It’s really hard to know if that’s a good deal or not without having any idea of Ridley’s contract, our salary cap position and Brisbane’s salary cap position.
Although I was a bit more leaning towards moving Merrett on during the trade period, Im also happy NOT to hear how good Merrett is playing at the Hawks this season.
That being said, based off the ladder at the moment and expecting bids for Walker and Cochrane, Brisbane’s 2026 first round pick would be around 14-15, with Hawks 16-17.
I feel reasonably confident that our salary cap position is “got plenty” and theirs is “juggling it”.
The infuriating thing is if we’d traded Ridley and Merrett last year we probably have two additional top 15 picks last year, two firsts this year and an additional first next year.
And it would cost us a solitary win in 2026 to date.
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But but but there’s no garruntees!!!
But but but you can’t just have a team of kids!!!
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Only the dregs of the draft were left
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There was no star power like Harley…..
We will get a first for Merrett this year when he’s traded. The frustrating part of Merrett was hawthorn, their offer and the timing of it. ZM will be on the move this year.
The offer for Ridley was never there, he just asked his agent if he could get him up to the premiers.
It will be a blessing if we have to trade those guys to trade them for the 2027 season.
We need picks in this and next years draft.
#10, #22 and their 2026 first will be much better than what were offered this year. Similarly we missed the chance with Ridley to get the Lions to up their offer to Draper so we got Band 1. We also lost the chance to negotiate last year. Mitchell was ok adding the FF1, management weren’t. What if we’d offered our 2027 second as a swap or straight up?
By delaying a year we’ve almost certainly materially deteriorated what we’ll get in return.
Let alone what the 2026 season has done to the value of every other senior player we might trade.
Hawks gave us the extra first rounder on the last day Merret would have been thiers
I think it’s a bet each way to be honest.
It certainly ain’t a decision you make over a couple of hours before trade deadline.
Josh Lindsay has done well at half back for the Eagles.
Say we get josh lindsay and trade back and get Adam Sweid (NGA).
then we are armed with 2 first round picks for this year.
Maybe we even keep Laverde if Ridley was going and payout Guelfi or Gresham given adding Sweid + El-Achkar.
Also Merrett gone, Tsatas plays 22 games.
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If they offerd the deal on the first or second day of trade period a deal might have happened. would have given Essendon plenty of time to make other deals to try and improve the trade
But instead Hawks made the offer a few hours before deadline on top of this threatened the club if we didn’t take it even tho he’s contracted for another 2 years and we hold the whip hand in negotiations
For 2 weeks they were hoping Essendon will buckle and give up Zac scummy way of doing business
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We had no intention of trading Zac. I’m not even sure we would have gone through with the 4 first rounders.
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Essendon publicly said that under no circumstances will Merrett be traded. And then Merrett wasn’t traded.
I reckon it would have other wise the club wouldnt have said it
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Because everything this club says is true,
Maybe.
At the end of the day there are lessons to be learned for Hawks don’t try and screw over a club for a contracted a player next time
Let’s be honest, that contracted player is just as responsible.
lessons are to be learned for this club also.
If you’re in a rebuild, and somebody offers 3 first round picks for a player who wants to leave….. you take the deal.
How does keeping Merrett for another 12 months help us win a Premiership? Simple answer, it doesnt.
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