With its Senior Coach now in place, Essendon has signalled it may seek to have further dialogue with Jake Melksham and Jake Carlisle.
Both players have indicated their preference to continue their careers elsewhere next season.
And despite the appointment of premiership Coach John Worsfold, General Manager of Football Operations Rob Kerr said the Club faces a difficult task convincing the players to stay.
“I don’t think it’s irreconcilable but obviously in their own minds they’ve probably gone a fair way down the track to making a move… it can be hard to retrieve things from there,” he told SEN.
“I do think it’s worth us having another chat to those boys and with the senior coach in place now John can talk to them about his philosophies and how he would see those boys fitting in to what he wants to do with the group.”
If the players do leave, the Club is determined to secure fair compensation.
“We’ll certainly be fighting pretty hard to get the deals that we think are adequate,” Kerr said.
“I think the industry’s been pretty good in recent years in terms of recognising there should be a win-win for either party and we hope that trend continues in this case."
Melksham, 24, is a former top ten draft pick who played his 100th game with the Club this season.
“I thought he finished the year reasonably well,” Kerr said.
“Melbourne put an attractive offer in front of him.
“If you’re putting strong offers in front of players that probably gives a bit of a signal to the value."
Carlisle celebrated his 24th birthday last week and has shown an ability to play well in both defence and attack.
“Jake’s got a few clubs interested in him,” Kerr told RSN.
“I think everyone recognises big tall, key position players are fairly rare commodities and very valuable commodities.
“You’d think whatever Club he goes to they’d have to be talking about their first pick at the very least.”
Essendon said it is looking to bolster its ruck stocks with Brisbane big man Matthew Leuenberger one potential option.
“Matthew is a free agent so we’ve certainly been in a lot of dialogue with Matthew and his agent,” Kerr said.
“Free agency opens up this Friday so we’re hoping that that moves closer to finalisation and he selects Essendon as the Club that he’d like to join.”
