{"id":216301,"date":"2025-10-15T22:37:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T22:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/216301\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T22:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T22:37:07","slug":"tom-petroro-blows-up-zach-merrett-deal-stalls-hawthorn-football-club-offer-essendon-knock-it-back-andrew-welsh-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/216301\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Petroro blows up, Zach Merrett deal stalls, Hawthorn Football Club offer, Essendon knock it back, Andrew Welsh statement"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s been remarkably tense scenes in the final moments of the 2025 AFL Trade Period<\/a>, after Zach Merrett\u2019s Hawks deal fell through and his manager lost his cool.<\/p>\n

Merrett\u2019s potential move from Essendon had been the headline story of the entire Trade Period, given the Bombers\u2019 tough stance on not letting him go.<\/p>\n

The Hawks offered up pick 10, 22, their 2026 first-round pick and young midfielder Henry Hustwaite, while the Bombers wanted the Hawks\u2019 2027 first-round pick and a 2026 second-round pick instead of Hustwaite.<\/p>\n

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The teams could not come to an agreement and Merrett remains a Bomber which will make things very awkward in the pre-season.<\/p>\n

And that led to some dramatic vision from inside both the Bombers and Hawks rooms as player manager Tom Petroro was left \u201cfuming\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is quite frantic at the moment,\u201d Fox Footy\u2019s David Zita reported from Trade HQ.<\/p>\n

\u201cTom Petroro, we got vision of him in the rooms \u2013 he does not look overly thrilled at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cZach Merrett is playing for Essendon next year the way that this is playing out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vision of Tom Petroro fuming after he wasn\u2019t able to get that deal done \u2026 that was quite extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox Footy cameras showed Petroro gesturing inside the Bombers rooms before storming into the Hawks where he chucked his phone and wallet onto a table and continued to debate with Hawthorn staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is incredible vision,\u201d Fox Footy\u2019s Sarah Jones said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been trying to get the deal done, trying to bring the clubs together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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WINNERS & LOSERS: Cash splashers, bargain buyers win; \u2018trainwreck\u2019 avoided<\/a><\/p>\n

2025 AFL trade period comes to an end | 02:30<\/p>\n

Two-time premiership Roo David King said it was on the Hawks to satisfy Essendon \u2013 and they didn\u2019t make it happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you promise a club captain to put himself through this to this point, to this extreme, you\u2019ve got to come up with a way to get the deal done. You\u2019ve got to satisfy Essendon,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t blame Essendon for playing hard ball here \u2013 they\u2019ve come out and made their statements and they\u2019ve stuck by them so full credit to them.<\/p>\n

Rosa on Merrett trade situation | 03:31<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think when you\u2019re Hawthorn and you\u2019re promising a club captain \u2026 it is on you.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s entitled to be furious Zach Merrett.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo doubt Hawthorn would have said \u2018we\u2019ll get this deal done \u2013 we\u2019ve got enough big, enough talent on our list that we\u2019ll be able to satisfy the Bombers\u2019 and they haven\u2019t done that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a real blow for the Hawks tonight \u2013 I really do (not getting the Merrett deal done).<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Hawks have left one on the table tonight.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo fall over this late I think is really disappointing for Zach Merrett and the Hawks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zita believes it was Hawthorn who refused to meet Essendon\u2019s demands of \u201cpick 10, 22, a first-round pick from next year and a future, future first round pick in exchange for Zach Merrett\u201d.<\/p>\n

So where does all this drama leave Merrett?<\/p>\n

Merrett fails in bid to join Hawks | 01:56<\/p>\n

Journalist Jon Ralph warned the Bombers could have a \u201cvery disgruntled player\u201d in 2026, but Leigh Montagna said the club and player will move on quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Zach Merrett will continue to be the same Zach Merrett he\u2019s been,\u201d Montagna said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll be their best player and he still should lead by example.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo doubt he\u2019s going to feel somewhat sheepish walking back into the club for the first week \u2026 but football clubs are pretty forgiving places. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll shake hands, get to work and worry about the business that needs to be done on winning games of football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ralph, who described Hawks coach Sam Mitchell as \u201cthe greatest salesman of all time\u201d, said the Merrett deal was lacking in two key areas \u2013 given former Blue, now Swan Charlie Curnow was able to secure his trade after getting to one of three clubs he said he\u2019d be happy to head to, and having traded players involved from the same management stable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s been remarkably tense scenes in the final moments of the 2025 AFL Trade Period, after Zach Merrett\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,107267,64,63,55,639,19120,39221,8011,100207,132258,7666,121211,51244,50007,1127,131939,9130,7492,132257,681,3465,7804,61654,131834,64097,12936,19093,85,92572,132256,97812],"class_list":["post-216301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-andrew-welsh","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-christian-petracca","tag-club-captain","tag-david-zita","tag-deal-done","tag-deal-stalls","tag-final-minutes","tag-final-moments","tag-first-round-draft-picks","tag-football-clubs","tag-fox-footy","tag-giants-stayafl","tag-gold-coast-suns","tag-hawthorn-hawks","tag-headline-story","tag-jon-ralph","tag-leigh-montagna","tag-melbourne-demons","tag-player-manager","tag-real-blow","tag-roo-david-king","tag-sam-mitchell","tag-sarah-jones","tag-sports","tag-tom-petroro","tag-trade-room","tag-trade-window"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216301","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=216301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}