ESSENDON will put a timeline in place to know the plans of its six banned players who remain uncommitted for next year as the club edges towards the end of its 2016 season.
The Bombers face unprecedented list management decisions this year, as they await the decisions of half of their 12 suspended players who are yet to announce their intentions for next season.
They have another 17 listed players who are out of contract at the end of the season, and may also weigh up whether to redraft any of their top-up players whose unique short-term contracts expire at the end of 2016.
Captain Jobe Watson, Michael Hurley, Michael Hibberd, Brent Stanton, Ben Howlett and Tayte Pears are the players serving their anti-doping suspensions, who have not either re-signed or said they will return to fulfil their contracts for next season.
Coach John Worsfold said on Friday the Bombers will need to know the plans of those six before making other list changes in the off-season.
"There will be a timeline. We haven't set that yet, but obviously there will be a final date that we'll need to know in terms of our decision making, but that's a way off," Worsfold said.
"Ultimately we do need to know what the squad will look like. When those decisions have to be made around our current list, we'll need to know what the intent is from the other guys. That's still a fair way off."
AFL.com.au reported last month that Melbourne had shown its interest in Hibberd, and key midfielder David Zaharakis admitted this week it made him nervous as a teammate that the 26-year-old had not yet said he will be returning to the Bombers.
Worsfold last month questioned whether the Demons had broken AFL rules by pursuing the contracted Hibberd, and restated on Friday his desire to coach the attacking half-back next season.
"We're really keen to have Michael here and part of what we're building. It's going to be hugely exciting and he'll look good in our backline next year," Worsfold said.
The Bombers will take on Richmond on Saturday confident of continuing their better form of recent weeks, including last week's tight loss to St Kilda.
Essendon inaccuracy cost it against the Saints, with the Bombers' booting 14.14 to St Kilda's 17.7 and dropping to a nine-point defeat.
Emerging forward Joe Daniher missed a crucial shot late in the game and continues to have his battles in front of goal, with 26 goals and 22 behinds this season.
His misses have seen him ranked the worst accuracy of any player in the competition with more than 22 goals, but Worsfold said the 22-year-old was working closely with assistant coach Hayden Skipworth.
"The challenge for him is that he sticks to that routine and delivers the results we're looking for," Worsfold said.
"There's things I look at [in his routine] but I'm not an expert. It's not my role to go and tell Joe what I'm seeing – I'm relying on the experts to do that.
"I'm confident Joe's aware of what he needs to do to improve his accuracy and he's working pretty hard on it."
The Bombers will welcome back Zaharakis against the Tigers after missing last week with suspension, but will not blood top-10 draft pick Aaron Francis.
Worsfold said the exciting and powerful utility was ready to run out an AFL game and would be closer to selection with a strong VFL performance on the weekend.
