Bombers to head overseas, 13 ‘in the dark’ ahead of crunch calls as club moves past injury chaos

Essendon will send multiple players overseas for rehab and training camps as the club puts an injury season from hell behind it, with several key list calls looming.

The Bombers unveiled 15 AFL debutants across the 2025 season, the most of any club, after they were decimated by injury including being forced to field several players they’d just picked up in the mid-season draft.

Wednesday night’s 95-point defeat to Gold Coast marked Essendon’s 13th-straight loss to close its 2025 campaign as the club finished the season in 15th place with a 6-17 record.

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Herald Sun journalist Jon Ralph reports Kyle Langford, Nate Caddy and Darcy Parish would all head abroad in the coming weeks as part of their off-season training regimes and to get to the bottom of their injury troubles.

“Langford and Caddy will head to the Aspetar clinic in Dohar, Qatar in the coming weeks for a week of intensive training,” Ralph said on Fox Footy.

“Darcy Parish, with all those calf and back issues, will go to Balitmore USA in coming weeks for diagnosis and training.

“Essendon tells me (Zach) Reid and (Jye) Caldwell are making excellent progress, will be ready for the first day of pre-season.”

Essendon has two top five picks in the November draft, selections 4 and 5 (tied to Melbourne), as well as picks 22 and 25 as the club continues to reshape the list under Brad Scott.

Meanwhile several Bombers are still in contract limbo and the club is still awaiting Sam Draper’s free agency decision amid interest from Adelaide and Brisbane.

“Those exit interviews start tomorrow for Essendon, 13 players without a contract. Of those playing tonight, Lual, Prior, Blakiston, McMahon, Shiel, Goldstein and Laverde are all in the dark about their current deals,” Ralph added.

“My understanding is McMahon and Blakiston are likely to earn new deals for new deals.

“Goldstein is open to playing on next year, it probably depends on whether Sam Draper plays on (at Essendon). Bryan and Visentini are contracted, they’re still awaiting that decision on (Draper’s) free agency.”

Saints great Leigh Montagna described it as a “nothing year” for the Bombers even though they were “able to blood some youngsters.”

But Montagna suggested “not many” of them would be in Scott’s best 23 next season and said Essendon had to eradicate its injury woes that plagued the club’s 2025 campaign.

“It’s up to their off-season, how well they recover and the health of the group and the fitness program they go through. How hard can they go with the group fitness wise over pre-season, if they all break down?,” Montagna said on Fox Footy’s The First Crack.

“A lot of them are recidivists, they break down a lot the same guys. It’s a real balancing act for this football club into next pre-season, how they can get their best team out there.”

Though the silver lining to the Bombers’ injury woes was the exposure of so many fresh faces, dual premiership Kangaroo David King pondered how many of their 15 debutants would have a “meaningful impact” on the future.

“Don’t worry about this year, put a full stop on this year. How many of those 15 have answered the call and are going to be part of something meaningful going forward?,” King posed.

“It’s OK to have 20 new debutants, but they’ve got to be the ones you say: ‘Yep, we’ve found him, we’ve found him, we’ve found him’.

“My question is how many of the 15 are going to be there in 18 months’ time having a meaningful impact? In 30 more games’ time.

“That’s the skill of it all and the challenge. It’s tough to win games, I understand that. But you’ve still got to get something out of these games, you just can’t tick boxes.

“I’m looking forward to what happens with the list change at the end of the year. And mid next year, when we look back and say: ‘OK, they gave all these kids an opportunity. Are they a main part of this next 23?’”