Essendon AFL Talent & Operations Manager Matt Rosa has ratified the club’s position on strengthening its draft hand ahead of the 2024 AFL National Draft.

After netting four players in last year’s trade period, the Bombers are firmly focussed on targeting youth to complement the club’s young playing core.

While quieter on the player acquisition front, the Bombers are listening to rival clubs’ approaches for its pick No.9, but insist a deal would have to be better than the prospect of nabbing a top 10 selection.

“We’re still living in a space where we are assessing all our options. We have had some interest in that pick nine whether it be for us to move back and move into the future, so we’re in a position where we’ve got to listen to all opportunities,” Rosa told Gettable on Trade Radio.

“Clearly as it’s been publicised, the pointy end of this draft is strong and it would need to be quite a special offer to be giving up pick nine at this stage.

“We’ll be in the range of three to four picks, currently we only hold two at this stage. Clearly our strategy is to improve our draft hand if we can.

“We’re really keen to bring in some young talent to complement a really core group of players that have played between 50-150 games. We want to build that talent from beneath and get the boys coming through together.”

One of the only players publicised in being targeted by the Dons is GIANTS utility Conor Stone.

Rosa confirmed the Bombers had met with the 22-year-old last week, who’s played 13 AFL games after being selected with pick 15 in the 2020 national draft.

However, Stone on Thursday morning recommitted to GWS for a further few years which ruled out a move to the NEC Hangar.

“We clearly had some interest in Conor, and we met Conor last week. Throughout the season. He was playing a lot of VFL footy and was out of contract at the end of the year,” Rosa said.

“We weren’t surprised he’d stick with the GIANTS given their list changes that have taken place, but he was someone we liked, and we tracked him closely.”

No official progress has been made on the publicised impending trade request of forward Jake Stringer.

Rosa admits GWS has shown interest in securing the 30-year-old who is contracted to Essendon for next season, yet he couldn’t speculate on a potential deal given no formal approach has been made.

 "There's no formal position on that. As we are aware, the Giants have shown some interest,” Rosa said. 

"We caught up with GWS over the weekend and they expressed that Jake is someone they could be keen to explore.

"Jake is locked in to a one-year deal and that's where it sits at the moment.

"I won't speculate on (a deal) given no official request has been made. But given Jake is a contracted player, it would need to be adequate compensation."