ESSENDON says if it had known earlier that the Gold Coast would only accept a top-10 pick for midfielder Josh Caddy then it might have been able to secure the deal.
The Bombers' push for the 19-year-old fell short on Monday despite an AFL mediator being brought into the equation to help form a fair result for both clubs.
Essendon CEO Ian Robson said the club was disappointed its combinations of offers - all including its pick 19 in the NAB AFL Draft - were knocked back by the Suns.
"We're really disappointed," Robson said.
"There's been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing across the course of the week, but it became clear today that the only thing that was going to get it done today was a top-10 pick.
"Perhaps if we'd known that a week ago we might have been in a position to track that, but we've had many conversations over the last week over the scenarios."
Gold Coast football manager Marcus Ashcroft said the club was open to a deal in sending Caddy - who was chosen with pick seven in last year's NAB AFL Draft - back home to Melbourne, but was not satisfied with the options put to it.
"I don't think we were unreasonable," Ashcroft said.
"We've said from the start as long as we can get a deal that's fair and reasonable then we'd deal with them. Unfortunately, not being able to deal with all the Melbourne clubs made it hard.
"It was a bit inflexible."
Ashcroft confirmed that the Bombers had offered a player and pick 19 for the talented youngster, and that the club was confident it could keep Caddy beyond 2012 when his two-year contract ends.
"He's fully aware that it was going to be hard for us to get a deal done. He and his family were understanding of all that, so now I think he just needs to get his head around the fact he'll be there for the next 12 months," Ashcroft said.
"Hopefully he has another year with our footy club, plays some senior footy and we'll back ourselves to keep him longer-term."
No trades are official until paperwork has been accepted by the AFL and formally recognised after 2pm on Monday, October 17.
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The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
Follow Callum Twomey on Twitter at @Cal_Twomey
