{"id":207581,"date":"2025-10-12T10:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T10:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/207581\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T10:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T10:09:08","slug":"merrett-curnow-remain-in-limbo-as-afl-deadline-nears-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/207581\/","title":{"rendered":"Merrett, Curnow remain in limbo as AFL deadline nears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon captain Zach Merrett (right) is in trade limbo as he tries to join Hawthorn. (Joel Carrett\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Rival clubs will need to be creative if they are to pull off bumper AFL trades for Essendon captain Zach Merrett and Carlton key forward Charlie Curnow.<\/p>\n

With Wednesday’s 7.30pm deadline looming, the Bombers remain adamant Merrett’s wish of a move to Hawthorn will not happen.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the Blues are yet to be enticed by Geelong or Sydney, who have conducted medicals with Curnow.<\/p>\n

Essendon and Carlton have not budged for the past week over the two stars.<\/p>\n

That means the offers will most likely need to be sweetened with high draft picks, on-traded from other clubs.<\/p>\n

\"Christian
\n Christian Petracca looks set to join Gold Coast from Melbourne. (Joel Carrett\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Christian Petracca’s wish to join Gold Coast looks more likely, given the Suns have picks seven and eight as they try to strike a deal with Melbourne for the Norm Smith Medallist.<\/p>\n

The Bombers were blindsided a month ago with the revelation Merrett had met with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell.<\/p>\n

Merrett’s acceptance speech for a sixth club best-and-fairest award earlier this month sounded a lot like a farewell.<\/p>\n

But he is yet to officially ask for a trade to the Hawks and a deal would reportedly need the approval of the Essendon board.<\/p>\n

\"Charlie
\n Charlie Curnow might not find his way to the exit at Carlton after all. (Joel Carrett\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Geelong are Curnow’s preferred destination and they tabled their round-one draft picks for this year and the next two as they try to recruit the key forward.<\/p>\n

The Blues have countered by noting that, given the Cats are coming off a grand final appearance and are likely to stay in premiership contention, those picks will be well outside the top 10.<\/p>\n

Curnow has four years left on his current contract and the Blues also have been adamant their preference is for him to stay.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear whether any Sydney players want to be part of a deal that would send them to the Blues, who have overhauled their football department after dropping out of the top eight this season.<\/p>\n

Petracca’s teammate Clayton Oliver, another key member of the midfield when Melbourne won their drought-breaking 2021 premiership, has met with GWS after being told by the Demons to look for a trade.<\/p>\n

Rowan Marshall wants to join Geelong, but St Kilda have made it clear they intend to keep him.<\/p>\n

Adelaide are also at impasse with Brisbane over two-time Lions premiership utility Callum Ah Chee.<\/p>\n

GWS defender Leek Aleer has been a hard luck story of the trade period. He was said to be shattered when the Saints, one of the most active clubs in trade deals, decided against recruiting him.<\/p>\n

License this article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon captain Zach Merrett (right) is in trade limbo as he tries to join Hawthorn. (Joel Carrett\/AAP PHOTOS)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[4764,4765,638,64,63,55,4766,639,1348,3355,3359,44,3356,3354,3357,85,3358,1346],"class_list":["post-207581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-aap","tag-aapnews","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australian-news","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-breaking-news","tag-daily-news","tag-global-news","tag-news","tag-news-app","tag-news-headlines","tag-news-today","tag-sports","tag-today-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207581","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=207581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}