Depleted Essendon faces $750k bill to play pre-season games

7SPORT EXCLUSIVE

Essendon sources have suggested the top-up plan for the NAB Challenge will cost the club as much as $750,000.

A senior football figure at a separate club has suggested that seems overs, but with wages, insurance, travel and apparel costs to name a few, apparently that’s the amount to field an extra 15 VFL or alternative state league players for three games.

In any case, there’s no doubt it’s substantial, and provides a clue why the Bombers were so annoyed yesterday with Nathan Buckley and Mick Malthouse’s comments.

The club’s been patiently working with the AFL and AFL Players' Association for two weeks to finalise arrangements to field a side using fill-ins.

And apart from working hard to appease the concerns of its players, broadly speaking, they’ve also been prepared to cop the substantial financial cost.

Players' Association boss Paul Marsh made the point today - the club never intended to boycott the NAB Challenge.

Buckley and Malthouse might have had the right intention, as everyone wants this to be over, but their criticism was inaccurate and essentially out of date.

The club’s recruiting guru Adrian Dodoro will start preparing a list of players to target over the weekend and will present club bosses with suggestions as soon as Monday.

So far no fill-in players have been formally approached but in terms of criteria, Essendon will initially give preference to fill-ins that have been on an AFL list previously.

How the payments affect Essendon’s TPP/salary cap is yet to be determined by the league. It’s likely to be a consideration when the Commission meets early next week.

No club could accommodate this type of unexpected payment without breaching the cap. So practically speaking, the Commission will have to formulate some type of cap relief.