Blame Brad Scott if you like, but these senior Essendon players should be on notice

Not all purges create successful rebuilds, but all successful rebuilds start with a clearing out of players who are not seen to be part of the future.

Chris Fagan took a season to assess his stock at the Brisbane Lions, Graham Wright moved on a bunch of Magpies to relieve a salary cap squeeze and fill needs, Alastair Clarkson dumped some favourite sons at the Hawks, and Luke Beveridge found himself dealing with a new crop after the departure lounge became full before he arrived at the Bulldogs. Melbourne’s Steven King acted early at the Demons.

At Essendon, they have built the Hotel California where you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

Since 2020, two free agents, Sam Draper and Joe Daniher have departed.

Five players, Orazio Fantasia, Adam Saad, Aaron Francis, Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and Jake Stringer have been traded out. Massimo D’Ambrosio was lost to Hawthorn after the club was caught napping on his contract and realised he could walk as a delisted free agent if he wasn’t traded. Jayden Laverde was delisted on his way to the Giants.

Daniher’s initial attempt to get to Sydney in 2019 was blocked. Fantasia flirted with heading to Port Adelaide in 2019 before asking for a trade the next season. Even Dylan Shiel’s path to St Kilda was made more difficult than it otherwise could have been at the end of 2024. Jordan Ridley was talked back into staying. We all know what happened with Merrett.

After each foiled escape plan the same old tales have been trotted out about the player being professional enough to fit back in seamlessly.

However, the time has arrived for Essendon to cut their losses and trade out as much as they trade in. No big statements from presidents. No short-term survivalist tactics. If you are underperforming and have doubts, you’re out.

Out of contract at the end of this season are Elijah Tsatas, Archie Perkins, Matt Guelfi and Jade Gresham. Perkins is the only player at this stage who should cause a pause but after 103 games, he either spikes or takes a hike while he still has some value.

To be fair, he is the least of their problems. The senior players were hopeless on Sunday. Mason Redman was injured early but Merrett, Darcy Parish, Peter Wright, Jye Caldwell, Sam Durham, Ben McKay, Kyle Langford, Xavier Duursma and the skipper Andy McGrath were below par.

Anyone who watched Hawthorn’s Jai Newcombe dig in to turn the momentum of the game back his team’s way against Sydney on Thursday night can recognise what Essendon is missing.

Compare Newcombe’s, or Elliot Yeo’s effort or Marcus Bontempelli’s last 15 minutes this round with the performances of a bunch of tried and true Bombers when the chips were down early in the match against a similarly equipped Port Adelaide.

Merrett is now being offered a contract extension partly to give any player being targeted at the trade table a sense they are not walking into a ghost town when it comes to talent.

I understood them not trading him for first round picks which turned out to be in the 20s and worse, and probably will be again at the end of this season, but the extension offer appears a safe option which repeats mistakes of the past particularly when it is clear to everyone a rebuild is underway.

Durham signed a four-year extension last month to stay at the club until 2032. McGrath locked himself in until 2030 during 2024. Parish and Ridley were given long-term contracts that were debatable then and look average now. McKay needed a long-term deal as there was competition for his services, but he is not proving to be a player to shift the club in a new direction. Those three are contracted until the end of 2029.

The salary cap has to be filled, but Essendon’s group of senior players has shown what they are over many years under several regimes.

By contrast, look at the players other clubs have traded out, often wearing fierce criticism to realign the list.

The Western Bulldogs moved on Caleb Daniel and Jack Macrae, St Kilda moved on Jack Steele, Sydney moved on Will Hayward and Ollie Florent, Hawthorn moved on Tom Mitchell and Jaeger O’Meara, Collingwood traded out Brodie Grundy, Adam Treloar and Jaidyn Stephenson.

Essendon moved on Stringer.

No one is suggesting every decision other clubs have made has been perfect, but risky decisions have been taken which have resulted in players leaving.

The current crop can blame Brad Scott for not introducing an effective defensive structure or Dean Solomon, in charge of defence now, or the previous fitness boss, or the new fitness boss, or the previous CEO or the new CEO, or the previous president, or the new president.

Scott is not without blame as the defensive flaws remain in place, in his fourth year in the job. Every opposition kick-in remains a rerun of the parting of the red (and black) sea. He needs to fix them or face the inevitable calls for change.

As the coach said post-match on Sunday he could list a dozen things that need to be fixed, but that would omit another dozen.

One item which must be on either dozen’s list is to move past retention as being a default position at Essendon. And that applies at the selection table as well as at list management meetings.

It’s early in the season, but the simple Bomber message can be: if you can’t defend, then no one at the club will defend you.

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