{"id":303409,"date":"2025-11-23T11:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T11:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/303409\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T11:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T11:36:08","slug":"bombers-star-merrett-speaks-about-failed-trade-to-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/303409\/","title":{"rendered":"Bombers star Merrett speaks about failed trade to Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon star Zach Merrett has admitted he lost “love and connection” to the club, leading to his failed trade request to Hawthorn.<\/p>\n

The six-time Bombers best-and-fairest winner was forced to walk back into Tullamarine after Essendon declined to accept a deal from their bitter rivals.<\/p>\n

Merrett, who is likely to be stripped of the captaincy, has opened up on being central to one of the AFL’s most dramatic trade sagas.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old admitted it was tough telling Bombers coach Brad Scott he had met with Hawks counterpart Sam Mitchell.<\/p>\n

Zach Merrett will be back at Essendon next season after failing to secure a trade to Hawthorn\u00a0Josh Chadwick\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Images<\/p>\n

“My bottom lip was quivering because I felt like we had been through so much together,” Merrett told the Herald Sun.<\/p>\n

“And in some ways I felt like I was letting him down because he had given me my childhood dream of captaining Essendon.<\/p>\n

“It was a difficult couple of hours at his house. It was raw. I was emotional.<\/p>\n

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“We were both upset.<\/p>\n

“I had probably lost a little bit of love and connection I had had for the footy club, and that has been pretty deep.”<\/p>\n

Merrett is desperate for success after playing 251 games for Essendon and not winning a final. The latest of his four losing finals was in the COVID-hit 2021 season, in a heavy loss to the Western Bulldogs in Launceston.<\/p>\n

Since the Bombers last won any finals game back in 2004, every other AFL club has been able to win a post-season match.<\/p>\n

The second-longest drought without a finals win amongst the other 17 clubs is North Melbourne’s, stemming from 2015.<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t a loss of faith. I love the club. No matter what happened, I will always love Essendon,” Merrett said.<\/p>\n

“I’m a very driven person and after 12 years of not winning a final, knocking on the door of 30 (years old), you do reflect on your own life and career knowing it does not last forever.<\/p>\n

“Late in the season I was able to compartmentalise it and perform on the field and still lead as well as I could.<\/p>\n

“In a way, I feel very humbled that they would much prefer to keep me and keep building a list and a team that succeeds in the next five years.”<\/p>\n

Merrett has returned to training with Essendon, insisting there was no bad blood with the playing group.<\/p>\n

Essendon are due to open their 2026 season with a showdown against the Hawks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon star Zach Merrett has admitted he lost “love and connection” to the club, leading to his failed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-303409","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\/303409","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=303409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}