Honeyball takes a look at the likely best 23 for Essendon ahead of the 2026 AFL season, noting ins and outs, key injuries, plus a look at relevant AFL Fantasy and SuperCoach players.
We’ve used quotes from Dons coach Brad Scott’s chat on afl.com.au’s Your Coach podcast to offer additional insight on relevant players.
Ins: Cillian Bourke (Category B rookie), Hussien El Achkar (No.53 draft pick, Academy), Jacob Farrow (No.10 draft pick), Brayden Fiorini (trade, Gold Coast), Max Kondogiannis (No.36 draft pick), Sullivan Robey (No.9 draft pick), Dyson Sharp (No.13 draft pick)
Outs: Alwyn Davey jnr (delisted), Sam Draper (free agent, Brisbane), Todd Goldstein (delisted), Ben Hobbs (delisted), Jayden Laverde (delisted), Luamon Lual (delisted), Jye Menzie (delisted), Dylan Shiel (delisted), Oskar Smartt (delisted)
Key injuries: Jordan Ridley (calf), Nick Bryan (ACL), Nic Martin (ACL)
Predicted Round One 23
B: Andrew McGrath, Ben McKay, Zach Reid
HB: Mason Redman, Jordan Ridley*, Archie Roberts
C: Xavier Duursma, Sam Durham, Brayden Fiorini
HF: Archie Perkins, Nate Caddy, Darcy Parish
F: Isaac Kako*, Peter Wright, Kyle Langford
Foll: Lachie Blakiston, Zach Merrett, Jye Caldwell
I/C: Jacob Farrow, Hussien El Achkar, Jade Gresham, Dyson Sharp, Harrison Jones
*injury cloud
Relevant Players
Darcy Parish
Brad Scott: “I watch Darcy Parish train through the pre-season and think whether it’s been at Essendon or as an external observer before I came here, I haven’t seen him train or play like that since 2021, which was an All-Australian year for him. That’s instant upside for us.”
Sullivan Robey
Scott: “Sully’s pretty much back into progressing into full training so he’s not far away. Our other four draftees have all had very impressive pre-seasons. It’s hard to speculate at the moment as to debutants, but it’s not making a big statement to say that we expect all of our draftees to play at some point in 2026.”
Hussien El Achkar
Scott: “I’ve been really impressed with Huss. He’s met the demands. As a coaching group, we’ve been very pleasantly surprised as to how quickly he’s been able to adapt.”
Lachie Blakiston
Scott: “Probably (Nick Bryan returns) in that range of Round 5 or 6… Blackers is a fairly unique player. We probably haven’t seen him play his best position much. He played a little bit of ruck last year but not a great deal. We think Bryan’s return will create a challenge for spots. Vigo Visentini is developing very nicely. We do have some ruck options… We like the idea of playing 2 rucks if they’re both capable. We’re not settled on our ruck set-up yet but we’re optimistic we’ll have some youngsters step up.”
Dyson Sharp, Jacob Farrow, Jye Caldwell, Zach Merrett, Archie Roberts
