ESSENDON remains optimistic Cale Hooker will be a Bomber next season and expects to be informed of the free agent's post-2016 plans in the "short term", list manager Adrian Dodoro says.
Hooker is due to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, while the key defender's decision on his football future is complicated by the fact he is one of 12 Bombers suspended for the 2016 season because of their involvement in the club's 2012 supplements program.
The West Australian has already been linked to lucrative long-term deals at Fremantle and Hawthorn, while there will be no shortage of other clubs monitoring the 2014 All Australian's situation.
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Dodoro told SEN radio on Thursday morning that Essendon had undertaken "a lot" of discussions with Hooker's manager, Tom Petroro of Stride Sports, and was "comfortable with where things sit at the moment".
"We're optimistic that Cale will be a Bomber next year, but obviously there's a bit of water to go under the bridge at the moment," Dodoro said.
"Regardless of the suspension, he is a free agent and he has the right to take his time.
"He's one of these larger-than-life individuals, Cale … he loves the club, that's one thing we do know.
"We'll know in the short term rather than the long term what he intends to do."
On Wednesday night, Travis Colyer became the second of the suspended Bombers to re-sign with the club, extending his tenure at Tullamarine until the end of 2019.
Dodoro said the Colyer deal had been concluded very smoothly in the end, with the speedster "quite firm in the fact that he wanted to come back".
Dodoro said Essendon was hopeful that the faith shown in the club by Colyer and Heath Hocking before him, along with the positive signs shown by John Worsfold's young group this season, would convince the remaining 10 suspended Bombers to recommit to the club.
"We're confident about the direction we're taking. The more the players see that, the more confident they're getting in what we're doing, and I think it will play out and I think it will be positive for us.
"We're not putting pressure on any of the boys or their management. It's evolving and you can see that we're heading in a positive direction.
"The boys are starting to see what we're about this year in terms of the resilience of the group (and) the future. We're developing a lot of young players coming through.
"That's been the exciting thing about 2016. We're going to look back at the end of this year and say, 'Geez, we've found four or five young players'.
"I think that will make the boys' decision a lot easier to come back.
"What we've found is that these guys are a really tight-knit group and I'd be really surprised if they all didn't come back."
