Merrett had spoken to the club<\/a> about \u201cwhere he\u2019s at in his career\u201d and whether his desire to win a premiership \u201ccoincided with where he wants to head\u201d.<\/p>\nBut Vozzo reiterated the Bombers\u2019 stance that Merrett was a required player.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe strong position of our club is Zach is contracted for the next two years, he\u2019s a really important, critical part of where we\u2019re heading. He\u2019ll be at our club,\u201d Vozzo told SEN Breakfast.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat message has already been conveyed to him. We remain in constant dialogue with his manager, Tom Petroro, as well as Zach. Brad (Scott) has spoken to him daily \u2026 and we\u2019ve maintained that position from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Vozzo said it was important to separate the prospects of Merrett staying as an Essendon player compared to him remaining Bombers captain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe highest honour I see at a football club is to captain the club, I think it\u2019s an honour and a privilege,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan he remain captain? It\u2019s a really complex one. It\u2019s one you need to deal with in a calm way and you can\u2019t deal with it today, because today emotions are really, really high \u2013 my emotions are high and if I was making an emotional decision, I\u2019d say: \u2018No way Zach can be the captain of the club.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it doesn\u2019t work like that, so you take the emotion out of it, understanding the honour and the privilege.<\/p>\n
‘The club feels betrayed’ – Jon Ralph | 07:20<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other critical piece, process-wise, is the position of his teammates. In every leadership process I\u2019ve been involved in, the position of the playing group is critical to that assessment \u2026 and that will play out in time. Those decisions are normally made through January and February into the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vozzo conceded \u201cbridges need to be mended\u201d, but stressed if Merrett stayed it wouldn\u2019t be the first time a player has explored the trade market before ultimately staying.<\/p>\n
On top of the Merrett news, best and fairest winner Jordan Ridley flagged his interest in a move to Brisbane, while Sam Draper told the club he wants to exercise his free agency rights.<\/p>\n
Vozzo stressed Ridley\u2019s position and reasoning were high performance-related and, therefore, \u201cvery different\u201d to Merrett\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had constant dialogue with Jordan throughout his career. He\u2019s an outstanding player, an outstanding person \u2013 and we\u2019ve got to create the environment that allows him to flourish from a high performance perspective,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve gone a long way over the latest period to do that. We were able to appoint Matthew Innes to lead our high performance and medical teams and David Regan will be join him in a 2IC position. So we\u2019ve revamped that part of the business, because we want constant improvement \u2013 and we\u2019re really confident that\u2019ll address the issues, not just for Jordan, but other players who have been frustrated with the last couple of years.<\/p>\n
Merrett link emerges ahead of semi-final | 02:33<\/p>\n
\u201cThings change really quickly and I have no doubt that if the proper conversations are held and people respect each other, people can work together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vozzo also pushed back on the notion that if Merrett and Ridley stayed at Essendon, they\u2019d be held against their will.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an interesting one. I\u2019ve always been a players\u2019 person. I\u2019ve always believed in looking after players and I still do,\u201d Vozzo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut on the other side of the fence, you\u2019ve got to understand when long-term contracts are entered, they\u2019re entered for a couple of reasons. To provide security, but with that security, there\u2019s a lack of flexibility that flows with it. So when players seek long-term security, they give up a level of flexibility \u2013 and that comes with that deal and comes with being one of the club\u2019s highest-paid players. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe system of AFL is very different. It\u2019s more structured as to contracts. Just as players can\u2019t be moved without consent, clubs can keep players even if there\u2019s friction. That\u2019s something we need to work through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The prospect of Zach Merrett remaining Essendon captain looms as a \u201creally complex\u201d discussion, according to club chief…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,17993,64,63,689,55,639,3423,92578,696,651,92583,92576,10133,92581,92580,92522,1119,2105,42251,92573,92584,92579,647,92526,59294,677,15836,92582,92577,92575,701,28008,11244,12936,17989,85,7805,41607,92572,63380,11236,28462,660,19121,92574],"class_list":["post-134099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-agency-rights","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-bombers-coach","tag-brad-scott","tag-brisbane","tag-club-captains","tag-club-chief-executive","tag-collingwood-magpies","tag-constant-dialogue","tag-david-regan","tag-desk-discuess","tag-football-club","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-hawks-coach","tag-leadership-process","tag-long-term-contracts","tag-matthew-innes","tag-melbourne","tag-merrett-trade","tag-multiple-outlets","tag-oceania","tag-oscar-allen","tag-people-respect","tag-performance-perspective","tag-players-seek","tag-queensland","tag-quinn-rooney","tag-sam-draper","tag-sam-mitchell","tag-senior-players","tag-sports","tag-star-midfielder","tag-things-change","tag-tom-petroro","tag-trade-market","tag-trade-news","tag-trade-speculation","tag-victoria","tag-young-players","tag-zach-merrett-hawthorn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134099","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=134099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}