I think ‘urge’ is bit of a stretch, but I get your point that fans have sympathised for his lack of success.
Still, when your captain falls in love with an arch rival and goes nuclear about it, it’s only going to ever end one way with the fans.
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I’m very happy for him and his wife and also hoping that plenty of our players go past him this year so that it won’t hurt so badly when he leaves at the end of the season.
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Yep, I’m in the same boat. I won’t be booing, but I certainly won’t be supporting him in any way either.
I’ll be glad to see the back of him at the end of the season.
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I’m quite optimistic about it all.
I think the 12 month delay will see everyone pretty happy at the end of the day. Zach gets a new home, other players on our list get the opportunity to step up, and most importantly Rosa has 12 months to orchestrate the outcome that best suits his list build.
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What would be funny is if we miraculously had a good year, and he then wanted to stay, and Rosa is pushing him out the door to get the draft picks to help the list build.
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lol I find this funny. Sure, when he carries the team again for periods and looks like the only one who is trying, supports and gets around the kids and is seemingly the only player who will chase and stick a tackle - sure no one will cheer him over 6 months. Really? I don’t think so.
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I’m sure plenty of people will cheer him on. I simply made the point that I won’t be one of them.
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Happy to hold off for another 9 months until he’s gone but this needs to be the thread title come October.
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Considering all the young players say that is what McGrath does the most then I don’t think you will find people will need to cheer Merrett for doing it.
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who do we know attended his wedding?
Parish, McGrath, Stringer, Smith, Laverde, Durham…. any one else?
Seems a stark difference to the other weddings we had, Langfords, McGraths, Wrights, Redmans - way more of the team mates went
Apparently was ‘very intimate’, so i assume only his closest friends would of been there.
By accounts hes not super close with a lot of the boys, other than Stringer and Laverde when they were around.
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Black pants and white jacket? He’s off to Collingwood….
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Merrett is playing for EFC for 4 points a week.
Enough for me.
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Yea the Hawthorn thing was crap but you either ruminate or move on, evidently some (like Red Dog) have gone the latter. Good to hear .
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Merrett may leave at the end of this year but in the grand scheme of things we should be thanking him
It took our captain and best player requesting a trade to our arch enemy to spark the club in to nessassary and long overdue change in multiple areas of the organisation, exactly what this poorly run club needed.
Might have been our first legit line in the sand moment in 20 years.
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The fitness staff turnover already occurred. Vozzo’s move wasn’t linked. I’d say Solly / Gia switch unrelated too. The only thing I’d consider thanking Zach for is the case of blue balls he have my Hawks supporting mates. That would be a little weird though.
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Barham to Walsh seems directly linked.
Vosso whilst not so much feels like it may have gotten a kick along once Walsh started dictating the Merret approach.
Although both outcomes are too recent to be proven to be either positive or negative.
The line in the sand would have been trading him
I get the “you dont let contracted players go for unders” arguement and to be honest, if it was literally anyone else id have no issue with how it played out
But when the captain of your club, secretely meets up with arguably our #1 rivals coach and wants to jump ship, after having at least explored a move twice (saints, pies) its time to move him on, even for a bit less. Thats what a line in the sand would be
Its so, so unbelievably sad how it played out. I think to most essendon supporters, he’s just a snake. Literally no one could blame him for wanting to leave imo, he deserves success, and if i was 28+ at the EFC, id want to finish my career at a minimum, playing in a side who wins finals
But there’s right and wrong ways to do it. He did the homer simpson drive over the bridge, and throw the match on it. Except now he has to come back, and play for us for another season.
Most of the players will probably get over it, but to most supporters he will forever been known and remembered as a 
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I was one of the few on here that wanted him gone, my line in the sand reference was not about holding Merrett, it was about instigating change at the club.
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Yeah i hear you, but im just a bit skeptical of what changes actually happened due to him staying. It seems like nearly everything that has changed is probably unrelated to this situation
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