Kane Cornes says Sydney “can’t afford” to try and recruit injury-prone Essendon forward again after their failed pursuit last year.
After two years marred by injury, Daniher requested a trade to the Swans at the end of the 2019 season but was unsuccessful in his bid to join John Longmire’s side.
Following Lance Franklin’s serious hamstring injury last week, Cornes doesn’t believe Sydney can afford to have multiple injury-prone key forwards on their list.
“We know how far down the road they were with Joe Daniher (last year),” he said on the Sunday Footy Show.
“He hasn’t played much at all (for Essendon) in the last few years, they had Kurt Tippett who didn’t work and Sam Reid who is an injury-prone player and now you’ve got Buddy Franklin who is injury prone.
“Do they go for Daniher now? You probably can’t afford to and in the situation that they’re in, they probably need to rebuild, go to the draft and go discover a forward in the draft rather than getting one from another club.
“I just can’t see them challenging at the top end, if Franklin doesn’t play and is taking up 10 per cent of their salary cap, it’s going to be really difficult to go get Joe Daniher and risk having two key players who are injured in their forward line.”
Daniher, who is out of contract at the end of the 2020 season, isn’t expected to be fit to play in Essendon’s round two clash against Sydney at the SCG.