“Very compelling offers”: How Essendon will attack the trade and free agency markets

Essendon coach Brad Scott is well aware that the club will need to put forward "very compelling offers" to lure rival players to Tullamarine.

Zak Butters, Zac Bailey and Ben King are already on the Bombers' radar, while Hawthorn's Josh Weddle was offered a monster $10 million deal, but is expected to remain in the brown and gold.

The trio come out of contract, and have already been discussed among the competition, with clubs lining up for their services.

"Yeah, they'd all be welcome here. I suspect it'll be a fairly competitive market," Scott told AFL Media.

In 2021, only five players were earning over a million dollars. Now there's 58, with that number expected to climb.

Scott understood that with the current landscape regarding draft implications due to academies and father-sons, lucrative deals are the way forward, saying if you don't, "you'll get left behind".

"Wherever you sit in the argument of equalisation, academies, father-sons, and everyone's got a different opinion, and usually that opinion is informed by the position they sit in," he said.

"My position is when we've got a father-son and an Academy player, I think they're great rules. But when we don't, I think they're terrible. Clubs and coaches and list management teams are looking purely at what's right for them. 

"But what I can say pretty confidently is that when you have a top end of the draft so heavily compromised, for clubs to attract top end talent it's trading and free agency. 

"And how do you attract them? Usually, it's with very compelling offers. So, it's not surprising to me that's the way the competition's going. There certainly is an element of if you if you don't want to play that game, then you'll just get left behind."