St Kilda’s Jade Gresham is likely to nominate as Essendon as his club of choice this free agency period.
The 26-year-old is reportedly keen to get out of Moorabbin and start afresh at Tullamarine despite playing 23 games for the Saints under Ross Lyon this year.
SEN’s Tom Morris provided some insight into how a move to the Bombers is likely to play out for Gresham who is expected to swap clubs with Essendon midfielder Dylan Shiel.
That situation could involve the Dons offering Gresham enough money which would see the Saints compensated with a first-round draft pick. They would then trade that back to Essendon to land Shiel.
“Jade Gresham will 100 per cent nominate Essendon as his club of choice,” Morris said on SEN Breakfast.
“It’s probably best for Jade Gresham if he moves on. It’s probably best for St Kilda as well if they get some good compensation for him.
“The holdup for him nominating Essendon is just around how much Essendon need to pay him to get the right compensation back to St Kilda.
“Because of course that deal with Dylan Shiel is probably executing a loophole in the system. Which is according to the people I speak to absolutely play on, but it’s something the Bombers need to work through.
“But he (Gresham) does want to go to Essendon.”
However, Morris says there is very little chance of Gresham and Shiel being involved in the same deal.
“It would be Gresham to Essendon in the free agency period and then Shiel to St Kilda in the trade period,” he added.
“What would happen is Essendon would pay Gresham enough to warrant a band 1 compensation to go back to St Kilda then St Kilda would use that draft pick on Liam Henry, or whatever they wanted to use it on.
“It would free up salary cap space for St Kilda because Gresham is off their books and Shiel would come in give them some more midfield run.”
The AFL’s free agency period opens today but Gresham’s likely move to Essendon is not expected to occur until next week.
The small forward/midfielder has kicked 136 goals from 136 games in red, white and black since debuting in 2016.
