AFL 2022: Standby for Bombers shopping spree with $3 million sitting in salary cap
Essendon has $3 million of salary cap space and will be a big trade player this year. But what is the Bombers’ biggest need, and who should they target?
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Essendon has an unprecedented $3 million of salary cap space and plans to make an aggressive impact in a 2022 trade period shaping as one of the most volatile in recent seasons.
The Dons have already made clear their intention to splash cash in a strategic and targeted manner after offering up to $800,000 to Gold Coast’s small forward Izak Rankine.
Essendon will make that salary cap space one of the key pitches in its search for a new coach as well as financial security and a raft of blockbuster games including Dreamtime at the ‘G and Anzac Day.
The Bombers lost Joe Daniher, Orazio Fantasia and Adam Saad two years ago in an exodus that cleared well over $1.5 million in cap space and only brought free agent Jake Kelly into the side last summer.
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Now retirements to Anthony McDonald Tipungwuti and Devon Smith have saved more money, with rivals having interest in No.6 draft pick Aaron Francis and backup ruckman Nick Bryan.
The Herald Sun understands no player is on more than $800,000 at the Bombers which gives the club vast scope in a 2023 salary cap yet to be set, with the 2022 payments $14.769 million.
The Dons are aware it might take another 12 months to round out their list as players like Carlton’s Harry McKay come off contract but will hit this year’s trade period hard.
Essendon is keen on a key forward but is aware of the difficulty in securing a ready-made star, while the Dons defensive frailties mean opposition star forwards have had their way with Essendon.
At both ends the Dons have emerging players like Harrison Jones and Zach Reid but need experienced reinforcements to fast-track the club’s growth.
Essendon football boss Josh Mahoney played down any tension with list boss Adrian Dodoro on the weekend as he said the Dons had plenty of selling points.
“We are going into a period of trying to attract players and my comment to players wanting to join Essendon football club and potential staff is that all the work we are doing now is to create the best version of the Essendon football club moving forward,” he told ABC Radio.
“So it looks a bit messy but look forward to four to six weeks time with a new coach in place, a new football program with additional resources and the board is united, it‘s going to be a great version of the Essendon football club. That is our attraction.”
In exit meetings last week Essendon made clear to its players they needed to return in the best shape of their careers ahead of pre-season training, with Jake Stringer one player who needs to find another gear in his physical preparation.
Senior players have 12 weeks off until an early December return to the club and most have headed overseas on a European football trip but have been warned their destiny is in their own hands from a fitness point of view.
“Everyone had this sick feeling in their guts and the reason you should feel it is that everyone has contributed to where they are at and no one is immune and the players have to take some responsibility,” Mahoney said.
“And the only way you can redeem yourself like that is to turn up fit on day one of pre-season. And we expect guys to come in super fit and all their targets are about personal bests. We have to raise our standards
“Some people even who have been at the club for a period of time have to raise their standards and we can’t accept where they have returned in recent times and that discussion has definitely been had with the playing group and they are totally aware of it.”
Dons open to Hird return as coach search ramps up
Grand Final coaches Leon Cameron and Ross Lyon are considering pursuing Essendon’s vacant position as the Bombers declare they won’t stand in the way of James Hird applying.
Bombers football boss Josh Mahoney on Saturday confirmed the Herald Sun’s report that a first-timer could succeed sacked coach Ben Rutten, despite president David Barham declaring last week the club wanted an experienced coach.
Mahoney told ABC that veteran assistant coaches and football administrators, such as Chris Fagan when he was appointed Brisbane Lions coach, would fit the board’s experience criteria, as revealed on Wednesday.
Matthew Lloyd said Hird was undecided — but said: “If he decides he’s in, he’s 100 per cent willing to do whatever he needs to do to win the job”.
Jordan Lewis, who was appointed to Essendon‘s six-person panel to pick the coach, declared last year that Adem Yze (Melbourne’s midfield coach) was an AFL coach-in-waiting.
Yze’s first five years in the coaching system were spent alongside Lewis at Hawthorn.
Footy legend Leigh Matthews urged the Bombers to target Lyon.
“No one else has got the gravitas that he’s got,” Matthews said on 3AW.
Lyon regretted allowing himself to become the focus of Carlton’s coaching hunt last year, only to withdraw from the race due to the politics at the club.
“I’m very wary and I’m very cautious of anything to do with AFL senior coaching. How anyone could mitigate that for me I don’t even know,” Lyon said on Channel 9.
But Lyon threw his support behind Barham and said if Barham could mitigate those concerns he would be open to coaching his third AFL club.
“I actually don’t mind the purge, I hear the right noises coming from David Barham. He’s very well respected,” Lyon said.
Cameron will spend next week deciding whether he’s got the “energy” to submit himself to the process.
“It’s full-on,” Cameron said on SEN.
“It’s a month ... of full-on presentations, psychological testing, there’s probably three or four presentations you need to deliver.
“Then you’ve got to meet the board if you keep on going or you’re down to the last one or two.
“If you’re going for a senior job what I have learnt in my time is you can’t go at 95 per cent, you’ve got to go all-in.”
Cameron, 49, has applied for three senior jobs, missing out twice before succeeding Kevin Sheedy at Greater Western Sydney in 2014.
He said it was important the successful applicant aligned with the club’s list assessment.
“There might be a huge disparity between the presenting coach and the list (assessment) compared to where the club thinks the list is at,” Cameron said.
“All of a sudden that might not work. You might go, ‘OK, I really think the list is X, but the people at Essendon might think the list is capable of being in the top-six next year’.”
Barham conceded last week the Bombers were unsure where their list was at. He hoped the pending external review would provide clarity.
That review will run concurrently with the coaching appointment process.
Cameron attended the Giants‘ best-and-fairest on Friday night, where interim coach Mark McVeigh revealed Dean Solomon wasn’t paid a cent for his work as an assistant from round 10.
Solomon, a favourite son at the Bombers, is tipped to return to Tullamarine next season in some role.
Cameron has also been linked to a role with Sydney Swans’ academy and earlier this month disputed a report he could return to a Victorian club next year.
“We’re really comfortable here (in Sydney). I’ve got three kids here and my second child Harry is going into year 11,“ he said.
“We plan to be staying for at least the next 12 – 24 months.”
But the sudden availability of Essendon’s senior job could see Cameron rethink that.
Bomber players provided feedback to the club in a survey when they had their exit meetings last week.
CONFESSED DONS HATERS JOIN COACHING SEARCH
Jon Ralph
Essendon believes the independence of its new coaching subcommittee that includes Robert Walls and Jordan Lewis will allow it to fairly judge whether James Hird is the best person to coach the Bombers next year.
Hird is considered likely to submit himself to the full coaching process given his determination to help fix Essendon after so many years of mediocrity.
The Bombers on Friday appointed a panel that is headed by football boss Josh Mahoney and includes ex-Carlton coach Walls, four-time premiership star Lewis and Melbourne Vixens netball coach Simone McKinnis.
Current board member Dorothy Hisgrove, a people and culture expert, and former NAB CEO Andrew Thorburn will round out the panel.
Essendon would welcome Hird putting himself forward as one of the contenders to replace Ben Rutten because it believes in the independence of the sub committee.
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If Hird was appointed by the panel with figures from two rival AFL clubs and a rival code — plus business and culture expertise — the Dons believe it would prove he was the best candidate rather than an Essendon jobs-for-mates appointment.
Similarly the independence of the panel will hopefully help the likes of Adem Yze, Ross Lyon and Don Pyke apply to be part of the process given Hird was appointed in his first stint in what rivals including Mark Williams believed to be a sham process.
Premiership coach Walls was part of the St Kilda coaching selection panel that appointed Lyon in 2006, while Lewis said recently Yze would be his choice for a club searching for a new coach.
Thorburn will conduct an independent review run by EY to be returned by mid-October which will focus on the board’s composition and effectiveness, the appointment of a new CEO and senior coach and the club’s leadership, culture and operations.
The Dons could consider reducing their board from 10 to as few as seven or eight as part of the review’s recommendations, and are already searching for a new football director given board member Sean Wellman is on the way out.
Essendon is already sounding out replacements for departing chief executive Xavier Campbell and will pitch a vision of an untapped playing list, financial might, blockbuster games and ample salary cap space to aggressively improve its list in the next 18 months.
Walls coached arch rival Carlton and freely admitted his hatred of Essendon as a player, where he was decked by Bombers rival Ken Fraser in the 1968 semi final and spat on by Dons fans in his final game.
He told the Herald Sun in 2017: “The last game I ever played was out at Windy Hill playing for Fitzroy and my knee buckled in the third quarter and I was carried off on a stretcher. In those days they had a mesh fence up the race and I can remember being spat on and thinking, ‘Those bastards’.”
Walls and current board member Kevin Sheedy often sparred across their time as senior coaches, culminating in a famous Talking Footy appearance where the pair attempted to settle their scores.
But Sheedy has backed in Walls’ appointment on the panel, with the club desperate for a straight shooter like Walls who has no affiliation with the club and is still a confidante for AFL senior coaches.
New Essendon president David Barham is a close friend of Walls after their time together with the ex-Blues coach providing special comments on the Channel 10 football coverage Barham headed up over many years.
Recruiting boss Adrian Dodoro has been backed in by the club to run the upcoming draft and trade process, but the contents of the club’s external review will direct the club’s next moves with many staff and senior leaders.
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