Recommitted Zach Merrett [Re-Signed til 2027]

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

I get that feeling too Better for Essendon and the comp as a whole. I think moving on Worsfold and getting some kids in and starting anew, is exactly the breath of fresh air that he's needed - and it shows from his elite first month of footy, and the leadership hes showing out on the field now that he's been rightly placed back into the leadership group

Getting dumped from the leadership is the best thing that could have happend to Merret

 

[JayJ20]

I can't see him leaving Victoria. If he leaves, I imagine it'd be for another Victorian side.

Melbourne or Geelong would be my pick.

 

[00Stinger]

I can't see him leaving Victoria. If he leaves, I imagine it'd be for another Victorian side.

Melbourne or Geelong would be my pick.

Gawn, Oliver, Petracca & Merrett would be a decent starting 4 midfield

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[citizen-erased]

Gawn, Oliver, Petracca & Merrett would be a decent starting 4 midfield

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agreed
We can offer you Gleeson & a 3rd rounder for Gawn, Clarry and Tracc.
deal?

 

[Northernsoul74]

He wanted 2 firsts for an injury prone Daniher who was contracted and blindsided us with the trade request. He accepted a band 1 compensation pick for the same player, no longer injured, as a free agent, after 12 months to plan for life after Joe.

If Zach leaves we'll have had plenty of time to figure out what to do about it. We're not under any illusions about his ambitions, if we aren't going to fulfil them he'll find another team that will, and we know it. So unless the compensation pick is like pick 25, it shouldn't be an issue... Which it won't be if Port want to throw their entire war chest at him (how do they even have one anyway?)

Salary can space comes with a young list and a fair amount of their recent draft picks are integral best 22. It does present challenges down the track as they get older and expect more. If managed well and the older more expensive contracts drop off as the younger players peak its happy days. Once you can get in that cycle and show success you can really stretch out the window.

 

[00Stinger]

agreed
We can offer you Gleeson & a 3rd rounder for Gawn, Clarry and Tracc.
deal?

can you resign McKernan and throw him in too?

 

[citizen-erased]

can you resign McKernan and throw him in too?

We have Wright. He's similar, but gives away less frees

 

[owen87]

Haha

People forget that they will be dealing with Dodoro he's not going to settle for a compo pick even if it's top 5. Dodoro wanted 2 firsts for an injury prone Daniher what makes people think he'll accept a compo pick

You really need to stop running with this line. It's almost definitely not going to happen.

If Merrett goes, he'll go as a FA. He'll be offered good money anywhere he goes, meaning he's almost a certainty to attract Band 1 compo. If he's going, it's because Essendon have finished Bottom 4. Meaning a Top-5 compo pick.

We aren't beating an outright Top-5 selection in a trade.

 

[00Stinger]

We have Wright. He's similar, but gives away less frees

Wright could be a long term decent player

McKernan is a spud

 

[citizen-erased]

Wright could be a long term decent player

McKernan is a spud

Pretty much.
Someone needs to teach Wright to use his frame to run through opponents.

Some aggression in his game and he'd be a gun.
Zachy could teach him this. His hair pull and toe to toe on NicNat is hardest thing anyone at our club has done since Ambrose buried Hill into the MCG turf.

We really can't afford to lose him.

 

[00Stinger]

Pretty much.
Someone needs to teach Wright to use his frame to run through opponents.

Some aggression in his game and he'd be a gun.
Zachy could teach him this. His hair pull and toe to toe on NicNat is hardest thing anyone at our club has done since Ambrose buried Hill into the MCG turf.

We really can't afford to lose him.

yep I agree, Wright has potential to be a good forward/ruck option

Merrett I get the feeling you guys are going to have to overpay to keep him (maybe even offer him the captaincy), you cant afford to lose imo. Plus he is 25 so he still has plenty of really good football in him and its not like you are in Norths position of a long rebuild, you could be back up in top 8 contention within 18-24 months

 

[owen87]

yep I agree, Wright has potential to be a good forward/ruck option

Merrett I get the feeling you guys are going to have to overpay to keep him (maybe even offer him the captaincy), you cant afford to lose imo. Plus he is 25 so he still has plenty of really good football in him and its not like you are in Norths position of a long rebuild, you could be back up in top 8 contention within 18-24 months

I think Merrett will get $800k and 5 pretty much anywhere he goes, I don't think we'll have to offer drastically over the odds to keep him, he'll either move for success or stay to build for the future is my guess. Money is good either way.

I do think he's a real shout of being Captain in 2022 though, seems to have really grown the last 12 months and Heppell is probably pushing the limits of his tenure if he keeps having issues getting on the park.

 

[Northernsoul74]

I think Merrett will get $800k and 5 pretty much anywhere he goes, I don't think we'll have to offer drastically over the odds to keep him, he'll either move for success or stay to build for the future is my guess. Money is good either way.

I do think he's a real shout of being Captain in 2022 though, seems to have really grown the last 12 months and Heppell is probably pushing the limits of his tenure if he keeps having issues getting on the park.

Isn’t your offer widely accepted as $900k?

 

[owen87]

Isn’t your offer widely accepted as $900k?

I believe that's the rumour, which hasn't got a huge amount of bearing on him getting $800k and 5 pretty much anywhere he goes, or that we'll have to offer drastically over the odds.

 

[citizen-erased]

yep I agree, Wright has potential to be a good forward/ruck option

Merrett I get the feeling you guys are going to have to overpay to keep him (maybe even offer him the captaincy), you cant afford to lose imo. Plus he is 25 so he still has plenty of really good football in him and its not like you are in Norths position of a long rebuild, you could be back up in top 8 contention within 18-24 months

Im not sure we can overpay him.
At 1.2m (for example), i wouldn't consider that overs. Keep at all costs for me.

I've long maintained he should be the captain.
Heppell is 30, coming back from injury and is unlikely to see a flag with us. Let him focus on fitness and sustaining as much of a career as he can.
Reins go to Merrett. McGrath VC.

Get enough basics right with drafting, recruiting, development, coaching and game plan, it's not hard to turn this around in a short term.

 

[schmuttt]

If Zac wanted money I'd imagine Essendon would have already signed him. He is likely waiting to see how the team goes for the rest of the year before he makes a decision. Often FAs make these calls 12-18 months in advance but in this case I reckon he'd still be undecided, especially after Essendon have probably overachieved a bit so far this year as to what we expected from them. Any club in VIC would be queueing up for him.

 

[citizen-erased]

If Zac wanted money I'd imagine Essendon would have already signed him. He is likely waiting to see how the team goes for the rest of the year before he makes a decision. Often FAs make these calls 12-18 months in advance but in this case I reckon he'd still be undecided, especially after Essendon have probably overachieved a bit so far this year as to what we expected from them. Any club in VIC would be queueing up for him.

I'd argue underachieved.

The outlook was dire, but what a lot of people miss is less about our list per se, and more the game plan and effort we've dished up over the years.
Rutten has turned that on it's head
We're apparently the #1 pressure team in the comp....fairly sure we were last in 2020 and pretty low the years before.

1-3 with 2 games decided by less than a kick. Very easily 2-2 or 3-1.

It's early days, but if this is a sign of what's to come post-Woosha/Daniher era, things are looking up.

Brissy were in a similar boat pre-ladder jump.
Bottom 4, but a lot of close results with a strong young list building confidence together
This is the narrative i try sell Merrett with.....also the opportunity to captain it.

If we can get our Neale in Dunkley come the offseason, things can turn around quick.

 

[JayJ20]

If Zac wanted money I'd imagine Essendon would have already signed him. He is likely waiting to see how the team goes for the rest of the year before he makes a decision. Often FAs make these calls 12-18 months in advance but in this case I reckon he'd still be undecided, especially after Essendon have probably overachieved a bit so far this year as to what we expected from them. Any club in VIC would be queueing up for him.

Yeah we can match anyone's terms with the cap space we have. He's also our next captain.
I think he stays if he genuinely sees a direction. We see Rutten's influence on how we play already and I'm hoping he can see that too.

I don't expect him to make a decision until the season is finished, but I also recognise that we probably need to be either on the cusp of finals or making finals to convince him.

 

[schmuttt]

I'd argue underachieved.

The outlook was dire, but what a lot of people miss is less about our list per se, and more the game plan and effort we've dished up over the years.
Rutten has turned that on it's head
We're apparently the #1 pressure team in the comp....fairly sure we were last in 2020 and pretty low the years before.

1-3 with 2 games decided by less than a kick. Very easily 2-2 or 3-1.

It's early days, but if this is a sign of what's to come post-Woosha/Daniher era, things are looking up.

Brissy were in a similar boat pre-ladder jump.
Bottom 4, but a lot of close results with a strong young list building confidence together
This is the narrative i try sell Merrett with.....also the opportunity to captain it.

If we can get our Neale in Dunkley come the offseason, things can turn around quick.

I mean overachieved because yes, you could easily be 2-2 or 3-1 and I don't think anyone expected that. See how the season goes from here (It always gets tougher for the young sides in winter) but it is more promising than pre-round 1 imo.

 

[citizen-erased]

I mean overachieved because yes, you could easily be 2-2 or 3-1 and I don't think anyone expected that. See how the season goes from here (It always gets tougher for the young sides in winter) but it is more promising than pre-round 1 imo.

We're games young, but the players aren't so young in all honesty.

Wright has done enough preseasons to run out a season
Hind has VFL years, plus 2 AFL preseasons
Ham seems to have the legs to run out 80% of a season (5 games in 2019 into 10 last year, and looks solid this year).

It's really Waterman, Cox and Perkins we need to watch.
There are guys who can cover them for a rest (Zaka, Cutler, Gleeson, Stewart, Ambrose, Clarke, Guelfi). Not world beaters, but seasoned enough to play 15+ games a season

Plus Caldwell and Draper will return mid-year.

We won't get out of the bottom 6, but i'm less inclined to think we're bottom 2 now.

 

[philthy05]

1 Under paying players

2 Weird list profile were we have players retiring on decent contracts (gray, Rockliff, Motlop, Hartlet)and young players who aren’t on much.

Underpaid? I don’t really think so. We’ve underspent on the cap for years allowing us to spend over in the next three years.

I can't see him leaving Victoria. If he leaves, I imagine it'd be for another Victorian side.

Melbourne or Geelong would be my pick.

Just can’t see him going to geelong. They look very poor this year and that age profile is horrible. If he’s leaving essendon with success high on his mind a club on the way down doesn’t seem like a smart choice.

Also their cap would require him to take far less than elsewhere or if a big contract it would be heavily back ended and that wouldn’t be too appealing

can see Melbourne being a team he looks at closely. They would have to get creative with moving players cap wise. A couple of players maybe sold off you would think.

 

[schmuttt]

Underpaid? I don’t really think so. We’ve underspent on the cap for years allowing us to spend over in the next three years.
Just can’t see him going to geelong. They look very poor this year and that age profile is horrible. If he’s leaving essendon with success high on his mind a club on the way down doesn’t seem like a smart choice.

Also their cap would require him to take far less than elsewhere or if a big contract it would be heavily back ended and that wouldn’t be too appealing

can see Melbourne being a team he looks at closely. They would have to get creative with moving players cap wise. A couple of players maybe sold off you would think.

Why do Melbourne have to get creative cap wise? May, Lever and Gawn are all on less money as the years go on, Jones is on a vastly reduced contract (And probably retires end of the year). McDonalds contract wasn't great (Reported 700-750k a year signed in 2018 till end of 2022) but we only have one more year of that.

 

[philthy05]

Why do Melbourne have to get creative cap wise? May, Lever and Gawn are all on less money as the years go on, Jones is on a vastly reduced contract (And probably retires end of the year). McDonalds contract wasn't great (Reported 700-750k a year signed in 2018 till end of 2022) but we only have one more year of that.

Port has one of the biggest cap spaces available and is prepared to make Zach one of the highest paid players in the afl. Essendon and a couple other clubs will offer something close. Melb wouldn’t have an insane amount of free cap.

that doesn’t mean they couldn’t free more up, at least enough to make a competitive bid, but I reckon you would be moving players on to make that space.

 

[schmuttt]

Port has one of the biggest cap spaces available and is prepared to make Zach one of the highest paid players in the afl. Essendon and a couple other clubs will offer something close. Melb wouldn’t have an insane amount of free cap.

that doesn’t mean they couldn’t free more up, at least enough to make a competitive bid, but I reckon you would be moving players on to make that space.

He isn't going to join a club for money - as I said he'll stay at Essendon if thats the case. People really overrate how much players value money in contracts.

 

[philthy05]

He isn't going to join a club for money - as I said he'll stay at Essendon if thats the case. People really overrate how much players value money in contracts.

I’ve literally never said he will join a club for money.