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Buckley, Lyon and Davis unpack Zach Merrett's Dons future amid yet another rebuild
By Andrew Slevison
Zach Merrett has remained steadfast in his plans to remain an Essendon player for the foreseeable future.
The Bombers captain is contracted until the end of 2027, but questions have again been raised about his future given the direction of the club, which continues to rebuild.
It comes in the wake of the weekend’s 61-point loss to Adelaide at the MCG.
Merrett appeared on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Tuesday night to discuss how things are tracking at The Hangar and how he sees the club’s playing list having assessed it closely before recommitting back in 2021.
“I was very aware of our list in '21 when I recommitted for six years,” Merrett said.
“I did hours and hours of work behind the scenes. I went away with my manager, and a couple of close friends of mine in the industry, and mapped out every list at that period of time.
“Ironically the best three lists at that time have won the last three premierships (Geelong, Collingwood and Brisbane). I think we were pretty accurate, and I was understanding of where we were at.
“It hasn’t probably worked out exactly how I thought it would pan out. Being the youngest team at the moment, the guys coming in are debutants.
“I think the talent is there, it’s just how fast we can develop them and turn them into good quality players that perform and are capable week, in, week out.”
The performance the Dons put in against the Crows was, according to Merrett, “the worst I think we’ve been in 11 or 12 years as a footy club, it wasn’t acceptable, it wasn’t good enough and we’ll need to respond a bit better”.
But he says he is intent on seeing things through so he can eventually play finals in red and black.
“There’s no doubt I watch finals teams and get very jealous in September,” he added.
“There’s nothing worse than sitting on the couch and watching finals footy. It is an envious position, it’s something I’m striving every day to be a part of, but I want to be a part of it with the Essendon footy club.”
Collingwood great Nathan Buckley reacted to the Merrett interview on SEN’s Whateley on Wednesday morning.
He firmly believes the 29-year-old is the type of person who would stick around and lead the Dons out of the mire they have been stuck in for some time.
Buckley concedes that Merrett would be a target for many clubs around the league, but his overriding feeling is that loyalty means a lot to the skipper.
“As fans we look at players who move clubs and we judge them and we think, ‘they’re not loyal’,” said Buckley.
“Every decade it’s less and less the case.
“Zach Merrett has sat there and analysed it. Talking about ‘Pollyanna’, you’re always rose-coloured glasses about the people you’re involved with because you’re invested, and he’s been invested.
“To think that individuals aren’t looking at ‘what’s here, what’s there, what my options and alternatives are’. There’s not many gun players in the competition that aren’t seriously courted through different times in their career.
“They have to move to make a decision on, ‘is it here for the rest of my days?’, because this is finite, or do I make a move somewhere else’. There are tales of woe from moving and there is success tales as well.
“For him to have stayed… he speaks from the heart, I think he is one that can really help the Bombers through whatever their future is. He’s going to lead with integrity and give everything he’s got.”
Former GWS captain Phil Davis was also quizzed on the situation by Gerard Whateley.
Davis admits he can somewhat see Merrett in another club’s colours and believes that Bombers supporters would understand if he were to move on one day soon.
But he does get the overall feeling that the five-time Crichton Medallist will see out his career at Essendon.
“I would think he would be sitting there asking himself the question all the time,” he said.
“Loyalty is such a brilliant thing in football but you get one go at it, you only get one go. If he can sit there and say, 'I’ve given absolutely everything I had to Essendon, and there’s a way in which I can make a move...'
“That’s the other thing, it would be very difficult for Zach. He’s contracted, they’d have to trade. As soon as you get traded you’re weakening the team you go into because obviously it’s a really big conflict. It makes it difficult.
“From what he’s shown so far I don’t think he’s going to go anywhere. But the thing is, I think Essendon fans in their deepest of hearts would understand that they’d appreciate what he’s done for 12 years, say thank you and good luck.”
Davis added: “My question now is - are you fully, fully committed to where we’re going? He’s got to weigh up and make those decisions and what that looks like is a full investment. How can I make all of these players buy into this journey? Maybe my success story looks a little bit different.
“I think everyone can understand if he goes one way or the other. That will be up to him.”
Footy great Garry Lyon floated a hypothetical situation: Could Essendon looking at a Merrett trade in the near future to give him the best chance of winning a premiership?
He said the following on SEN Breakfast:
“This is dramatic, (but) is there any instance where they go to Zach Merrett and his manager and say, ‘We’ve kind of failed you a bit here, because you’ve recommitted on the basis where you thought the list was going to be here, we thought it would be (too), (but) it’s not, it’s a few years away’.
“‘What do you want to do with your footy?’.
“Is that conversation at all a possibility? I’m not suggesting this happens, but is it a situation where they go, ‘We will let you go. You’ve got three or four years of a career (left), you haven’t played in a winning final, you might want to play in a premiership. If we can get three first-round picks or whatever it is… because that’s where we’re at as a club’.”
Merrett was exceptional in the Round 2 loss to the Crows, amassing 36 disposals, producing 11 inside 50s, providing nine score involvements, winning six clearances, kicking four goals and dishing out two goal assists.
He is the club’s best player and given he remains contracted for the next two seasons after this, the odds are likely that he will be at the forefront of Essendon’s rebuild rather than shipping off for success elsewhere.
But stranger things have happened.
