Four-time Essendon premiership coach and Bombers legend Kevin Sheedy has said the club can improve if it stops doing one thing in particular.
The Bombers have had an injury-riddled season and currently sit 15th on the ladder with 6 wins and 14 losses.
Sheedy told SEN's Sportsday that there may be many things the Dons can correct, but one easy fix is to stop letting good players leave the club to play well at rival clubs.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do. We just keep giving players away,” Sheedy explained.
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“When you see Patrick Voss (play well at Freo) and players roll over to Hawthorn and nearly make All-Australian like [Massimo] D’Ambrosio. It would be very frustrating for the fans."
Previous players the Bombers have let go include Bachar Houli, who went to Richmond, Jake Stringer to GWS and players with varying success such as Brandon Zerk-Thatcher at Port Adelaide and Adam Saad at Carlton.
“I remember Bachar Houli going - and this is a long time ago - but Houli played in three premierships for the Tigers, which I’m happy with," Sheedy added.
“But over the years we’ve just let too many good players go.”
The Bombers have famously not won a final since Sheedy coached them to a win on September 4, 2004, 7,649 days ago.
However, it is not all bad news for the Dons, who have two picks in both the first and second rounds of this year's draft.
Essendon's last two games of the season are home games against 11th-placed St Kilda at Marvel Stadium and arch rivals Carlton at the MCG.