{"id":132564,"date":"2025-09-10T10:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T10:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/132564\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T10:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T10:50:08","slug":"brad-scott-responds-to-zach-merrett-meeting-with-sam-mitchell-afl-360-interview-video-latest-trade-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/132564\/","title":{"rendered":"Brad Scott responds to Zach Merrett meeting with Sam Mitchell, AFL 360 interview, video, latest trade news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brad Scott has addressed news Zach Merrett met with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell<\/a> as the Essendon captain threatens to become the club\u2019s latest big name on the move. <\/p>\n

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Merrett and Mitchell met on Tuesday night, with the 29-year-old\u2019s camp also reportedly making contact with Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs as he eyes a fresh start away from the struggling Bombers.<\/p>\n

It is just the latest blow for Essendon after star ruckman Sam Draper confirmed he would be heading to Brisbane as a free agent, while defender Jordan Ridley is also reportedly keen on a move to the Lions.<\/p>\n

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As for Merrett, it is understood the star midfielder\u2019s main reason for wanting to leave is to win a flag.<\/p>\n

It is something Scott effectively confirmed on Wednesday night when appearing exclusively on AFL 360, where he admitted Merrett\u2019s meeting with Mitchell had come as a \u201csurprise\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very excited about the young talent on our list and has got full confidence in them, but he\u2019s as hungry for success as any player that I\u2019ve ever encountered and he\u2019s a man in a rush,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s 29. He\u2019s concerned will the young talent mature enough in time for him to enjoy that success? <\/p>\n

\u201cBut the reality is that this time last year, we recommitted to Zach, we felt he was underpaid for someone who was performing at such a high level. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, for the second time in three years, we changed his remuneration to reflect his brilliant performance and his terrific leadership. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe committed to him, he committed to us and like our CEO, who moved interstate and committed to the club, I came and made a commitment to the club, I intend to see my commitment through, and I expect our captain to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merrett link emerges ahead of semi-final | 02:33<\/p>\n

That was a consistent message from Scott throughout the interview. The position both he and the club as a whole has is clear: they expect Merrett to stay put until his contract wraps up at the end of 2027.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, Scott stressed that Essendon\u2019s position is that they \u201cwill not be trading\u201d Merrett \u201cunder any circumstances\u201d.<\/p>\n

So, if the Bombers weren\u2019t to grant Merrett his wish and effectively forced the captain to stick around next season, would his leadership credentials come under question?<\/p>\n

Scott, who said he last spoke to Merrett on Tuesday, said he had little doubt the 29-year-old could still be skipper even if the Bombers coach conceded it would be a \u201cchallenge\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course he can be captain. No one\u2019s perfect,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of players that I think are geniuses but they\u2019re flawed geniuses too. No one is perfect and I don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s captaincy is perfect, anyone\u2019s coaching ability is perfect. \u201cIt\u2019s a learning process, so of course he can be captain. But will it be a challenge based on this situation? Absolutely it will be. But I\u2019ve seen him overcome bigger challenges than this.\u201d <\/p>\n

For all of Merrett\u2019s on-field success at Essendon, having won the club\u2019s best and fairest award five times, the Bombers still appear no closer to ending their 21-year drought without a finals win.<\/p>\n

An injury-stricken Essendon finished 15th this season, having been forced to blood 15 debutants.<\/p>\n

News of Merrett\u2019s meeting with Mitchell broke just before the Hawthorn coach fronted media on Thursday morning and Mitchell was relatively tight-lipped, although he didn\u2019t exactly deny the club\u2019s interest in the Bombers midfielder either.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure \u2014 you\u2019d have to talk to the list management guys about that,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope they are working behind the scenes on improving our list. That\u2019s what their job is and I hope they are going about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘Be Better’ Lyon on Smith | 01:27<\/p>\n

When asked whether he was disappointed with both Merrett and Mitchell for meeting given the former is contracted until the end of the 2027 season, Scott was diplomatic even if you could sense he wasn\u2019t all too pleased.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve all got to accept that the old school, the old timers Garry, we probably have a problem with it,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the second club captain Sam Mitchell has met with in one year. The difference is our club captain is contracted for another two years. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I think you\u2019ve got to accept that the players are going to do this and now coaches are doing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think that the reality is that Zach\u2019s a process driven guy. He\u2019s got a checklist. He\u2019ll go through his process and he likes to to come to his own conclusion. So, in a way, this is Zach just doing his due diligence. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut now it feels like we\u2019ve done our due diligence two out of the last three years and we have a really clear vision. It\u2019s been a really challenging year for a number of reasons but we\u2019ve all made a commitment and the thing about a commitment is that the reward at the end of it is not guaranteed, but the thing I\u2019ve learned about success is that it\u2019s fantastic when you get it, but it\u2019s the journey and the effort and the blood, sweat, and tears that you put in to the process to get the success that\u2019s the reward, not the outcome. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the premiership medal or the winning finals. It\u2019s the work that you put in with other people, the commitment you make to people. That\u2019s the reward. The outcome is just reward for the effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zach Merrett is ready for change. (Photo by Daniel Pockett\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n

As Scott alluded to, this is the second time Mitchell has met with a club captain this season after his private meeting with Oscar Allen as the Eagles co-captain weighed up his free agency options earlier this year.<\/p>\n

When pressed specifically on Mitchell\u2019s actions, Scott again repeated that the \u201cworld is changing\u201d and that there was a time earlier in his coaching career when he would have been \u201cpretty disappointed\u201d.<\/p>\n

But now? <\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is now that the gloves are off and all is fair in love and war and (if) that\u2019s the path they want to go down, then we\u2019ll play that game too,\u201d Scott warned.<\/p>\n

As for the growing trend of players and agents signing longer-term contracts and then effectively trying to force their way out of clubs? Well, that won\u2019t be happening at Essendon under Scott\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not the world I live in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world I live in is if you make a commitment, you see it through.\u201d <\/p>\n

The 15 out of contract players in Finals | 02:57<\/p>\n

That includes committing to the vision at Essendon and while it may be tough to buy into it after another poor year of results, Scott said the \u201creality\u201d is that it\u2019s Merrett\u2019s \u201cvision as well\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s invested in our club and he\u2019s been kept right up to speed with the vision and it\u2019s been a challenging year,\u201d the Bombers coach added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we started the year at 6-4. I mean, we had even challenges at that stage, but then the injury crisis has been well-documented throughout the year. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut again, I can\u2019t stress enough that I love this bloke. I think he\u2019s an incredible player. I\u2019ve rarely seen anyone like him. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur playing group makes fun of me for constantly referring to Zach and his on-field deeds. His will to win is unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brad Scott has addressed news Zach Merrett met with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell as the Essendon captain threatens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,85,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-132564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}