AFL Player # 7: Indefatigable Zach Merrett (c) - 3x AA 🏅🏅🏅 4x Crichton Medallist 🥇🥇🥇🥇

[Beerfish]

Contract Status: Unrestricted Free Agent 2027
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 10, I Remember Bluey

 

[Cold Sober]

Thought Parish was already a lock.

 

[Old Campaigner]

And Parish

And Parish.

And Parish

and Parish

I thought we were trading him

 

[Doss]

I thought we were trading him

I just wanted to continue the streak.

 

[WindyHillWarrior]

And Parish.

 

[thepokey]

The way he's looked when we are up and about recently, absolute joy in his face and getting around his team mates - I figured if he walked away after that something was seriously wrong. Thankfully its alllllll good

 

[eth-dog]

And Parish.

And Parish

 

[essendon]

Best news day of the day....massive for the club....massive ticks from all involved so far from Brasher down to Truck... .clearly a defining year 2021 already and most profound in many many years for us .....can't think of how many positive stories we have had so far this year in a decade of doom and gloom and such negativity ......this year has to be the biggest turning point since the great 2000....we can only continue to go in one direction from here.........the giant is awakening !!!!!

 

[Andronicus]

Sign The Stringman and we're done.

Monorail!

I mean parish.

 

[Call Me Cake]

 

[Inspecta Gadget]

and Parish

And Parish

And Parish.

And Parish

 

[Call Me Cake]

 

[raskolnikov]

Guys. Merrett is overrated.

Well, at least according to the Carlton board now that they're no chance of getting him.

 

[MiguelM]

I was fairly confident he would remain due to his body language (as others have posted). The one act that made me think he was totally onboard was when he tried to bring 2MP into the circle for the club song post Eagles win.

His form this year has been the best I have seen from him. Shows how much the mental side of the game matters. Create a good environment with structure and players will flourish.

 

[Runk]

MORNING ALL

 

[srobbo]

Glad to have signed Zach. 800k a year is about right too.

Just out of interest for we know if he had anything else on the table from rival clubs or how much more they were prepared to pay?

 

[Zach Package]

Merrett’s signature is a coup for the Bombers and Rutten. The important midfielder was re-added to the club’s leadership group for this season and will again be in Therabody All-Australian conversations after averaging 31 disposals so far this year.

Predictive text catches the Twombstone out again. We know what he's been shopping for

 

[Dave]

Guys. Merrett is overrated.

Well, at least according to the Carlton board now that they're no chance of getting him.

Also, one of them reckons he'd agreed to go to them. Riiiiiiiight.

 

[JayJ20]

Merrett said this about why he re-signed:

“Looking back over the past seven or eight years from the start of my career, there hasn’t been a lot of change and wasn’t a great deal of alignment and trust throughout the organisation,” Merrett told SEN Breakfast.

“It wasn’t so much just 12 weeks of footy, but from day 1 of pre-season, 'Truck' (Ben Rutten) has brought in a great deal of change in the organisation as a whole and more importantly allowed us as players to hone in on our footy.

“There’s a real sense of clarity with everyone, both players and staff as well, for what their role is and what’s required of them,” Merrett said.

“Secondly, there’s a real sense of buy-in and alignment across the place. I think guys are really enjoying getting to work and celebrating each other along the journey as well.

“We’ve seen some younger players more importantly flourish like (Darcy) Parish, (Kyle) Langford and (Jayden) Laverde down back, which has taken a load off the shoulders of Dyson and a few others.”

I think the bolded was very important. He's probably enjoying the emergence of Parish the most as it gives him another person to shoulder the pressure. Probably felt like it was left to him to lift our side, especially last year.

Full article:

What swayed Zach Merrett to re-sign with Essendon?

Merrett signed a six-year contract extension on Thursday.

www.sen.com.au

 

[Old Campaigner]

Predictive text catches the Twombstone out again. We know what he's been shopping for

Apparently it’s the sponsor for the All Australian side

AFL names Therabody as its Official Recovery Partner

Therabody's industry-leading devices to be integrated into pre-match training and post-match recovery

www.google.com

 

[JayJ20]

A message from Zach:

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Merrett said this about why he re-signed:



I think the bolded was very important. He's probably enjoying the emergence of Parish the most as it gives him another person to shoulder the pressure. Probably felt like it was left to him to lift our side, especially last year.

Full article:

What swayed Zach Merrett to re-sign with Essendon?

Merrett signed a six-year contract extension on Thursday.

www.sen.com.au

Get the feeling he wasn’t a big rap for Woosha. That’s one of the problems having a coach with not much idea tactically.

 

[carloss]

Happy he signed. Not a fan of contracts that length.

 

[Hak94]

Merrett said this about why he re-signed:



I think the bolded was very important. He's probably enjoying the emergence of Parish the most as it gives him another person to shoulder the pressure. Probably felt like it was left to him to lift our side, especially last year.

Full article:

What swayed Zach Merrett to re-sign with Essendon?

Merrett signed a six-year contract extension on Thursday.

www.sen.com.au

Definitely gives me faith in the likes of Parish (even though he's publicly commited without effectively signing a new contract) and also Stringer resigning new deals. If there is a buy in across the board, arguably your most important player and undoubtedly one of the biggest leaders at the club voicing it like he has must give enough reason for those guys to be pulled into it too. Great interview.

 

[Lore]

Get the feeling he wasn’t a big rap for Woosha. That’s one of the problems having a coach with not much idea tactically.

I thought it was the lack of overall leadership. Woosha kept wanting to "empower" the players to take responsibility for the group and drive it forward, get around each other, celebrate each other, support each other, be pushing to get better etc.

Problem is not everyone does that stuff without it being told to them explicitly or set as a minimum expectation before you get a game. So then you have Zach as basically the only senior player taking any responsibility of it (especially with Heppell and Hooker being injured most of last year). And Zach wasn't in a position last year to be setting expectations of his teammates (he wasn't even in the leadership group). So it's not like he could set up a fine system if others were late to training or anything..

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

I thought it was the lack of overall leadership. Woosha kept wanting to "empower" the players to take responsibility for the group and drive it forward, get around each other, celebrate each other, support each other, be pushing to get better etc.

Problem is not everyone does that stuff without it being told to them explicitly or set as a minimum expectation before you get a game. So then you have Zach as basically the only senior player taking any responsibility of it (especially with Heppell and Hooker being injured most of last year). And Zach wasn't in a position last year to be setting expectations of his teammates (he wasn't even in the leadership group). So it's not like he could set up a fine system if others were late to training or anything..

You’re right it was the lack of overall leadership and players not taking to empowerment. I sometimes think that is to hide some of the weaknesses in the actual leader. Woosha relied too much on others for strategy, probably reason for ridiculous set up with assistants and Neeld.