AFL Player 7: Indefatigable Zach Merrett - Stepping down as captain for 2026

[ghostdog]

Agree. Those that think he'll turn up on day one with the right attitude might be in for a shock. But hey, we 'won' and that's what's important, apparently.
What do we do about the captaincy? Take it off an already disgruntled player?

Players vote for the Captain.
As for the attitude he turns up with, that's up to him. Maybe compare that with the shit attitude with which the club and his team mates were treated.
The club kept its dignity tonight, which their grub of a coach sought to strip away from us. It's on Merrett now to have some humility, be a man and be professional. This might yet be the making of him. He's got some soul searching to do because he sold us out.
Thank goodness the club didn't sell itself out.

 

[MPMonkeys]

If we traded 3 firsts for a 30yo curnow or petracca who actually didn't want to come here it'd be ridiculous, it'd nuke the club and set the rebuild back years, there'd be no logic to it. That's basically what we've done.

‘3 firsts’ mean nothing. It’s where they land that matters.
We have made a stand and sent a message.

 

[Old Campaigner]

Aren't all the Hawks into memes and TikTok and shit.

He would've hated it.

Maybe he wanted a bunch of influencers to model dryp shit for him

 

[MPMonkeys]

Hypothetical now, but if Hawks added another pick in the 20's to their offer yesterday, would that have been enough to get us to agree if we/they found a club wanting to trade out of the first round for a couple of second rounders?

Not really sure what their strategy was with an initial offer with 36 hours remaining, then an offer late on the last day which wasn't much better than their first offer

Would have meant nothing. We don’t need extra picks. We have no list spots.

 

[jmoo wan]

Mate, Hawthorne needed to get something done. The onus was on them. We didn’t ask for a trade. Sure, we have some work to do to get a cohesive playing group but I’m not sure that Zach socialises with anyone but Sam Mitchell anyway. The players might be relieved they don’t have to tolerate his awful attempts at off-field leadership anymore. It might bring a sense of levity, you never know

i agree, i expect a lot of different poos in his locker from a lot of different arseholes next year

 

[Doss]

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Good to see cench is impressed by ‘humour’ that a melty 14 year old would cringe at.

 

[thebigboy]

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Blake Hardwick has never really given off “intelligent footballer” vibes but Jesus he didn’t need to confirm that he’s not that publicly did he? At least leave a little mystery out there lad!

 

[Old Campaigner]

Not really sure what their strategy was with an initial offer with 36 hours remaining, then an offer late on the last day which wasn't much better than their first offer

I assume it was a pressure tactic or something, or hoping we'd implode. They can't claim it was time they needed to chase up other clubs for more picks because they never offered anything like that even at the end.

 

[iDon]

If we traded 3 firsts for a 30yo curnow or petracca who actually didn't want to come here it'd be ridiculous, it'd nuke the club and set the rebuild back years, there'd be no logic to it. That's basically what we've done.

Settle down sandbags. It will be okay.

 

[Old Campaigner]

Would have meant nothing. We don’t need extra picks. We have no list spots.

If only there was some sort of mechanism for exchanging picks with other clubs who also have picks

 

[Phone]

One of the more interesting thought experiments is "who can offer same or similar value next season"

Obviously the Hawks are out on that

Hoping for a Christian Petracca

3

Christian Petracca

Age

30

Ht

187cm

Wt

94kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

19.4

5star

K

9.5

4star

HB

9.8

5star

M

3.5

4star

T

3.0

5star

CL

2.5

4star

D

24.4

5star

K

10.4

4star

HB

14.0

5star

M

3.5

3star

T

3.6

4star

CL

3.4

4star

D

19.0

5star

K

7.8

3star

HB

11.2

5star

M

3.0

3star

T

3.8

5star

CL

2.0

4star

-situation where Zach goes to a QLD/NSW team is now tougher, because the Suns and Swans are out. Lions and Giants possibly remain an option depending on whatever Academy stuff they have going on.

I struggle to imagine Zach going to the Crows or Freo, and the Power/Eagles don't really have timelines that match up with having Zach Merrett so they're out

So now we're left with the other Victorian teams, aka the ones that don't get Butters. Carlton and Melbourne now have picks but obviously it makes no sense for them to go after Zach. Same with Tigers and North. So now we're down to, what, Geelong, Bulldogs, Collingwood & St Kilda, and we can probably cross out St Kilda...and then add Hawthorn anyway knowing it'll be less value, and then throw in some hopeful maybes on Lions/GWS/Freo/Crows.

good luck!

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

One of the more interesting thought experiments is "who can offer same or similar value next season"

Obviously the Hawks are out on that

Hoping for a Christian Petracca-situation where Zach goes to a QLD/NSW team is now tougher, because the Suns and Swans are out. Lions and Giants possibly remain an option depending on whatever Academy stuff they have going on.

I struggle to imagine Zach going to the Crows or Freo, and the Power/Eagles don't really have timelines that match up with having Zach Merrett so they're out

So now we're left with the other Victorian teams, aka the ones that don't get Butters. Carlton and Melbourne now have picks but obviously it makes no sense for them to go after Zach. Same with Tigers and North. So now we're down to, what, Geelong, Bulldogs, Collingwood & St Kilda, and we can probably cross out St Kilda...and then add Hawthorn anyway knowing it'll be less value, and then throw in some hopeful maybes on Lions/GWS/Freo/Crows.

We're not getting the same or similar value next season even if he earns another AA jacket, I'd expect we'd be lucky to get a single first rounder.

 

[Phone]

If only there was some sort of mechanism for exchanging picks with other clubs who also have picks

perhaps they could call it the Exchange Period

 

[Phone]

We're not getting the same or similar value next season even if he earns another AA jacket, I'd expect we'd be lucky to get a single first rounder.

well obviously, but we still have some souls who think otherwise so let's think out loud!

 

[andleanback]

In the end our position, fundamentally, never really changed.

It was pretty clear picks in the 20s and 30s were never going to cut it. That should have been obvious.

So therefore, if Hawthorn really wanted to make it happen they needed to get their hands on a second high pick from a third and even fourth club, or convince a decent player of theirs to come over.

That didn’t happen, and there is no indication that there was ever much effort to make the third or fourth club aspect happen.

So here we are.

Funny how they didn’t want to do anything for 8 days and then with 30 hours to go they start making offers.

 

[Phone]

Funny how they didn’t want to do anything for 8 days and then with 30 hours to go they start making offers.

Didn't the Swans only officially lodge their first offer for their guy after the Hawks did?

 

[nipst@r]

We are a big and powerful club. The saga would’ve killed off every club other than the Pies. There’s nothing wrong with posturing so long as we can now back it up. It’s all a part of re-finding our mojo.

Hawthorne undervalued our player. The significantly better deal for Petracca proves that. He is the only elite player on our list that we’d fight for to this degree (other than maybe Caddy).

This could be very easily viewed as long-term thinking. The short-term planning looks no different other than Merrett might have a sook.

The game isn’t a yearly battle for a prize, it’s a lifetime battle against your rivals. Handing the Hawks the final piece in a winning flag would be as significant as losing to them in a grand final. **** them, it’s good to see that they couldn’t undermine us.

Im more interested in helping us win a flag than stopping the hawks.

 

[Saddlemanbags]

‘3 firsts’ mean nothing. It’s where they land that matters.
We have made a stand and sent a message.

They land roughly around the usual mark, and it gives you collateral to trade into later drafts, which would have been helpful before Tas comes. And yeah we'll continue to stand proudly while the ship sinks and we ride our way to 14th year after year. We're a laughing stock, we had a chance to break out of mediocrity and we said no. One of the worst decisions I've seen this club make and that's saying a lot.

 

[ghostdog]

The spirit of Dodo is well and truly alive at Essendon. Puffing up our chest and pretending we are a big and powerful club check overvaluing our players check short-term thinking check. Oh and we get to screw over a 'rival' even though we haven't been relevant to the Hawks for decades.

Merrett was signed. He was already part of our strategy going forward.
What we rejected was something worth less to us than our contracted player. That's the business side of it and it's simple.

Of course there's emotion attached to it because the way the trade was contrived was disrespectful and undignified, and the offer that was made in those disrespectful circumstances was designed not just to damage our list, but also our pride in ourselves as a club. How do you put a price on that?

 

[andleanback]

Didn't the Swans only officially lodge their first offer for their guy after the Hawks did?

Cats was Charlie’s option until he realised they couldn’t get the deal done and diverted north

 

[Phone]

Cats was Charlie’s option until he realised they couldn’t get the deal done and diverted north

ok but that's beside the point. the Swans lodged their first offer after the Hawks and got their deal done.

Everyone knew this was going down to the last day. whether the Hawks lodge their first offer 36 hours or 108 hours away from the deadline really isn't important in terms of actually getting the deal done. it changed nothing. all the people involved knows how this goes.

 

[Blind Turn]

Im more interested in helping us win a flag than stopping the hawks.

There’s many different ways to bake a cake. If you think a recipe of 4 speculative draft picks without the added Merrett is the only answer then that’s a very limited perspective. Sydney forged a successful era after holding Ryan O’Keefe to his contract. It’s not like it can’t be done.

 

[Keystone agony]

Alot of you got some serious editing to do

 

[doug85]

i agree, i expect a lot of different poos in his locker from a lot of different arseholes next year

We already traded Stringer

 

[ghostdog]

Just when you think we can't mess things we say hold my beer and we show what we really can do. A captain - the guy who's meant to provide the way forward to the players especially the young ones, basically said you're not good enough to give me success in the 6 remaining years I have that I want out and now we kept him and expect the players are going to have trust in him. Honestly, pick 10, 22 and a future first was pretty good given what we'll get offered next year. Could have taken the deal and tried to use the picks to get higher up etc or just use the picks, I mean 22 is such a terrible pick that we forget the great players we've taken over the last 5 years with picks in the top 10 (yes, sarcastic) and dismiss that we got Zac with picks 26. Muppets!!

No, we kept that conniving rat to his deal and I expect that he will act with the integrity of a leader to rebuild the trust of the playing group.
That's what a professional leader would do.