ESSENDON GM of Football Josh Mahoney has revealed the Bombers\u2019 plan to be active in this year\u2019s trade period.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s subpar performances have come in for criticism in 2022, winning just a handful of games and languishing towards the bottom of the ladder.<\/p>\n
Mahoney was asked whether it was fair for list managers to be criticised following Glenn Luff\u2019s sudden resignation from North Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Essendon\u2019s list manager Adrian Dodoro has been in his role at the club since 2010, a period where the Bombers have failed to win a final.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there are so many things that relate to list management,\u201d Mahoney said SEN SA Breakfast<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s connection to development, connection to coaching, so they\u2019re all separate things.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to select the right player, select the right player at the right pick, select the right player for the right role, and then you\u2019ve got to have a good development plan in place.<\/p>\n \u201cSo all those different parts are so connected and it\u2019s been a focus of mine coming to Essendon to look at how that\u2019s all connected.\u201d<\/p>\n The club is coming off a quiet trade period after exceeding expectations to make an elimination final in 2021, only recruiting Adelaide free agent Jake Kelly.<\/p>\n Coming into 2022, Essendon had the third-least experienced list with the average player having played just 54.3 games.<\/p>\n However, with the need for a quick rebound up the ladder after a poor season to date and plenty of salary cap space, Mahoney confirmed the club\u2019s intentions to be \u201cpretty active\u201d in the trade space.<\/p>\n \u201cOur list at the moment is at a development stage,\u201d Mahoney said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe lost some key players just before I joined in Joe Daniher, Orazio Fantasia and Adam Saad, experienced guys that were in the prime of their careers, and they were replaced which picks seven, eight and nine, which sounds great, but the idea is we\u2019re bringing in three young guys to replace the mature guys, so our list is developing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re really excited by the opportunity we do have though. I think last year we were quiet during the trade period deliberately, we wanted to look at our young list and see what we\u2019ve got available to us.<\/p>\n \u201cBut this year we\u2019ve got the opportunity with the gap we\u2019ve got in our salary cap, we\u2019ve got the opportunity with some picks at the moment that we think we can be pretty active in the trade period and along with the development of our players, we can rebound quite quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n