Essendon coach Brad Scott says he was surprised to hear Zach Merrett met with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell, but declared he will not be trading the star skipper “under any circumstances”.<\/p>\n
Merrett and Mitchell met on Tuesday night after another disastrous season for the Bombers.<\/p>\n
The star onballer, who is contracted until the end of 2027, is the biggest name among several players who could leave the club.<\/p>\n
Ruckman Sam Draper has confirmed he will head to Brisbane as a free agent and defender Jordan Ridley is also said to be keen to join the Lions.<\/p>\n
Scott appeared on AFL360 on Wednesday night to talk about the situation regarding Merrett, and he couldn’t have been clearer in his stance.<\/p>\n
“He’s a contracted captain. Our club’s position is we will not be trading him under any circumstances,” Scott said.<\/p>\n
The star onballer, who is contracted until the end of 2027, is the biggest name among several players who could leave the club.\u00a0Robert Cianflone\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
“I understand Zach. I love Zach. He’s so desperate for success, he wears his heart on his sleeve and he goes through these moments.<\/p>\n
“But the club’s position is he’s our captain, he’s contracted for two years.<\/p>\n
“We’ve adjusted his contract to reflect his performance and we expect him to see it through.<\/p>\n
“He made a commitment. A lot of agents are running with at the moment: ‘just sign long-term contracts, and if you want to move, we’ll move you’.<\/p>\n
“Well, that’s not the world I live in. The world I live in is if you make a commitment, then you see it through.”<\/p>\n
Scott said even if Merrett is forced to stay against his will it doesn’t mean he has to be stripped of the captaincy.<\/p>\n
“Of course he can be captain. No one’s perfect,” Scott said.<\/p>\n
“Will it be a challenge based on this situation? Absolutely it will be.<\/p>\n
“But I’ve seen him overcome bigger challenges than this.”<\/p>\n
Scott, who had dinner with Merrett earlier this week, said news of the star midfielder’s Tuesday night meeting with Mitchell came as a surprise.<\/p>\n
The veteran coach likened the 29-year-old’s exploration of a move away like a child making a mistake.<\/p>\n
As for Ridley, who is contracted until 2029, Scott took the same stance: “Jordan’s contracted, he won’t be traded under any circumstances.”<\/p>\n
Mitchell was coy at his pre-training media conference on Wednesday morning when asked about their interest in Merrett.<\/p>\n
“I’m not sure — you’d have to talk to the list management guys about that,” Mitchell said.<\/p>\n
“I hope they are working behind the scenes on improving our list. That’s what their job is and I hope they are going about that.”<\/p>\n
Within seconds of the media conference ending, the Nine Network reported Mitchell had met with Merrett.<\/p>\n
Gold Coast’s elimination-final win over Fremantle last weekend has added further emphasis to the lack of September success at Essendon.<\/p>\n
They now have the longest stretch without a finals win, dating back to 2004.<\/p>\n
It is understood Merrett’s primary motivation for leaving the Bombers is to play in a premiership team.<\/p>\n
Also on Tuesday night, Essendon great James Hird and fellow AFL commentator Eddie McGuire agreed the Bombers must not trade Merrett.<\/p>\n
“I just can’t believe in a world where they can let their best player and captain go,” Hird said on the Nine Network.<\/p>\n
“He has every right (to explore his options), but if I’m the club I’m saying ‘no, you’re not going’.<\/p>\n
“The brand damage and the damage (to) that club if he walks out is huge — and on the field, which is the most important thing.”<\/p>\n
Former Collingwood president McGuire is adamant Merrett is too important for Essendon to let him break his contract and leave.<\/p>\n
“If Zach Merrett left Essendon, you may as well turn the lights out for the next five years. You have to keep these people,” McGuire said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon coach Brad Scott says he was surprised to hear Zach Merrett met with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-132590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132590","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=132590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}