Merrett barely mentioned Brad in his speech and we have Scott up there professing his love for Zach.
Give me a ■■■■■■■ break. It’s embarrassing.
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I want to see effort being rewarded. If a player is really pushing himself, going above and beyond, setting excellent standards, and is comparable to another player not doing those things, I want him picked.
Create an environment of excellence and maximum effort to develop a team who will give it their all
Tried stopping the slamming door as Zach walked out. Got his fingers crushed.
Can’t disagree. That’s what high performance looks like and what Brad Scott had tried to do. Some on here would prefer an 18 year old who doesn’t know what it takes yet to get a game over an experienced guy who busts his ringer. Does that set the right example? Culture killer.
Hird on SEN:
Hird disagrees with Andrew Welsh comments that its not a rebuild “it has to be seen as a rebuild with the amount of young players coming through”
Hird thinks the club should keep Merrett but understands the argument with Tassie 2027 draft… that you may want to look at young talent now. But his preference is for him to stay
He has the forward setup of Jones, Caddy & Kako as the setup. McGrath he sees to go now midfield if Merrett goes.
Said Langford told him that Qatar was invaluable
for him and they have identified a path to make his body more reliable from here on (Caddy told me similar- he said it was the hardest week he has worked out but the result was very positive on groin issue- he is excited for 2026 with what they learnt)
But selection of Jones and McGrath to midfield told me no matter who is coach… i will have disagreements lol
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After everything that has happened, and Hird wants him to stay?
Thank goodness he is no longer coach
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Yep… I cannot fathom in what possible scenario this player staying would be helpful to the club.
His teammates cannot trust him because he doesn’t trust them.
It’s beyond repair. The very foundation of all the elite sides in the comp is trust in the direction of your leadership.
Let the new boys try and use this to galvanise one another.
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My take on Welsh not declaring rebuild. Essendon have a recent history of unacceptable standards and a weak performance culture. Lack of AFL lifestyle throughout club. A decade of ‘developing’ and of buying time in effect.
Maybe Welsh, focussing on culture and standards wants to ensure the ‘rebuild’ notion doesn’t continue to dominate club psyche? Lloyd was big on this. If you keep saying as a club we’re developing and rebuilding you give everyone an out, at least psychologically. So, we aren’t rebuilding. We are off and running so Welsh has everyone on notice that time is now………. Not in 3-4 years as has always been the case at Essendon for 20 years!
Personally, I’m a bit over the media commentators taking everything everyone says 100% literally and then if they move away from this, sack them! It’s become a joke. Welsh said not rebuilding and won’t trade Merrett. It doesn’t really, really matter. If a great offer comes, welsh must trade Merrett. And if Tim Morris decides to go with ‘disaster’ again if Welsh trades Merrett, who cares. As a Club we must ignore the noise and just forge on fixing this club and planning for 2026.
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I find myself disagreeing with your posts plenty of the time, dmapes, but I can’t agree more with this one. Interesting and absolutely bang on I reckon.
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Didn’t get a full preseason.
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StaBiLiTy
The competition is so even
We love you Zach Merrett
Some of my favourites from Scott
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My take is a bit different. My issue is we’ve never had a clear strategy. It’s always in between, having a bet each way.
- Barham hires Scott to say he wants to get more out of the list. Then Scott says he won’t take shortcuts and will build for the future.
- Scott says he won’t take shortcuts, but then plays the senior guys each week.
- They say we’re aiming for finals this year, but then are telling us Scott was “brave” for not getting Houston and going to the draft
Just say we’re building and play the kids. The fans will accept it. Stop this confusing messaging. Merrett clearly had enough of it
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This. Wouldn’t people rather a young team with upside than a very mediocre team that’s reached its peak?
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No they wouldn’t fans had enough and want success why you think there was a threat of a board spill
I agree the first two years they misjudged the list and are guilty of inconsistencies.
However, my point about Welsh regarding ‘rebuilding’ Stands. I think he said it with culture in mind. Just my view based on what’s transpired previously and how that’s been a factor imo in allowing poor cultural traits to fester.
Oh I agree with you.
But there are easy ways to get around that. Sam Mitchell’s messaging was “we want to give our younger players opportunities and build around them”. That doesn’t explicitly say the word “rebuild” but everyone gets it
Don’t agree with you about the fans. We have one of the more resilient supporter bases in the league. We went through the Saga and then a year of banned players.
True. All that said, I’m not hanging him on what he said about rebuilding (1) or keeping Merrett (2).
I will judge him in 2-3 years time based on how he performs over a period of time from here.
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I really really hope that whatever the final set up is following this trade period with players and coaching staff etc that everyone is all in on the plan and we shut out the noise and focus only on what needs to be done.
And critical to this is that the “plan” makes sense, and it has been honestly and thoroughly assessed by all parties to be an appropriate one.
Now is the time to be honest with what we got wrong (and right) and we learn and adjust accordingly.
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Praying this guy is lobbying behind the scenes to his mates at AFL HQ to get band 1.
Surely someone there like him.