AFL Player # 7: Indefatigable Zach Merrett (c) - Your ANZAC Day Medallist - 25/4

[Beerfish]

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

 

[Lore]

Maybe for us but not for players. After money and getting into the top 22 I think it’s the next mark of respect and something they strive for.

Top 10 bnf as well

 

[Beerfish]

And BF player of the year.

 

[fairbump_playon]

Top 10 bnf as well

Good call. The first time that happens for a player must be very comforting.. “not fringe”

 

[fairbump_playon]

And BF player of the year.

Ha ha i imagine eventually one day a draftee will be doing a video puff piece and say that in terms of career success he just wants to be loved by the fans on Big Footy.

Honestly don’t know if saying that would increase or decrease his chances.

 

[nonamehack]

He better bloody well be in the leadership group.

Because it worked so well having Joe and Raz in the leadership group when they obviously wanted out. May as well go the trifecta of outs.

 

[Beerfish]

Ha ha i imagine eventually one day a draftee will be doing a video puff piece and say that in terms of career success he just wants to be loved by the fans on Big Footy.

Honestly don’t know if saying that would increase or decrease his chances.

I'd love to have a trophy for it that we could present them with at the player sponsor night.

 

[ghostdog]

I'd love to have a trophy for it that we could present them with at the player sponsor night.

That would actually be a great, contemporary way to engage with the fanbase. Should copy and paste that one into an email.

 

[fairbump_playon]

That would actually be a great, contemporary way to engage with the fanbase. Should copy and paste that one into an email.

It would be!

And it might even work as long as we don’t add any direct quotes from player threads into the email.

 

[Godzke]

He seems like he'd be the kind of character that's pretty loyal to his teammates. I reckon he stays. Hope I'm right.

considering his teammates were the ones who voted him out, i wouldn't be too sure.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

If I’m in his shoes I want a good shot at a flag or two, so there’s absolutely no way on god’s green earth I’d be signing with Essendon now. I’d be having a good, long wait into well into 2021 to see where we’re at.

He arrived in 2014, he’s under his fourth senior coach (fifth if you count Hird twice), and although he’d clearly have a better idea than me of what Rutten is bringing, there’s no getting away from the fact we were a ******* shambles this year.

So we’ll see how things look next season. He owes the club nothing, he walked in from the draft and has already given us great service with All Aust form and two B&Fs.

I personally expect him to leave for the reasons I just outlined. If not, great.

 

[DERO]

Hard to argue with that Bunk Moreland

 

[ant555]

If I’m in his shoes I want a good shot at a flag or two, so there’s absolutely no way on god’s green earth I’d be signing with Essendon now. I’d be having a good, long wait into well into 2021 to see where we’re at.

He arrived in 2014, he’s under his fourth senior coach (fifth if you count Hird twice), and although he’d clearly have a better idea than me of what Rutten is bringing, there’s no getting away from the fact we were a ******* shambles this year.

So we’ll see how things look next season. He owes the club nothing, he walked in from the draft and has already given us great service with All Aust form and two B&Fs.

I personally expect him to leave for the reasons I just outlined. If not, great.

To Collingwood.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

If I’m in his shoes I want a good shot at a flag or two, so there’s absolutely no way on god’s green earth I’d be signing with Essendon now. I’d be having a good, long wait into well into 2021 to see where we’re at.

He arrived in 2014, he’s under his fourth senior coach (fifth if you count Hird twice), and although he’d clearly have a better idea than me of what Rutten is bringing, there’s no getting away from the fact we were a ******* shambles this year.

So we’ll see how things look next season. He owes the club nothing, he walked in from the draft and has already given us great service with All Aust form and two B&Fs.

I personally expect him to leave for the reasons I just outlined. If not, great.

I’d make that argument if a guy is in late 20s/early 30s but he’s only 25. That’s like saying every decent player if he isn’t in a Prem contender by 6/7th season should leave! So what they’ll be lining up to join Tigers/Cats?

 

[Bunk Moreland]

I’d make that argument if a guy is in late 20s/early 30s but he’s only 25. That’s like saying every decent player if he isn’t in a Prem contender by 6/7th season should leave! So what they’ll be lining up to join Tigers/Cats?

I don’t think seven years is an unreasonable amount of time - not necessarily to be contending - but to show something. We looked alright in 2017 and have totally regressed since, culminating in the utter s**t we played this year. So yeah, think he’ll be having a good look at how we look in 2021.

 

[Yoda_]

I don’t think seven years is an unreasonable amount of time - not necessarily to be contending - but to show something. We looked alright in 2017 and have totally regressed since, culminating in the utter sh*t we played this year. So yeah, think he’ll be having a good look at how we look in 2021.

Two types of players and people
Here.

The grit it, bite your teeth and dig in Patrick Cripps type. He’s continually said he wants to be at Carlton long term

Of

Tom Lynch. First chance at moving on from a s**t show after pretending to show some loyalty after your first big contract and nominating a premiership team to go to.


Working Zac out is hard. I so desperately want him to be like Cripps and sign long term


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[The Prosecutor]

Two types of players and people
Here.

The grit it, bite your teeth and dig in Patrick Cripps type. He’s continually said he wants to be at Carlton long term

Of

Tom Lynch. First chance at moving on from a sh*t show after pretending to show some loyalty after your first big contract and nominating a premiership team to go to.


Working Zac out is hard. I so desperately want him to be like Cripps and sign long term


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ridiculously harsh on Lynch. He gave them 8 seasons and his last year there they lost 16 of their last 17.

 

[Yoda_]

Ridiculously harsh on Lynch. He gave them 8 seasons and his last year there they lost 16 of their last 17.

Maybe harsh but fair imho


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[Lore]

Ridiculously harsh on Lynch. He gave them 8 seasons and his last year there they lost 16 of their last 17.

Cripps is also the same age as Merrett and was drafted to Carlton... he hasn’t had the chance to knock back a free agency offer, nor do we know what either he or Merrett would do if they had been drafted to the bloody Gold Coast.

 

[EnolaGay]

Cripps is also the same age as Merrett and was drafted to Carlton... he hasn’t had the chance to knock back a free agency offer, nor do we know what either he or Merrett would do if they had been drafted to the bloody Gold Coast.

Nor do we know if Cripps will stay at Carlton.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Two types of players and people
Here.

The grit it, bite your teeth and dig in Patrick Cripps type. He’s continually said he wants to be at Carlton long term

Of

Tom Lynch. First chance at moving on from a sh*t show after pretending to show some loyalty after your first big contract and nominating a premiership team to go to.


Working Zac out is hard. I so desperately want him to be like Cripps and sign long term


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Don’t think you can put every player and situation in a black or white box.

Footy is a sport where, no matter what one player can do, if a club has shown itself to be utterly incompetent and self-sabotaging, there won’t be success.

Does a player have to decide to stay there for his entire career just because he went there in a draft? Depends on the situation.

I wouldn’t blame Zac tbh.

Whereas Daniher, I think this move is pretty shitty given how Essendon has been his rehab hospital, and as soon as he’s alright he just cuts and runs.

 

[11kgm]

Nor do we know if Cripps will stay at Carlton.

Rumour has it Freo are going to offer him 1mil plus

Especially with Hogan and Mundy going

 

[EnolaGay]

Rumour has it Freo are going to offer him 1mil plus

Especially with Hogan and Mundy going

Be such as shame for Carlton.


Lel.

 

[blitzer]

Two types of players and people
Here.

The grit it, bite your teeth and dig in Patrick Cripps type. He’s continually said he wants to be at Carlton long term

Of

Tom Lynch. First chance at moving on from a sh*t show after pretending to show some loyalty after your first big contract and nominating a premiership team to go to.


Working Zac out is hard. I so desperately want him to be like Cripps and sign long term


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Does Cripps really deserve this rating? He may have said the words but he hasn't been there for his whole career yet - he ain't even 25 yet. On his way for sure but when I think of that first type I'm thinking of blokes like Pendelbury, Selwood, Pavlich, Fyfe, Fletcher, Harvey etc - The guys that stuck it out for an entire career but would have had tons of offers either way had they ever felt like leaving for a payrise.

Also sometimes it can be a narrow thing. For example Martin will likely play out his career at Richmond but I genuinely believe he was pretty close to leaving them at his last big contract extension.

 

[Lore]

Does Cripps really deserve this rating? He may have said the words but he hasn't been there for his whole career yet - he ain't even 25 yet. On his way for sure but when I think of that first type I'm thinking of blokes like Pendelbury, Selwood, Pavlich, Fyfe, Fletcher, Harvey etc - The guys that stuck it out for an entire career but would have had tons of offers either way had they ever felt like leaving for a payrise.

Also sometimes it can be a narrow thing. For example Martin will likely play out his career at Richmond but I genuinely believe he was pretty close to leaving them at his last big contract extension.

Martin has been close to leaving a couple of times. From most accounts though he has good people advising him, and ultimately I think he’s a better player for it. Going to GWS or NM as a marquee player probably would’ve ruined his career trajectory imo, would’ve been a good player at a crap team, worshipped rather than held to team-first standards.

 

[ant555]

Two types of players and people
Here.

The grit it, bite your teeth and dig in Patrick Cripps type. He’s continually said he wants to be at Carlton long term

Of

Tom Lynch. First chance at moving on from a sh*t show after pretending to show some loyalty after your first big contract and nominating a premiership team to go to.


Working Zac out is hard. I so desperately want him to be like Cripps and sign long term


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think that is hard on Lynch and to be honest two different situations with Lynch and Cripps.
Right now Carlton looks to be on the up at the end of his seventh season Cripps looks likely to stay as they are a decent chance to finally play finals again.
Lynch gave 8 seasons the the GC and was looking down the barrel of a 5 year rebuild with limited prospects of winning too many games let alone even looking at a finals appearance. Of course he was going to look at coming back to Victoria and it was always going to be a club in top 4 contention. I have no issue with this at all. In fact in his shoes I would do it 10 times out of 10.
There are already some WA rumor's about Cripps going back at the end of next year but I suspect that is just noise from the WA clubs and parts of the media. On the other hand one would have to question if Carlton where still looking at another 3 or 4 years out of finals at the end of next year would Cripps still be looking at the Blues as a good option after 8 seasons.
In the case of Merritt if I was in his shoes I would play it the same way as he is. Have a look at how things are going to look going forward and make a choice on sticking around for another 3 or so years in a building side or move on to play with a side that is in the frame to play and win finals.
The up side for us is the Pies have traded out of the first round and have not got the cap room for a top end contract. They where the side pushing hard at the end of this year. I would say right now their chances would be a lot more remote.