Essendon is expected to wait and see whatcomes its way when trade period gets underway at Etihad Stadium on Monday morning.

The Bombers have a number of players still out of contract heading into the three week long trade period.

Coach James Hird said the club placed mostimportance upon developing the talent already on their list.

“Certain opportunities come up throughoutthe trade period but we have to balance trading in players with what we havegot and looking after our own players,” Hird said.

“We want to make sure our own players arehappy, want to stay and feel like we care for them and want them here.”

Despite the stance of developing fromwithin Hird said the club would enter the trade period with an optimisticoutlook.

“If the option comes up to bring in anotherplayer that doesn’t hurt our list then we will certainly look at it,” he said.

“There is a lot of toing and froing goingon at the moment, machinations of who goes where and we are in there somewherebut our priority is to make sure the players we have got are happy to be atEssendon.”

Essendon last week signed out of contractfree agent Brendon Goddard to a four-year deal in the first deal completedunder the new free agency guidelines.