Essendon coach Mark McVeigh has revealed he will sit down with out-of-contract midfielder Elijah Tsatas to determine where his future lies and how he can help.
The future of Tsatas will always be an interesting topic given he was taken with Pick 5 by the Bombers in 2022 but has failed to live up to expectations in terms of AFL football.
A highly talented junior, the 21-year-old has played 22 matches in four years, struggling to impress Brad Scott and Dean Solomon despite high-end performances in the VFL.
McVeigh, who has already begun in his role as the Bombers' senior coach, says he'll sit down with Tsatas and try to understand him first before any decision can be made.
“It's one of those things that I don't know the young man, and I need to get to know him,” McVeigh said on SEN.
“So I'll sit down with him today and go, ‘Where has it perhaps gone wrong for you? What do you feel? What have you lacked? What have you been craving that you haven't got?'.
“I said yesterday that I'm not coming in making these rash decisions. I don't want to be that person because I want to be respectful of the person, the player, and their families.
“So I need to hear them. I don't need to make a judgement call before I arrive into a meeting. I don't need to listen to other people, respectfully, to give me their ideas and then I devise this plan in my head about who they are.
“I need to understand who they are firstly, what perhaps has held them back, where they think their strengths are, and what they need to improve. And I'll get all that today, and that might be a half-hour meeting; it might be a standard 15 minutes.
“So that's the challenge of it all.”
North Melbourne has previously been linked to Tsatas, while a host of clubs could be on the lookout for midfield depth.
The on-baller has played 38 VFL games, averaging 31.1 disposals, 3.6 marks and 4 tackles.
