of sheer number of players, since West Coast were forced to bring in top-up players from state leagues in 2022 due to COVID-19 and other injuries.
The Bombers have recalled the seasoned quartet of Dylan Shiel, Archie Perkins, Jade Gresham and Matt Guelfi from the VFL for the GWS game, and have taken the decision to sit out star young forward Nate Caddy and veteran Goldstein, in part because of the five-day break and the need to protect both players, especially the sore Caddy.
The Bombers also lost Elijah Tsatas to a hamstring from the widely mocked Tigers game, the teams producing the lowest combined score at the MCG since 1989, despite no adverse weather. They have promoted their 13th debutant of the year, key position player Liam McMahon, originally drafted by Collingwood (2020) and who was one of four players picked up in the mid-year draft by the depleted Dons.
Essendon are investigating the injury toll, as a matter of course, and reviewing their conditioning to avoid further carnage, with the injuries a mix of contact or accidents, such as four torn anterior cruciate ligaments – the most demoralising of which was that suffered by Nic Martin on Saturday – and soft tissue issues like those of Kyle Langford (quadriceps), Darcy Parish (calf), Zach Reid (hamstring) and now Ben Hobbs (groin).
The missing 17 includes arguably six or even seven of the club’s most important 10 players – Martin, Jye Caldwell, Caddy, Sam Draper, Reid, Langford and Parish.
Will Setterfield suffered a bad foot injury on Saturday and will miss the remainder of the season.
McMahon’s selection brings the tally of players used this season to 42. Davey, Unwin, Nguyen, Gerreyn, and 53-gamer Nik Cox (who has been ruled out for the rest of 2025 after a concussion assessment by the AFL) are the only listed players yet to be selected at senior level this year.
Tsatas played his first match since round 12 in the round 18 game against Richmond and reported soreness post-match. He was sent for scans, which came back showing a strain.
Bombers coach Brad Scott confirmed the club was planning to reallocate resources to prevent “a perfect storm of injuries” from happening again next season.
Scott admitted the Bombers were frustrated following their disastrous loss to Richmond at the weekend and their extensive injury list.
“It’s incredibly frustrating for everyone involved, but particularly the players,” Scott said on Wednesday before the team’s training session at “the Hangar”.
“I mean, it’s hard not to be really frustrated, almost exasperated, just devastating seeing players like Nic Martin and Will Setterfield suffer really serious injuries … so that’s on an individual level, but it’s been a perfect storm of a whole range of different injuries all coming together at once.”
The Bombers lost Setterfield to a Lisfranc foot injury which requires surgery, while Martin is to undergo a knee reconstruction next week. Despite the circumstances, Scott said Martin was remaining resilient.
“I’m an eternal optimist, but it doesn’t mean I don’t get flat at times,” he said. “And Marto [Martin] is a good example for us. Like, yes, he’s optimistic, but he’s also had some pretty dark moments. But he’s been there before, and he knows the way out.”
When asked how the Bombers could avoid such a mammoth injury list next year, Scott said he was focused on the short term, but said the club would look at improvements.
“I have the utmost confidence in the people who are looking at our program and there’s no doubt we will reallocate resources to that space because we know better than anyone this year just how important it is to get the players out and fit.”
Scott highlighted the extensive injury list opened up opportunities for other players, such as McMahon. No team since Fitzroy in 1991 (excluding expansion sides) has fielded 13 debutants in a season.
“We can feel sorry for ourselves, or we can get out and really grow through this adversity, and that that is really when you do improve,” Scott said.
“We weren’t out to break any debutant records at the start of the year.
“You know, we’re already a very young team to start the year, but when you have injuries, you get even younger ... but that’s the situation we’re in that presents a unique opportunity, and our fans get to see our future.”
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.