AFL Player 7: Indefatigable Zach Merrett -

[Phone]

youd have to give it away surely?

he doesn't get any money if he does that

 

[maskmcgee]

At least with him discussing a contract extension with us that should stop Hawthorn supporters from cheering him, so they’ll be nothing to drown out the boos.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Disappointing 360 interview. Basically it’s all everyone’s else’s fault.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Disappointing 360 interview. Basically it’s all everyone’s else’s fault.

that's... not what was said... he absolutely said he had learned lessons and should have done things differently

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

that's... not what was said... he absolutely said he had learned lessons and should have done things differently

He said he was disappointed some conversations became public. Yet it was fine for his agent to leek stuff.

Said he was surprised at the reaction by fans and some players. Find that a little naive, he was the captain.

 

[kleanr]

You can make it all go away Zac.

Just line little Watson up and steamroll him in the first minute of the game.

Then all will be forgiven.

...or the other grub with his swagger of unqualified arrogance, or the one with a rats tail...
oh wait, thats the whole team

line in the sand 2.0 Zach!

 

[ant555]

He said he was disappointed some conversations became public. Yet it was fine for his agent to leek stuff.

Said he was surprised at the reaction by fans and some players. Find that a little naive, he was the captain.

Now has a different agent. I would say that was part of the disappointment.

 

[Old Campaigner]

Big article in the age about his attempt to get to the horkes. All a bit underwhelming really, I guess I expected more intrigue. Instead it boiled down to Merrett wanted a trade, Hawkes said yes, we said no

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Big article in the age about his attempt to get to the horkes. All a bit underwhelming really, I guess I expected more intrigue. Instead it boiled down to Merrett wanted a trade, Hawkes said yes, we said no

Think this confirms what we all knew but shows he and his wife tried to butter up Scott and Vozzo at Scott’s dinner, then with Petroro spoke to three clubs and then met Hawks management …all within a few days of Scott’s dinner! And then within 12 hours was conveniently leaked to Tom Morris. Pissweak

 

[JayJ20]

He talks like someone being held hostage lol. Like signing the contract ruined his career.

Now that I think of it, our best performance by a mile was the St Kilda game, the game he didn't play He admits he was struggling in the last part of the season so I wonder if that impacted team morale.

It's pretty clear he doesn't want to be here, but it remains to be seen if he keeps it professional and gives it his all.

We all knew Dunkley was going to leave Bulldogs after the failed trade, but you couldn't fault his efforts every week.

 

[Calthorpe14]

He talks like someone being held hostage lol. Like signing the contract ruined his career.

Now that I think of it, our best performance by a mile was the St Kilda game, the game he didn't play He admits he was struggling in the last part of the season so I wonder if that impacted team morale.

It's pretty clear he doesn't want to be here, but it remains to be seen if he keeps it professional and gives it his all.

We all knew Dunkley was going to leave Bulldogs after the failed trade, but you couldn't fault his efforts every week.

His professionalism and playing to the best of his abilities isn't a worry IMO. If anything, this whole situation has shown him to be a pretty self-centred operator, so individually he'll want to play his best footy for himself rather than the club.

 

[Phone]

Big article in the age about his attempt to get to the horkes. All a bit underwhelming really, I guess I expected more intrigue. Instead it boiled down to Merrett wanted a trade, Hawkes said yes, we said no

it's good to have a few things confirmed though, if only to inform future discussions about this situation

• the club's immediate response was to think it was about money when there's nothing to suggest it was. this still seems to inform part of their thinking. (zach likes money, obviously, but 250 games of no success and no immediate prospect of success seems to be the larger problem)
• no other Melbourne club was interested in Zach (anyone with half a brain knew that the Hawks were the only club who would go for Zach, but it's good to have it confirmed that the Pies and Dogs, two of the only other logical destinations, quickly said no)
• Zach told Tom Petroro he wanted a trade, who had previously told Zach that getting out was going to be difficult (all the people trying to somehow blame this on Tom Petroro are insane)
• Zach didn't get why his trade request was different to Petracca and co. (This is insane on Zach's part and again is not something that can be blamed on his manager)
• the club was never trading Zach (this means we can judge no trade happening surely through the lens of the Club not wanting to even consider a trade. the whole thing about the Hawks only sending an offer 2 days before the deadline is essentially meaningless)

it's hard to tell whether this an editorial decision in the article or if the Club believes this too, but there's a lot of "line in the sand" stuff towards the end of the article. the problem with this is: whatever happened could have been a "line in the sand". We stand firm and say no. Line in the sand. We say "ok Zach, we're sick of dealing with this every off-season, you can **** off and we're invest elsewhere". Line in the sand. it means nothing.

 

[King Patty]

Its interesting, say Zach Merrett stays and becomes a 300 game player, 6 time B&F winner, how do we feel about him.
It leaves a sour taste in most supporters mouths I imagine.

Essendon have no A graders,
we have merrett
But he wants to leave.

I'm all for letting him go to the higest bidder and bolstering the 2027 draft hand for Bewick, Darwish and Rodan.

 

[ant555]

Highlights the leadership issues we have had.
We drew a line partly because he was captain but the fact is he was not a great captain.
Not many super driven players make good captains.
Mitchell is a prime example.
If we had better leaders and Merrett was not in the leadership group he may well have been traded.

 

[Maxabillions]

His professionalism and playing to the best of his abilities isn't a worry IMO. If anything, this whole situation has shown him to be a pretty self-centred operator, so individually he'll want to play his best footy for himself rather than the club.

Yep, we can rely on his selfishness to get a good season out of him as he’ll want to keep his options open for a trade, be attractive to a good team and maximise his contact wherever he ends up.

 

[Beerfish]

Does he go to sleep tonight wishing he'd been a part of that win?

Probably.

 

[Calthorpe14]

Does he go to sleep tonight wishing he'd been a part of that win?

Probably.

Probably stopping past Dan Murphy’s on the way home. Couldn’t blame him

 

[maskmcgee]

boooo

 

[andleanback]

Does he go to sleep tonight wishing he'd been a part of that win?

Probably.

You could see it when he was out there

 

[NAB777]

Has been offered a multi year contract.

 

[dank420_]

Has been offered a multi year contract.

Which club?

 

[Phone]

Has been offered a multi year contract.

if we're lucky, he put it off until the off-season

 

[nipst@r]

What's the plan here?

Im a strong believer in time can heal but 1 game and a bad loss in. What.

Seems a pr move to give us more leverage and save face when he requests a trade again.

Or is it simple after our bad losses last year the club usually announced a resigning or some debutantes.

Must be no debutantes and no actual resigning this week so merret extension offer was the next best pr deflection.

 

[Calthorpe14]

What's the plan here?

Im a strong believer in time can heal but 1 game and a bad loss in. What.

Seems a pr move to give us more leverage and save face when he requests a trade again.

Or is it simple after our bad losses last year the club usually announced a resigning or some debutantes.

Must be no debutantes and no actual resigning this week so merret extension offer was the next best pr deflection.

In fairness, discussions did begin before Round 1.

I’d say the club genuinely believes that retaining our only A-grader is the best path forward for the list build. There’s probably a PR element as well, signalling that he’s “fully committed.” That said, if they’re comfortable with it being leaked, you’d think they believe there’s a better than average chance he actually accepts it.

From the outside, though, it’s hard to gauge how real the chances are unless you’re directly involved in the conversations.

 

[Lore]

Papley-esque manoeuvre except Papley wasn’t their captain so the playbook may not be a perfect fit