{"id":195116,"date":"2025-10-07T09:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T09:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/195116\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T09:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T09:34:08","slug":"david-zaharakis-vents-frustration-over-essendon-bombers-drug-leak-ceo-craig-vozzo-leaking-at-the-club-zach-merrett-set-to-request-trade-to-hawthorn-hawks-reaction-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/195116\/","title":{"rendered":"David Zaharakis vents frustration over Essendon Bombers drug leak, CEO Craig Vozzo, leaking at the club, Zach Merrett set to request trade to Hawthorn Hawks, reaction, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Essendon player David Zaharakis has labelled his former club a \u201crabble\u201d in wake of a report players raised concerns with the AFLPA after a testy meeting about illicit drugs in late June. <\/p>\n

Nine\u2019s Chief Football Reporter Tom Morris reported on Monday evening<\/a> that Bombers players felt CEO Craig Vozzo crossed the line with the way he spoke to players about drug use, with his words potentially breaching player confidentiality.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Triple M\u2019s Rush Hour with JB & Billy, Zaharakis shared his frustration at the club regarding the incident, before extending his criticism more broadly.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re a rabble at the moment. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on; you hear stories every single week,\u201d Zaharakis began.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly thought my period at Essendon was a pretty rough period \u2013 especially 2015\/16. Everyone thought we had hit rock bottom, but I honestly believe we are very close, if not further, to rock bottom than what we were then. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe stories that have come out this year about players wanting to leave and the locker room divide; even with the CEO (Craig Vozzo) and the players are disgruntled\u2026 there\u2019s too many stories happening at the moment at Essendon. As a past player, you\u2019re pretty disappointed and shattered with where the club is at. It seems like we\u2019ve gone backwards, rather than forwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geelong Cats Hall of Famer Billy Brownless added: \u201c(Essendon are) leaking like a sieve! There\u2019s too many leaks and the worst thing you can have at a footy club is a leak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zaharakis was in the infancy of his AFL career when he chose not to take part in the club\u2019s controversial injections program in 2012 that saw 34 of his teammates suspended.<\/p>\n

It saw Essendon fined $305,000 in late November of 2015 by Worksafe Victoria for breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The substance players were injected with was \u2018AOD-9604\u2019, an anti-obesity drug.<\/p>\n

\u201c(A leak) is the worst thing. Especially when you never hear bad stories about the top eight clubs in the league. It\u2019s always the bottom six or seven clubs that have leaks. Essendon is leaking like a sieve,\u201d Zaharakis continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a playing group, to have controversy almost every day and week\u2026 walking into that locker room, I don\u2019t know how you wouldn\u2019t be divided. There\u2019d be certain and different opinions of what\u2019s going on with Zach (Merrett) leaving. \u2018Do we want him back?\u2019 \u2018Do we want him captain?\u2019 \u2018Do we want to play with him next year?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my time as a player, I never had a captain wanting to leave. Jobe Watson and Dyson Heppell\u2026 Jobe and Dys, you\u2019d never even think about them entertaining something like this. So, with Zach there and potentially entertaining that (trade), I wouldn\u2019t think you\u2019d want him to be a captain next year. <\/p>\n

‘I know what it means to be contracted’ | 01:04<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Zach as a person, and he was a great teammate of mine, but it would be hard to look that person in the eye and say, \u2018Are you fully committed to this footy club?\u2019 … I personally don\u2019t see it happening (him staying).\u201d<\/p>\n

Zaharakis\u2019 former teammate and current club captain Zach Merrett has been heavily linked with a move to Hawthorn, although is yet to officially request a trade away from Tullamarine.<\/p>\n

The 251-gamer won an incredible sixth best and fairest last Thursday night, addressing his playing future at the club in his acceptance speech.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disappointed where we\u2019re at. I love the club. I barracked for Essendon since I was born, so it wasn\u2019t like I just played for them and was passing through,\u201d Zaharakis ended by saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an Essendon person through-and-through. I\u2019m now just a long-suffering fan like everyone else and I just want the club to succeed. You do sit back and can\u2019t help but feel disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Essendon player David Zaharakis has labelled his former club a \u201crabble\u201d in wake of a report players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,120158,122944,2362,122938,122935,122945,29108,2105,7492,80501,122937,54515,11182,122942,647,122947,677,122941,122943,122939,85,122948,122946,122188,45262,122940,660,122936,25581],"class_list":["post-195116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-best-amp-fairest","tag-billy-brownless","tag-contract-talks","tag-controversial-injections-program","tag-david-zaharakis","tag-dyson-heppell","tag-football-reporter-tom-morris","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-hawthorn-hawks","tag-illicit-drugs","tag-jb-amp-billy","tag-jobe-watson","tag-locker-room","tag-locker-room-divide","tag-melbourne","tag-michael-dodge","tag-oceania","tag-person-through-and-through","tag-player-confidentiality","tag-report-players","tag-sports","tag-substance-players","tag-testy-meeting","tag-trade-stalemate","tag-triple-m","tag-vents-frustration","tag-victoria","tag-worst-thing","tag-zach-merrett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195116","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=195116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}