Unofficial Preview 2025 Hawk's Hypothetical Trade Discussion...now with added DFA spitballing!

[Strapping Young Lad]

This thread is becoming increasingly popular, and to keep some sort of order, we will have some….

Rules of engagement:

1. Bring valid news or links to Twitter posts from notable sources. Don’t post screenshots or “some bloke just said on SEN” or what some “trade whisperer” has posted on a Facebook page.

2. Ignore what other team boards are putting up as trade offers. Don’t quote or bring them here either.

3. Don’t post “buckle up” for the lols.

4. If you can’t say anything nice about Worpel or CJ, don’t say anything at all. The continued slaps and backhanders are just going to be deleted.

 

[Yardie]

Interesting theory...I guess, if that's the case, Rosa and his team should be gone before long, as presumably Welsh would be furious.

Problem now is that Essendon will be seen as a club that does not act in good faith. Rosa and team probably survive as people won't want to go and work there given what has just happened.

 

[sinkintins]

The commentsary has been that Petroro was mad at Hawthorn for not adding a player. I read it diferently. I thought he was frustrated but not with Hawthorn. The text that Damian Barrett refused to read out on air seemed to be "Tell Essendon to go and F themselves".
When Petroro was in the Hawthorn box, he was mostly sitting and chatting. There were handhshakes all around afterwards.
When he was in the Essendon box he stood and talked and did not linger long.
I would love to know his thoughts on the whole saga.

Agreed, reckon the first thing he said when he was pointing at Rob McCartney was don't ever trade with them again haha

 

[Yardie]

The biggest blunder was thinking that Essendon were going to act any differently. The place is terrible. I knew from the start it wasn't getting done, cause we simply just hate each other too much. And I'm not even worried about losing Worpel and CJ. I implore everyone to remember how bad they were this year. It will now give opportunity for Mackenzie, Hustwaite to step up.

In hindsight, we should have chased harder for Petracca and even Oliver, whose CV's are much more impressive than Merrett and the Dees were having a fire sale. I know Oliver has his problems, but 3rd round pick? That is criminal. Even if he just has 1 good year for wanting to get back at the Dees, it would have been worth it.

I'm indifferent to Essendon. Now Geelong.....

 

[hardway]

Problem now is that Essendon will be seen as a club that does not act in good faith. Rosa and team probably survive as people won't want to go and work there given what has just happened.

Rosa is basically redundant!

 

[killerspud]

...because this it the HYPOTHETICAL trade discussion thread...

Could Zach Merrett retire from football as of this week - he's 30 he's had enough has business interests etc

Then come the mid season draft could he have a sudden change of mind, he misses the game, felt he had more to offer the right club, wants one final crack at it

...and then could he put a massive price tag on his head and have it so other clubs would baulk at him leaving him to drop to us? Even if he didn't come to us and went to another club I would love the thought that Essendon passed up all those assets to keep one player against his will and then lost that player for nothing

 

[StackedHunch]

Problem now is that Essendon will be seen as a club that does not act in good faith. Rosa and team probably survive as people won't want to go and work there given what has just happened.

Not if the board believes Rosa botched it. Clean out, dump the blame on bad recruiters. An inexpensive and effective way to wash their tarnished image. If not, it's definitely driven from above.

 

[Mercy Seat]

Not if the board believes Rosa botched it. Clean out, dump the blame on bad recruiters. An inexpensive and effective way to wash their tarnished image. If not, it's definitely driven from above.

If that was Mark McKenzie and Gowers had come over the top, I would be expecting MM's resignation notice within 24 hours. Embarassing from a supposed professional organisation.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

...because this it the HYPOTHETICAL trade discussion thread...

Could Zach Merrett retire from football as of this week - he's 30 he's had enough has business interests etc

Then come the mid season draft could he have a sudden change of mind, he misses the game, felt he had more to offer the right club, wants one final crack at it

...and then could he put a massive price tag on his head and have it so other clubs would baulk at him leaving him to drop to us? Even if he didn't come to us and went to another club I would love the thought that Essendon passed up all those assets to keep one player against his will and then lost that player for nothing

Guarantee if he tried that the AFL would not let him enter the draft.

 

[sinkintins]

Not if the board believes Rosa botched it. Clean out, dump the blame on bad recruiters. An inexpensive and effective way to wash their tarnished image. If not, it's definitely driven from above.

That might work for the puppets in the media and the public, but anyone in the industry would be able to find out the truth of it fairly easily.

 

[StackedHunch]

Guarantee if he tried that the AFL would not let him enter the draft.

IIRC a player can renege on a contract, but means they have to sit out an entire year.

 

[StackedHunch]

That might work for the puppets in the media and the public, but anyone in the industry would be able to find out the truth of it fairly easily.

What I'm presenting is how it should play out: if the recruitment team are to blame, it won't be hard to dump them and apportioned blame. If the board did it, they won't be trying to scape goat Rosa et al, because the truth is already known by insiders.

 

[HairyO]

If that was Mark McKenzie and Gowers had come over the top, I would be expecting MM's resignation notice within 24 hours. Embarassing from a supposed professional organisation.

The Roos list team all quit. Quite a stand as I suspect for most of the year its a cushy job, with weeks of frantic work here and there.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Just to clear something up in here - Trac had his heart set on us and the extra year would not have been applicable to us. He would have done what was necessary to get here. Those additional negotiations only happened when it looked like his only options were interstate.

This is true. There are too many posters to respond to that are parroting the narrative that it was about the money. It wasn't.

Petracca wanted assurances about his future and wanted it resolved quickly. He didn't want to wait for our priority deal, Zerrett, to get done before knowing what assets we'd have to satisfy Melbourne in a trade - or whether we'd even be able to.

He knew he could get extra coin from GCS as they play with funny money, so he moved on to them quickly.

Hindsight shows he and his manager were right anyway, as the Zerrett deal was not confirmed until the very last moment.

 

[sinkintins]

The Roos list team all quit. Quite a stand as I suspect for most of the year its a cushy job, with weeks of frantic work here and there.

Was this recent? Or a while back?

 

[stevehawkington]

Problem now is that Essendon will be seen as a club that does not act in good faith. Rosa and team probably survive as people won't want to go and work there given what has just happened.

Well not really, they said they weren't gonna trade him and stuck to it. It's going to be difficult for them all next year, every performance for Zach will be analyzed. Every facial expression will be highlighted.
It'll become boring.

I don't think our midfield is gonna be an issue next year, plenty of kids will get more game time with worps gone. Ward will get better and there's a reason Mackenzie wasn't placed on the table for merret.

 

[StackedHunch]

Well not really, they said they weren't gonna trade him and stuck to it. It's going to be difficult for them all next year, every performance for Zach will be analyzed. Every facial expression will be highlighted.
It'll become boring.

I don't think our midfield is gonna be an issue next year, plenty of kids will get more game time with worps gone. Ward will get better and there's a reason Mackenzie wasn't placed on the table for merret.

The apparently consistent trade stance doesn't exonerate them. It's still a hell-hole for players, and managers by extension.

 

[HairyO]

Was this recent? Or a while back?

Was a few years ago I think. Maybe related to JHF ?

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

It’ll all come out in the wash over the next few days. After discussions and a handshake agreement between Rob FK, Matt and Mark, Essendon were given a narrow window to move aggressively, with West Coast and Richmond still active in the building. Then the board stepped in, beat their chests and vetoed the deal, a move that not only hurt the Bombers’ position but left their own recruiting team frustrated and dejected. Yet, remarkably, the internal spin is that they won.

Thanks for the update. Now we know why the Essendon trade room looked like they had just been told they were no longer required, and sat in there for so long after the deadline.

I guess it’s easy in hindsight to say that we should’ve known Essendon would be that stupid to thwart their own chance at a great draft hand in return for a want-away player, but we will have definitely learnt a lot from this period.

I posted a few days ago(feels like weeks) that our list management team would have planned for this trade period, however I think we know now that we really did underestimate how petty Essendon would be and how different they are compared to other clubs we have dealt with.

I truly believe that Hawthorn made the mistake of seeing Essendon in their own image and believing Essendon were bluffing to a point and would simply trade Merrett, because that’s what professional sporting clubs do when this situation arises.
But again, I think we learnt the hard way that Essendon are still an amateurish football club to a degree and their board wanted the visual and emotional “win”.
For me the most intriguing thing about the trade period now is whether we will move on, or if we return for another go at Merrett in 11 months time.


To those who will declare we’ve gone backwards or that we didn’t improve our list I say that you only need to cast your eye back to 2023 when we were a lock to land Harley Reid with Pick 1, only for our youngsters to pick up the slack after JOM and Tom left.

No doubt we wanted to add a top liner, but Weddle, Wiz, Frenchy, Butler, Ward, Croc and Calsh all have the ability to have improved years in 2026 and then there's Day, so I am still bullish about what we can do.

 

[Yardie]

Bombers will regret this decision. Reality is their list is poor and wouldn’t surprise me if they finish bottom 2. I see a lot of West coast in them.

When did * win a two premierships in the last 20 years......

West Coast will rise faster than *. They are just in a funk rather than being dysfunctional.

 

[HeHateMe]

I know we want to win now but going young isn't the worst plan. Push our window out past Brissy and strike when the draft is compromised by Tassie anyway.

 

[hardway]

When did * win a two premierships in the last 20 years......

West Coast will rise faster than *. They are just in a funk rather than being dysfunctional.

There are a lot of similarities between where eagles have been the last 5 years and where the bombers are headed.

 

[Nugett]

This is not the draft to trade up into. This is the draft to have multiple bites at, preferably in the first round. If we are going to the draft I hope we move back from 10 and have 3 late firsts, rather than 10 and 22.

Or, we just get out of this draft entirely and trade into next year. Have heard from multiple people involved in many drafts in a S&C capacity that this is the weakest in over a decade.

I’m hoping we trade out of this year, and get picks for next year.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

To those who will declare we’ve gone backwards or that we didn’t improve our list I say that you only need to cast your eye back to 2023 when we were a lock to land Harley Reid with Pick 1, only for our youngsters to pick up the slack after JOM and Tom left.

No doubt we wanted to add a top liner, but Weddle, Wiz, Frenchy, Butler, Ward, Croc and Calsh all have the ability to have improved years in 2026, so I am still bullish about what we can do.

Yeah I really don't get the glum 'oh now we just have to hope for internal development' vibes on here. Yes, Merrett would have been a great acquisition but even without banking on Day's fitness there is nothing to say Butler, Huss and Frenchie can't make our midfield better than what it was last year. Without Merrett in 18 months we went from easybeats to preliminary finalists. If you are doubting this group's desire and ability to get even better then I feel sorry for you.

 

[KOLOKOTRONIS]

Well not really, they said they weren't gonna trade him and stuck to it. It's going to be difficult for them all next year, every performance for Zach will be analyzed. Every facial expression will be highlighted.
It'll become boring.

I don't think our midfield is gonna be an issue next year, plenty of kids will get more game time with worps gone. Ward will get better and there's a reason Mackenzie wasn't placed on the table for merret.

Mackenzie plays a lot like his coach did in his early years. Prior to 2006. If he can extract the ball, he will be a gun player. Personally I have faith in Mackenzie to shine. I’m glad he wasn’t an option

KOLOKOTRONIS

 

[sinkintins]

Was a few years ago I think. Maybe related to JHF ?

Thanks, was 2022 before the mid season draft for anyone else interested.