Essendon supporters, along with the rest of the football world, will have been stunned by the recent events at Carlton Football Club. And what has taken place won’t bring a smile to their face. Yes, it is the old enemy, but what has happened is bad for football and no-one likes to see what has transpired.

And there will also be some Essendon supporters who may now be beginning to understand what took place at this club during trade week. A number of these supporters were highly critical of this club after news spread that Justin Blumfield, Chris Heffernan and Blake Caracella had been traded.

But they weren’t alone. One journalist even wrote an opinion piece saying what had taken place was bordering on mismanagement. This journalist and those few supporters must now surely understand that what Essendon did in trading those players was absolutely the right thing to do. It was the responsible thing to do. Under the rules of the AFL it was the only thing to do. It was in fact very good management.

Essendon did all it could for as long as possible to keep its playing list together between 1999 and 2002 and it did so within the rules. Players took pay cuts, Damien Hardwick was traded and contracts were back-ended. The bottom line is that players were not being paid what they were worth.

Salary cap increases or changes to the veteran’s rule might – emphasise might – have meant only two players had to be traded but difficult decisions were going to have to be made either way post-2002. Essendon didn’t for one moment blame the AFL – they set the rules and this club plays by them.

Essendon faced reality and in 2003 the majority of its senior players – all of whom were Premiership players – will be paid what the market dictates they be paid. So the squeeze was on. Push came to shove and some hard decisions were made. Premiership players were traded. It hurt but those are the rules.

Essendon has been down the salary cap path before and lost. It is not about to do so again. Take such a risk and you only need to look at Carlton Football Club if you want to assess the likely damage estimate. Essendon warned it supporters that a trade period such as the last was coming and the reasons why. No-one was kept in the dark. Perhaps the warning was taken lightly by some. Once again, check out Optus Oval if you want to why this club was taking its list management so seriously.

So the wash up is that Essendon still has a very strong list and an exciting injection of youth. Salary cap issues aside, the nurturing of a list that has a long-term future is also an integral part of responsible management.

So if you get the urge to think what might have been had Essendon retained its 2002 playing list, turn your thoughts to Carlton Football Club. It will give you a serious dose of reality. This club has experienced a great period of success and that could well continue in 2003. Its long-term future also looks solid. And all this has been achieved by playing by the rules of the game.