{"id":262923,"date":"2025-11-04T22:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T22:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/262923\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T22:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T22:29:08","slug":"hawthorn-right-to-walk-away-from-zach-merrett-claims-ex-recruiter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/262923\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawthorn right to walk away from Zach Merrett, claims ex-recruiter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hawthorn<\/a> are due kudos for sticking to their guns regarding the Zach Merrett Essendon<\/a> trade saga, according to ex-Carlton football manager Brad Lloyd.<\/p>\n

Bombers skipper Merrett nominated the Hawks as his club of preference for a trade but a deal couldn’t be agreed after the Bombers failed to accept Hawthorn’s offerings.<\/p>\n

It has been reported the Hawks put three first-round picks on the table for Merrett – however Essendon were keen on acquiring four of the prime early selections.<\/p>\n

Lloyd, who worked in recruitment at Fremantle before transitioning to football administration, believes Hawthorn made the right decision to stick to their guns and not overpay to secure Merrett.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0‘Embarrassing’: Kane Cornes can’t believe the AFL is considering reintroducing a rule scrapped in 2018<\/a><\/p>\n

“I think Hawthorn deserves some respect for not buckling in trade talks over Merrett,” Lloyd said via his column in the Herald Sun<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lloyd continued: “They put in a strong offer and said they ended up having good conversation and dialogue with Essendon, but unfortunately weren\u2019t able to get it done.<\/p>\n

“It would have been just as easy to give another pick over and make sure it happened, but I respect the fact they had their position and didn\u2019t buckle when the whole football world thought it was their job to get Merrett in.<\/p>\n

“There is often talk in the industry that you \u2018have\u2019 to land the player when you get their commitment.<\/p>\n

“Everyone wants you to get that player \u2013 the board, the players are all excited. The player manager and the trade target themselves are all-in on the move.<\/p>\n

“It takes a lot of discipline to look at that decision with clear eyes and thought process and decide you have gone far enough.<\/p>\n

“The whole football world would have been egging Hawthorn on to finalise that trade and it would have been an easier way to go but they stuck with their strategy and discipline.<\/p>\n

“Time will tell whether it was the right call or not and we will see how they use the picks they held on to.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hawthorn are due kudos for sticking to their guns regarding the Zach Merrett Essendon trade saga, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-262923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262923","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=262923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}