BHAHAHAHAHAH surely you ■■■■■■■ jest. If he finishes top3 , the ■■■■■■■ thing is rigged, he had a ■■■■ first 8 to 9 odd weeks. had a run of 3 ish games where he got alot of the ball and butchered it more than justin murphy ever did for us. and then the last 6 odd weeks has played his usual up and down self.
If he finishes anywhere near the top 3, this club is so frigging screwed, i’ll rescind my criticism of carlisle as he would be proven to be right.
I’m a fan of hyperbole, but dkp, pls.
Fake news.
This is lacking in so much fact and has so much confirmation bias I’m not even going to debate every aspect that is wrong.
But I’ll point to your genius logic in one point…
Aaaahhh, getting one of our most talented players to play near his potential makes our club screwed???
You sir, need to reduce the hallucinogens…
Get ready to be surprised then.
Merret, Hurley and Joe D id say have been our best 3 over the course of the year. Its then Zaka and Goddard. I’d be very surprised if thats not the top 5.
Look at the current state of the Nobby, thats the exact top 5 according to blitz.
We just need to match the offer to force a trade (or keep him).
Zaharakis and two first rounders seems a bit much though.
Zaharakis and next year’s first rounder (nominal pick 18 if we get Kelly) seems more reasonable.
Yes, but given he wants to stay, the only reason he’d be leaving is if the money was way more than we wanted to play. If we matched the offer we’d probably lose the leverage to actually trade.
As long as it’s possible for us to threaten to match any deal someone offers, there’s a possibility to force a trade for him instead. Depending on the offer it might just be better for Essendon to take the compensation and trade that instead though. Bottom line is it’s a lot more complicated than ‘he’s an RFA so can just go wherever he wants’. Especially if he’s not keen on screwing us, but instead working with us.
That’s some clever re-writing of history by Connors there. No mention of the fact that FC had gone to Connors at the start of the year and told him that not only will they pay whatever he wants they would also get a job that paid him twice as much.
Zaharakis is an important part of midfield mix though, even with Kelly added to it. The only reason to think about trading him is his age (28 next year). But if we’re aiming for a premiership next year (which we should be just by improving our midfield) then we should keep doing our best to keep him for unders.
With Zaharakis still unsigned i get the feeling that we may be a big chance of landing Kelly or Martin, but might lose Zaharakis.
Like when we got Goddard but lost Monfries.
Just out of interest, what clubs are circling Zaharakis?
Or is this the Scott Lucas way, quietly Doing buissness away from the headlines.
Full disclosure : I think it may turn out best for us if we lose Zaharakis through free agency.
Having stated that, it wouldn’t surprise me if his signature doesn’t come until late. He loves the club, and could be happy to just see what sort of $'s are available after trade week. Allows the club to front / back end the contract to best suit its needs, and probably doesn’t have a lot of effect on Zaharakis himself. Would not be surprised if a range has been agreed upon, subject to trade week moves.
I think your right.
I reckon the club could get the contract sorted, but both parties are looking at other options then will come back later to discuss.
Zaka will be looking at what clubs are interested and the money available.
The club will be looking at possible trade targets that they could work the Zaharakis compensation picks into.
I don’t think we will attract any player of value, which we need to offload Zaharakis for.
The deal will get done imo.
I’ve heard the Suns are offering $750k x 4
We can’t afford to lose Zaka. Midfield we need to build on not lose more class players if we are serious about having a crack at flag over next 3-5yrs.
He has finally matured and performing accordingly, and that includes last years efforts, he deserves to be rewarded well on this contract.
Not $750k rewarded overs like GC offering but well all the same. If we low ball him too much relying on his EFC loyalty and we lose him I’ll be fkn ■■■■■■.
Can’t believe there’s people saying we should let him go. Clearly those saying this haven’t been watching us play the last 15 or so weeks, he’ll be top 3 in the Crichton this year IMO. If we’re serious about becoming a challenger it’s imperative we retain him & I believe we will. I’m told it’s only a matter of length of tenure with him. He wants security of a longer term deal & who can blame him for that? I think the deal will get done for him to stay probably for 3 years initially with an option for a 4th.
It’s getting close to silly season.
For those who enjoy tinkering with list management they know you have to give up someone good to get someone good. They would also be looking at age brackets, and Zaharakis is a couple of years over our ideal age bracket to come through with the kids.
From there it is just a matter of whether you think Zaharakis will continue to play incredibly good football over the next few years like he has in the past 3 months. Or if you think he will drop away. Sell high and all that…
I don’t think the Gold Coast offer would be high enough to get round 1 compensation… and as such I think that will make the prospect of losing Zaharakis unattractive to everyone.
Having a theory about what is going on with negotiations (considering that he has 1 game and some finals left on his contract), is not saying we want him gone.
The fact that he hasn’t signed a contract yet. Considering how loyal he and his manager are to the Essendon football club suggests something is not quite right. You have to be delusional to think otherwise.
If he were 21, I would agree. Very good player for us, but if it meant getting Kelly, I would help pack his bags.
If Kelly selected us it would be because he saw likelihood of future success. Losing Zaka when we already having an exodus of Watson, Goddard and co would be detrimental to that.