Essendon have confirmed Adam McPhee will leave the club, with the 2004 AFL All-Australian now expected to join Fremantle through the pre-season draft.

The Bombers say the tall utility rejected a two-year offer.

"Naturally we are disappointed and some of our fans will be as well, but we could not reach an agreement with Adam," Bombers football manager Paul Hamilton told the club website.

"We offered him a very good two-year deal that we believe was more than fair.

"We have an obligation to deliver our fans a period of sustained success and we were not prepared to compromise our strategy.

"We only want players here that want to play for this club and Adam has decided he doesn't want to be part of this emerging playing group."

Fremantle have the second pick in the pre-season draft, behind Melbourne.

It is understood the Dockers have offered McPhee a three-year contract.

McPhee, 27, made his debut with Fremantle in 2001 and played 25 games there before joining the Bombers in 2003.

He played another 142 games with Essendon and also won the club's best and fairest award in 2004.

The Bombers have also announced that chairman Ray Horsburgh will stand down from the position at their December 21 annual general meeting.

Horsburgh became chairman in 2005 and was in charge for one of the biggest decisions in club history two years ago, when the board decided not to renew Kevin Sheedy's contract after 27 years as senior coach.

Horsburgh plans to serve out the last two years of his term as a board member.

He has endorsed current board member David Evans as the next club chairman.

Evans is the son of former AFL and Essendon chairman Ron Evans, who died of cancer two years ago.

Meanwhile, the Bombers have also confirmed that young key forward Jay Neagle will be out of action until January because of groin surgery.

Neagle was advised to rest at the end of the season, but the injury did not improve and he had an operation three weeks ago.

He is one of the young players that Essendon hope to build their attack around in the wake of Matthew Lloyd's retirement.

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