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\u201cClearly, I didn\u2019t agree with him about the disgruntlement, but I don\u2019t want to hang him on that. I think he\u2019s a first-up president that\u2019s been thrown in at the deep end,\u201d Lyon began on AFL 360 on Wednesday night. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019ll be fantastic in the role, but I didn\u2019t agree with him. And look, we had Zach on our show here throughout the course of the year, and we put it to him in the strongest possible terms that \u2018this is what we\u2019re hearing, is there any truth to it?\u2019 … it\u2019s a hard position to be in, but I take it (what Merrett says) all with a grain of salt. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what he\u2019s telling Andrew, I don\u2019t know what he\u2019s telling other people. Clearly, he told us one thing, and other things were at play … and Andrew\u2019s trying to put his best foot forward there, so I don\u2019t hang him up on that. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t agree with him (Welsh) in any way, shape or form about the disgruntlement that\u2019s clearly there, but … (Jordan) Ridley\u2019s turned around and said he\u2019s coming back, so that\u2019s a big tick for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henry & Stanley set to be fit for GF | 01:40<\/p>\n
Co-host and respected commentator Gerard Whateley took the stance that Merrett staying simply had to come to fruition after Welsh guaranteed his retention so vehemently. <\/p>\n
\u201cI do think once you come to the job as president fresh \u2014 and he is fresh \u2014 and you guarantee that he\u2019s going to be there on the first day of pre-season, I think you have to live that,\u201d Whateley said on Fox Footy. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf there was a possibility that they were going to trade him, the new president had the absolute right to leave himself just a wedge of space to be able to navigate into in three weeks\u2019 time. He shut that absolutely. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, if I\u2019m an Essendon fan, I don\u2019t want him coming to me in three weeks\u2019 time saying \u2018oh, we traded him\u2019. Today was the day. <\/p>\n
Horse & Simmo talk about GF experience | 07:39<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect him to be at Essendon now. I expect them to absolutely live their word. They\u2019ve done it over and over and over, and this was their moment just to create a little bit of wriggle room. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re going to stay so strong with your fanbase, then you best follow through.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Lyon was of the belief things could still shift again between now and trade time, saying: \u201cI\u2019m not ruling it out, Gerard. I\u2019m putting that down to perhaps a bit of naivety for a first-up president in his first media (appearance). And I\u2019ll cut him a bit of slack. <\/p>\n
\u201cThings change, for me. You can be resolute one day, in football, and you can go goalposts move the next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lachie Neale racing to be fit for GF | 05:24<\/p>\n
Later, on Midweek Tackle, Herald Sun journalists Jon Ralph and Scott Gullan discussed the situation further, with Ralph citing \u201crenewed hope\u201d of a Merrett rectification. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think he (Welsh) was exceptional in his performance, and I think that the Essendon fans felt that this was almost the best day in this club\u2019s season, and that\u2019s not saying much, because they haven\u2019t had a lot of hope,\u201d said Ralph on Fox Footy. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, renewed hope that maybe Zach Merrett will stay. And obviously, him talking about unity in a great email that was sent out by Dean Solomon to amass the troops \u2014 \u2018come on, let\u2019s get behind this bloke as well\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gullan, meanwhile, was convinced Merrett is now likely to remain in red and black. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think he (Welsh) went strong, and this is the start of his presidency. So, I think Zach Merrett won\u2019t be going, and I think it\u2019s starting to change already, the narrative, with Ridley staying,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAndrew Welsh wouldn\u2019t, or shouldn\u2019t, have been advised to go so strongly on Zach Merrett if it wasn\u2019t true. So, I think he doesn\u2019t go anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon has been urged to \u201cfollow through\u201d on its guarantee that captain Zach Merrett will remain at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[1146,638,107267,64,63,689,55,639,109095,109092,109098,39221,106613,109096,109099,10145,61,2105,109093,109097,49793,3231,30404,681,25875,647,677,109094,19071,12936,29653,85,41607,109091,48045,660,25581],"class_list":{"0":"post-165859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-adam-simpson","9":"tag-afl","10":"tag-andrew-welsh","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","14":"tag-australian-football-league","15":"tag-australianfootballleague","16":"tag-belief-things","17":"tag-bombers-players-walk","18":"tag-champions-coaches","19":"tag-club-captain","20":"tag-day-coverage","21":"tag-fans-felt","22":"tag-first-up-president","23":"tag-garry-lyon","24":"tag-gerard-whateley","25":"tag-getty-images-inc","26":"tag-henry-stanley","27":"tag-horse-simmo","28":"tag-jack-henry","29":"tag-jack-jovanovski","30":"tag-john-longmire","31":"tag-jon-ralph","32":"tag-lachie-neale","33":"tag-melbourne","34":"tag-oceania","35":"tag-renewed-hope","36":"tag-rhys-stanley","37":"tag-sam-mitchell","38":"tag-scott-gullan","39":"tag-sports","40":"tag-things-change","41":"tag-trade-situation","42":"tag-trade-time","43":"tag-victoria","44":"tag-zach-merrett"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165859","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=165859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}