One thing for certain is that there will be a long line of suitors for him next year, I would agree to deal with anyone else but Hawthorn.
Merrett himself might want to deal with anyone but the Dawks, since they dropped the ball so badly this time around, there will be a lack of trust issues going forward.
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Swans and GC didn’t submit their offers until Tuesday too. It’s negotiation 101
And your default position is we did everything right and hawks bad.
I think after Hawks played us early, we were did a great job at showing strength shifting the dial back in our favour. Kudos to Welsh in particular for that. And I know others like yourself disagree, but I think that approach got us a pretty good deal for Merrett.
Hopefully the club made the right decision to keep him. I hope Merrett plays another 7 years with us. But I just hope this isn’t us repeating the Daniher mistake. We will see!
It you take into account the a first is a top 18 pick, Tasmania compo picks, it was two firsts two seconds and a third.
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Going by Hawks comments Merrett is still very much in love with them. And they plan to “definitely reach out” to comfort him. I think they’ll sucker him in again and he’ll be more than willing to go along with it.
Swans spent the week actively sounding out players to be part of a deal and GC negotiated the Flanders deal so that they had pick 7 as well as pick 8 to offer for Petracca. Hawthorn did nothing.
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No disagreement there. Hence me saying “firsts”
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Again, it all depends how you view things. We spent a whole week saying we wouldn’t trade Merrett and held a meeting with him on Monday telling him he would stay.
And Hawks literally let Worpel, Jiath and Serong move clubs. Who knows if or how hard they pushed Mackenzie to leave.
Welsh’s value will only be revealed when it’s apparent he bluffed on Merrett, or really feels we’re not far off it.
But then again, he shouldn’t be anywhere near those decisions.
I long for the days when presidents had fark to do with fark.
Generally I agree the President shouldn’t be involved in list management. The exception is either for the clubs best talent and / or the club captain. In those instances, the President (Board) is usually involved to further the clubs cause (in this case to retain Merrett). This is normal at AFL clubs where the Board almost always has oversight on its marquee players list decisions.
Further, Welsh also strongly believes Essendon as a club needs to rediscover its mojo. He believes for too long it hasn’t stood up for itself and has developed a soft underbelly. He’s right.. He thinks what Hawthorn did was the latest example of how this persona is detracting from the clubs efforts to become successful again. It has become cultural.
I agree with Welsh. Essendon needs to rediscover a backbone and won’t be successful if it continues to be a meek and soft football club, letting other clubs or the league dictate terms. At the same time the club also needs to build a successful footy operation.
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Time told
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I prefer the Nick Drake approach.
@wimmera1 will know what I mean, against his will.
Which will?
Edit: useless information, if Mrs Wim says ‘the old dead hippy’ she means Nick Drake.
If she says ‘the old dead blues guy’, she means Robert Johnson.
Just for clarity if it comes up in conversation.
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No I wouldn’t
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I understand what both of these mean.
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If I’m not mistaken, perhaps prior to the great blitz crash of 1926, your exact quote was “Hate the Drake.”
Possibly?
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Wer we not all.
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