He also thought Essendon would cave in.
Hence he spent more time in Hawks rooms yesterday trying to convince Hawthorn to do a deal realising we weren’t going to be pushed around anymore.
Hr should have been spelling it out to the Hawks your window of finals is now not in 2 years time using a F1, Anything could happen by then, if Day goes down next year their premiership window is closed. It’s a huge gamble by the Hawks and a big miss.
Purely on the offer ( as opposed to the issue of just cutting ties with Merrett) , it was a structurally awkward deal. I remain bemused by the Hawks sudden switch to pick #22 as if that was decisive. If anything we would have had a need for a future pick around that mark than #22. 5/6/10 would have filled the list , then you’ve got 4 picks between 21-30 to do something with. They needed to find us another future 1st , not #22. Imo. And maybe that explains the alleged last minute demand for their 2027 F1 (to help with Bewick?) .
And maybe we asked WC if they trade us pick 1 for two of 5/6 and 10 and they said no. Who knows.
Hypothetical, based on where picks will land on draft night, if we get this offer next season for Merrett in a better draft what would you choose
But we didn’t negotiate.
Your hypothetical isn’t realistic though.
Merrett is only leaving for a contender. So that 2026 pick would also be well in the teens.
By your logic, Merrett is asking for a trade to a bottom 5 team
We warned everyone involved that we did not wish to trade him.
And Hawthorns attempts never really met our needs anyway.
The justification for trading him out isn’t solely about extracting maximum value.
I vote trading him out this year over next regardless of the value equation.
Of course not.
But purely as a deal, that Hawthorn one would have created some tricky offshoots for us.
Sure but you can’t get finicky about an offer not meeting needs if we never sat down at the table.
Besides pick 10 which would turn into 15, they tried to sell us a lot of draft points but not actual quality picks.
Well you can - or we can on here - in an argumentative sense with regards to people who think we should have accepted that proposal.
Clearly the minute details were irrelevant to the club itself if the end result was always going to be that we would not release him.
Yep. I guess.
Reckon Welsh/board would’ve only said yes to something crazy like pick 1 + 2.
I would be far, far, far more interested to hear what Rosa would say off the record what he thought of the (first) deal.
Supporters complaining that emotion clouded Essendon’s judgement, have missed the point completely.
Essendon were business like throughout, saying their best player would not be traded.
When Essendon did engaged with the Hawks at the death and delivered their terms the Hawks said no, they stuffed this up.
x6 b&f, x3 All Australians with another 5-7 good years in the game was worth everything Essendon asked for and more.
Supporters complaining about a lost opportunity with additional picks need to remember there are no guarantees players picked are going to be any good, and a strong chance they’ll never be Zac levels of excellence.
What we do know with surety is that Essendon have a top 10 mid who makes the team so much better.
Fark’n Hawthorn and their “entitled” arrogance. Woo a player of Zac’s status, potential difference maker, and when finally given the opportunity to land their target, they blinked. Fark em.
He’s another year older but he’s professional (well has been til now) and can play another 6-8 years. He may also have another player agent and 4 competing sides knowing he’s available to woo him next year.
Volume of picks won’t be the same, but there’s a chance a bidding war occurs.
I also lean towards trading him out, but the deal needed to be better worked than the one presented. If I look at our current circumstances, i’d argue that Hawthorns “solutions” became less workable for us rather than more tempting. And that fascinates me when looking at the broader picture.
Do Hawthorn just have an idea that if they make lots of confusing pick swaps and create a sense of chaos , it might create poor , confused decisions by others? The Barrass trade last year, the leaking of the Allen and Merrett meetings, the impromptu splitting / flipping of picks etc.
Of course, unlike me, the Club very publicly didn’t lean towards trading him out. So everything else is academic. But it’s a very interesting process to try to understand.
The EFC team should have packed up an left at 6.30 and told them to stick it up their a
Hopefully he is more open to a move elsewhere, like Oliver, Petracca were.
If we only have 3 list spots available and other clubs know that, then we would have trouble off loading the Hawks offer of picks in the 20s and nothing of worth inside top 10.
We already have a bunch of picks inside 30 and with minimal list spots available clubs would make us pay overs to move up the draft or move them on to future picks. Further diluting the package offered for Merrett.
We most likely asked other clubs what they wanted for pick 1 or quality draft picks and they wanted more than Hawks were offering us for Merrett. So pointless.
Which is a fkg indictment when you’re going as ordinary as we are and points to mismanagement. And the injury issues and Mid season draft acquisitions aren’t an excuse. You can still make calls on these guys.
Fair enough if you’re flying along as a club and you’re that rich with quality players, you don’t have a heap of obvious delistings and therefore you’re in the hunt for a flag and want to keep the group together and make minimal changes.
We are middling to terrible, depending on how much you want to allow for the injury crisis, yet have somehow wound up being tight for list spots!
There was absolutely no need to carry all three of Jones, Edwards and McMahon into next season.
Even that alone would have provided some breathing space and given flexibility. And that’s before deciding we needed to give Matt Guelfi a 2 year deal rather than 1 or rushing to sign the likes of Sadd El Hawli or Archer Day Wicks which could have waited while we see the lay of the land.
Just normal brinkmanship wasn’t it?
They said “offer 1 is here, it expires at 7PM”.
We didn’t, so they made their next move then presented offer 2.
Exactly what EFC did when we got Stringer. Which ■■■■■■ off J McCartney for ever.
Real world we could’ve spun the (admittedly) package offered into something far more suitable for us. I reckon 2nd rounders next year and 2027 have real value for us, with guys like Guelfi, Gresham and Jones already very much on the nose.