Essendon have asked for draft assistance. This is why they should get it

June 3, 2026 — 3:48pm

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Two weeks ago, Essendon wrote to the AFL with a cry for help, stating their case to be considered for a priority pick or special draft assistance.

Anyone with passing knowledge of football might ask ‘what took them so long’? It is a letter that might have been penned almost any time in the last 20 fruitless years.

Anyone with a more detailed knowledge of football might ask ‘how dare they’? They had bad injuries last year and an awful season this year, that’s not enough.

On broad AFL measures of worthiness and how poor other recipient clubs of AFL draft largesse have been, one would scoff at the idea that a club that won six games last year after 11 in each of the two years prior could have this season of regret and ask for help.

But this is Essendon. Put aside how many games other clubs lost in successive years to prove how hopelessly bad they were and think bigger picture: Essendon have not been successful for two decades.

Essendon’s letter, signed by the board, is an argument which distils to say we are down, and you have a lever for clubs to pull when they need help, so we are pulling it.

The AFL changed the system several years ago to make trigger........

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