Wow that’s super damning now with the benefit of hindsight. They all struggled to say something insightful about their skipper. Clearly isn’t one of the boys. Even Langford who has played with him for 10 years struggled.
4 Likes
Also very few players liked the club’s posts honouring his 250th. At the time I assumed it was because we were in such a slump that they didn’t feel like celebrating. Now I’m wondering if there was more to it.
1 Like
I really have a difficult time believing this is about his pay cheque.
2 Likes
“Something that people don’t know about Zach Merrett?”
Peter Wright: “He’s just uh…does a lot of things for the club…a really driven individual”
Yeah thanks Pete 
15 Likes
We should check with Andrew Dillion’s wife to see if he wins first before rigging it.
That’s what I thought at the time. Went back and hunted it down. Something ain’t right that’s for sure.
1 Like
It was interesting that reports came out yesterday that Parish was committed to us. Again I wonder if there was a coincidence given all this blowing up. 
1 Like
My 2c:
- Merrett’s reasoning for leaving is entirely logical. At the start of the year, the only way we were going to be successful with the current senior group was if he could look like a club on the rise and attract A-grade talent from another club. We lost any opportunity to look like a promising club/attract talent through the injury crisis this year, and have now lost one of our planks in Draper. Right now, the players that we take in this year’s draft are going to have be a core part of our next premiership side, and realistically that’s several years away. Merrett may have the longevity to be a part of that, but there’s some question on that based on positional flexibility that’s often necessary for older players – he looked completely out of his depth at half back this year and has never been a big goalkicker. Ultimately, if success his priority, leaving makes sense.
- While logical, the decision is clearly a reflection on Zach as a person. He’s put everything in to being a good player for the club, but ultimately the club isn’t his priority. That’s fine – he should make himself his priority. But there are others that have prioritized the club in a way that Zach hasn’t (e.g.. Dyson Heppell, Jobe Watson) – that’s a part of their legacy and won’t be a part of Zach’s. He won’t be seen as an Essendon person after this, but that’s for him to live with.
- I don’t understand the backlash towards Sam Mitchell/Hawthorn. If a contracted star of the competition wanted to come to us, I’d want us to go hard and would want Brad Scott part of the pitch.
- This is a really good opportunity for the club. This is coming at a time where we have maximum leverage and we don’t have to do the dirty work of pushing our captain out the door. We’re going to get a good return. It’s up to us to use that return effectively, but great things often come out of terrible things. This would officially walk in a new era, which is exciting.
- For the great player that Zach has been, it’ll be interesting to see how far this sets us back on the field (not that finishing 15th offers much opportunity to go further back). Zach has been head and shoulders our best player, but he’s never been a great clearance player – he’s more of a receiver. We clearly lack polish and we’ll miss him in that respect, but our best football in recent years has been when we got on top in the clearances. If Parish miraculously got fit, a Caldwell/Durham/Parish engine room should still see us be competitive. Not to mention, there’s opportunity for others – Elijah Tsatas being one. We’ll see.
12 Likes
I’m assuming he won’t turn up to Brownlow night either. It would be a very quiet table.
Jesus Christ that would be a sweet twist, i.e. the club working at a high level to fix the deep culture issue
lol ‘errr I’ve noticed he likes watches’ (but he doesn’t talk to me so this is only an assumption).
4 Likes
I posted last week from my talks with certian people… there is no way the club is trading him. Things changed
18 Likes
Zach was biting off so many kicks in that last 6-8 games…don’t know the stats but if he was anyone else we’d all be calling him the turnover king. He was like a basketballer putting up rubbish shots. It was the perfect storm, we held our line with Hind, didn’t give Stringer the extra year, told Lav and Shiel to explore their options…his circle of trust had diminished and he had no mates left
3 Likes
Yeah they did that of their own accord. It wasn’t James Sicily publicly making his position untenable forcing their hand.
(I agree it’s good to rebuild but fark me it shouldn’t have to come to this)
1 Like
Good news.
It’s a known pattern of behaviour. Listen to how Brad spoke about it last night. We have this issue every year - it’s not about success only. Otherwise why St Kilda last year? It’s always been about leveraging more out of us.
This topic was automatically closed after reaching the maximum limit of 10000 replies. Continue discussion at #7 Zerrett - could double his Crichton/Peter Crimmins by 2027 (Part 3).
That is very apt and it needs to happen. But it can’t happen with Zerrett inside those ranks. Actively meeting with Hawthorn has incinerated that bridge. Deliberately, I might add.
6 Likes