JAMES Hird says Essendon's retention of players like Jason Winderlich and Ben Howlett shows the Bombers are not the undesirable club they've been made out to be.
Hird heralded the Bombers' recent activity in the NAB AFL Trade Period as successful, despite the loss of No.1 ruckman Paddy Ryder to Port Adelaide.
Winderlich and Howlett both decided to stay; the former after initially retiring towards the end of the season and the latter after assessing his options before recommitting for another two years.
Hird said the fact they stayed – and that player movement was high across the whole competition – showed the ASADA situation hadn't necessarily set the Bombers apart as the pariah of the League.
"It wasn't exclusive to Essendon players wanting to leave at the end of the year," Hird said on Monday.
"The competition is at a point where players have a lot of power and they're entitled to leave, or retire, and certainly Jason and Ben looked at their options and preferred to stay at Essendon, which is a great sign that the Essendon Football Club is still a club players want to play at.
"Paddy was different to that.
"We weren't the only club players talked about leaving but we were one of the few clubs where players ended up staying.
"I think it says a lot for what we're doing here although there has been a lot of criticism around the place."
The Bombers were very active in this month's period with Jonathan Giles, Adam Cooney and James Gwilt arriving from Greater Western Sydney, the Western Bulldogs and St Kilda.
They also netted NAB AFL Draft pick No.17 in the Ryder deal, and No.62 with Giles.
Hird said they considered themselves to have filled holes in their exchanges, and was pleased they secured a first-round draft pick, which was previously denied because of their ASADA case sanctions.
"Obviously we lost a very good player in Paddy Ryder and I'm not going to go over that again, that was well and truly documented, but we're very happy with the players we picked up," he said.
"We obviously picked up some experience, which we think we needed in certain positions but with the draft sanctions we've got we actually enhanced our position in the draft, which will enable us to pick up two young kids.
"We're very happy with the hand we were delivered, and the fact Paddy wanted to go … I think we've got some players who will play a lot of senior footy next year."
