Essendon’s tradition of inability to seal trade deals was on show again as the Bombers failed to nab Gold Coast midfielder Josh Caddy as the AFL Trading Preiod came to an end.

Essendon called in AFL mediation on the morning of the final day of AFL trade week, but the Bombers say it soon became clear only a top 10 pick would get a deal over the line while the Bombers the club had come up with several trade scenarios including the club’s first round pick – No.19 overall – and another player.

“We’re really disappointed. We’ve heard a lot from most of you (the media) this week that you thought we weren’t up to much at all because we weren’t making a lot of noise, but there was ever only really one outcome we were trying to pursue,” Essendon CEO Ian Robson said.

“We were doing that quietly with a real determined focus of the whole team. Disappointingly today we’ve come up short. This morning we really wanted to make sure we’d explored every avenue and that’s why we called the AFL …. and requested a mediation.”

The Bombers however managed to offload untried rookie Josh Jenkins and pick 41 to Adelaide for pick 31.