AFL Player 7: Indefatigable Zach Merrett

[BrunoV]

Just because Hawthorne had a terrible trade strategy doesn't mean we had to as well. If we said from the outset we'd trade him on our terms and welcomed them to the table maybe we get a greater offer, we still have the right to hold him in this scenario. Instead we went with a robust not for sale strat and acted offended and emotional.

We weren't acting. Emotions absolutely got the better of the ultimate decision makers.

We were on notice well before trade period. There were weeks that could have been spent trying to line players up. That becomes the sell. Zach wants out, we respect that, we're rebuilding, we've got money for anyone who is motivated enough to come and guide a talented young group which is going expand by 5 or 6 players in the next few months. Even use it as the impetus or excuse to publicly announce a rebuild and to level with the supports who don't really know where things currently sit (and which is why Essendon is losing the narrative war). Admitting this in a way that fans can assocaite with is such a big problem for Essendon.

 

[Milanista28]

No, if we go out and say that it immediately weakens our bargaining power. We played it correctly. Hawthorne ****ed it.

How can it weaken our bargaining power? He's contracted, we don't need to do anything if we don't want to. Being closed off to the idea only hurts us, who knows where the offer ends up if we are proactive.

My view is our objective was to not let Hawthorne get one over us, I guess we succeeded. It doesn't feel like a win right now.

 

[Milanista28]

I was in the let him go for the three picks and Hustwaite but how the draft panned out I am not really sure it was 100% the right thing to do.
We ended up with the extra first round pick anyway.
We could not get any interest in players we wanted to move who have contracts so we could find spots on the list.
We drafted Sharp who is probably a better prospect than Hustwaite.
Not sure we wanted to take more than 5 guys in a medium type of draft.
Despite what people are saying here Merrett will play enough good footy to command a couple of 10 to 18 range picks at the end of this year. We will likely need a few 2027 first round picks.
Maybe the strategy to hold will be right. Of course that depends on Merrett not signing the current extension offer.

Fine with all of this. My only current issue with the whole saga is that we weren't mature enough to just be professional about it.

It didn't have to be, 'if Hawkes win we lose', zoom out and we could've benefited big from this. Now that's not to say we still can't as you say.

 

[Calthorpe14]

How can it weaken our bargaining power? He's contracted, we don't need to do anything if we don't want to. Being closed off to the idea only hurts us, who knows where the offer ends up if we are proactive.

My view is our objective was to not let Hawthorne get one over us, I guess we succeeded. It doesn't feel like a win right now.

I reckon it plays out very differently if a) he’d been more transparent throughout the year, and b) it wasn’t Hawthorne.

Was it a knee-jerk, stubborn call? Probably, yeah. But it also wasn’t exactly an offer that forced our hand or made it impossible to say no. It's also really tough to trade a captain, which we won't face this year.

I feel very confident that a club comes this year with a 1st this year & next year, and I’d expect we’d be far more open to letting him go, assuming he doesn't sign the contract extension, which feels like no chance.

 

[joey_jo_jo]

Fine with all of this. My only current issue with the whole saga is that we weren't mature enough to just be professional about it.

It didn't have to be, 'if Hawkes win we lose', zoom out and we could've benefited big from this. Now that's not to say we still can't as you say.

do you know if the club actually thought that or is that just posturing in public for the fans?

There was talk on the last day about us asking for a first pick in 2027 draft, of course the general media and nuff opposition fans tried to paint that as us being unreasonable but if you take a step back we probably were already aware of likely changes to father/son and NGA bidding so were planning for the need of an additional FRP in 27 to bid on him.

If hawks had actually put in an offer early in the period and negotiated in good faith instead of using the media to try and embarrass us into accepting unders before finally making an official offer with a 24 hour deadline attached I would think Rosa and Vozzo would have been willing to discuss. We worked with Carlton on pick swaps that benefited both clubs so its not like we were just sitting on our hands doing F all.

 

[Milanista28]

do you know if the club actually thought that or is that just posturing in public for the fans?

There was talk on the last day about us asking for a first pick in 2027 draft, of course the general media and nuff opposition fans tried to paint that as us being unreasonable but if you take a step back we probably were already aware of likely changes to father/son and NGA bidding so were planning for the need of an additional FRP in 27 to bid on him.

If hawks had actually put in an offer early in the period and negotiated in good faith instead of using the media to try and embarrass us into accepting unders before finally making an official offer with a 24 hour deadline attached I would think Rosa and Vozzo would have been willing to discuss. We worked with Carlton on pick swaps that benefited both clubs so its not like we were just sitting on our hands doing F all.

I think that, we were hurt by it, we were angry and we had a new president that hated Hawthorn, who thought being tough right now was more important than the future. (My opinion)

The Hawkes acted how they did partly because we were so hellbent against trading him, we were closed off and not welcoming, I'm saying had we been open from the start who knows what type of deal we could've received, and again we still had every right to refuse any and all offers.

 

[MPMonkeys]

How can it weaken our bargaining power? He's contracted, we don't need to do anything if we don't want to. Being closed off to the idea only hurts us, who knows where the offer ends up if we are proactive.

My view is our objective was to not let Hawthorne get one over us, I guess we succeeded. It doesn't feel like a win right now.

Publicly we were closed off to the idea but negotiations were happening between the two camps right up until the last minute.
Potroro was running between the offices of the two clubs constantly on trade night and I can only assume it wasn't because he had a new exercise regime.

The deal didn't get done. People have to live with it. I can only imagine the grief we would be getting now from the same media that we traded our best player away for a bag of chips. Its a classic heads you lose, tails I win scenario for the media and oppossition supporters.

 

[Old Campaigner]

Publicly we were closed off to the idea but negotiations were happening between the two camps right up until the last minute.
Potroro was running between the offices of the two clubs constantly on trade night and I can only assume it wasn't because he had a new exercise regime.

The deal didn't get done. People have to live with it. I can only imagine the grief we would be getting now from the same media that we traded our best player away for a bag of chips. It’s a classic heads you lose, tails I win scenario for the media and oppossition supporters.

I guess all we have left is to make fun of the delusional morons who thought it was a good idea to keep him

 

[YEMOC NAYR]

We will get less for him this year when the new head coach comes in and throws his weight around imo. Not a daniher tier mistake as the return we wouldve got for him was better but will be regarded as one regardless.

 

[Lore]

There were weeks that could have been spent trying to line players up.

Like who? That shit went public on the Wednesday after our make up game in the round 24 bye, would’ve been the 3rd of September.

Last minute trade offers are more about dumpster diving than good management. And even the dumpster wasn’t bearing fruit last year.

 

[SpeckieMcVeigh]

Time to move out of the midfield and to half back?

 

[jmoo wan]

View attachment 2568896

Time to move out of the midfield and to half back?

nah Nick Daicos is a star - he will bounce back just back him in

 

[Old Campaigner]

Maybe the AFL will bring in mid season trading just this once

 

[Lore]

View attachment 2568896

Time to move out of the midfield and to half back?

To get centre clearances you have to attend centre bounces. It also helps if you play in high scoring games, because more goals means more centre bounces to attend. Without looking up the stats there is also the possibility that the rule changes for this year have reduced the number of centre bounces that can be attended, in part because there’s an extra bench rotation but also just rules changes leading to changes in game style.

 

[SpeckieMcVeigh]

To get centre clearances you have to attend centre bounces. It also helps if you play in high scoring games, because more goals means more centre bounces to attend. Without looking up the stats there is also the possibility that the rule changes for this year have reduced the number of centre bounces that can be attended, in part because there’s an extra bench rotation but also just rules changes leading to changes in game style.

We have other mids with similar centre bounce attended numbers this season (Caldwell and Parish up until last week) and yet somehow Zerrett has by far the worst clearance differential in the competition.

Also even though raw centre bounce numbers are skewed by what you mentioned, I recall being a very good clearance team last year before injuries destroyed us. This year we're 18th (and have certainly had plenty of opportunities with all the goals kicked against us).

Zach's strength is his ball use but both the eye test and the statistics show that he's not the best at winning balls in dispute at centre bounces.

 

[Lore]

We have other mids with similar centre bounce attended numbers this season (Caldwell and Parish up until last week) and yet somehow Zerrett has by far the worst clearance differential in the competition.

Also even though raw centre bounce numbers are skewed by what you mentioned, I recall being a very good clearance team last year before injuries destroyed us. This year we're 18th (and have certainly had plenty of opportunities with all the goals kicked against us).

Zach's strength is his ball use but both the eye test and the statistics show that he's not the best at winning balls in dispute at centre bounces.

The difference against NM is he was being tagged, which firstly impeded his ability to get a clearance, and then forced him to play in other parts of the ground where he couldn’t even attend the centre bounce.

Parish didn’t really play at all last year due to injuries. I’d suggest Merrett picked up some of the slack last year, and now Parish is roving again so they tap it to him instead.

 

[joey_jo_jo]

I wouldnt know any inside info but feels like our midfield set up atm is entirely devised to placate Zach after he threw the toys out in the off season.

Felt like there was a goal to move beyond our reliance on him and Parish in the middle last season (even before the injuries) but that has been forgotten this year.

 

[Vindicater]

I wouldnt know any inside info but feels like our midfield set up atm is entirely devised to placate Zach after he threw the toys out in the off season.

Felt like there was a goal to move beyond our reliance on him and Parish in the middle last season (even before the injuries) but that has been forgotten this year.

Nah. I just think we are seeing what we have always known but somehow escapes Scott.

Parish and Merrett can't be together in the midfield.

 

[joey_jo_jo]

Nah. I just think we are seeing what we have always known but somehow escapes Scott.

Parish and Merrett can't be together in the midfield.

Agree it doesnt work, but felt like there was an acknowledgement of that last year with zach spending time in backline/forwardline

 

[King Patty]

Maybe the AFL will bring in mid season trading just this once

What would we accept from Hawks?

2026 F1 + 2027 F1
and it opens up a list spot for the mid season draft.

 

[King Patty]

Indefatiguable - Zach Merrett.

Well I have Zach Merrett fatigue.

Although hawks deal was rubbish, we just would have had clearer waters now if we had moved him on last year.
He has to go end of year. But he also needs to perform better onfield, like Caldwell and Durham and Parish. If not Brad needs to wield the axe and try a different midfield mix.

My preference would be Merrett splits time 50% forward and 50% on ball, maybe give Sharp more of a crack.
Same with Caldwell he can play forward more.

 

[Lance Uppercut]

it just kind of feels like he's phoning it in, unfortunately

 

[Old Campaigner]

it just kind of feels like he's phoning it in, unfortunately

I was assured he was a consummate professional who would give 100% regardless of the outcome of the trade request

 

[eth-dog]

it just kind of feels like he's phoning it in, unfortunately

Really? I honestly think that's confirmation bias. Yeah FOS held him to 10 touches (fantastic effort by the kid) but Merrett had nearly double the tackles of the second highest tackle getter on the ground, tried to break the tag and kicked a late goal to give us like a 1% chance of getting a draw

 

[Lance Uppercut]

Really? I honestly think that's confirmation bias. Yeah FOS held him to 10 touches (fantastic effort by the kid) but Merrett had nearly double the tackles of the second highest tackle getter on the ground, tried to break the tag and kicked a late goal to give us like a 1% chance of getting a draw

well it's not confirmation bias as I genuinely believed he would be a professional about it... And I'm not basing it off the one game.

However, it is a small sample size and the team is playing like utter pus so I'm prepared to concede it might be a bit harsh. Guess it remains to be seen. But, so far, he has not had anything like the impact he normally does - although I agree the tackle numbers are a good sign, if nothing else. Ball in his court