{"id":308826,"date":"2025-11-26T00:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T00:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/308826\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T00:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T00:50:08","slug":"zach-merrett-gives-up-bombers-afl-captaincy-after-failed-hawks-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/308826\/","title":{"rendered":"Zach Merrett gives up Bombers AFL captaincy after failed Hawks trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Zach Merrett has stepped down as Essendon men&#8217;s captain after his failed trade request to Hawthorn left his position untenable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Merrett never appeared likely to retain his captaincy <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-10-16\/essendon-ceo-says-hawthorn-afl-trade-tactics-merrett-surprising\/105900392\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/105900392\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">after trying to force an exit from the Bombers<\/a>, despite being contracted until the end of the 2027 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Appointed captain in 2023, the 30-year-old told teammates he would step down from the role after returning to preseason training.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Vice-captain Andrew McGrath is the early favourite to become the club&#8217;s next skipper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;It&#8217;s been weighing on my mind around who is the best person to lead this club and [the] group moving forward, and I feel like I&#8217;ve come to the decision that I&#8217;m not the right person,&#8221; Merrett said in a club statement.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-10-17\/afl-trade-period-analysis-zach-merrett-first-round-pick-value\/105898588\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Merrett trade saga shows it is time to stop using first-round picks to judge deals<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">The AFL trade period offered three different test cases on just how much value a first-round pick holds during negotiations. Two stars got their moves, while one was left stranded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Desperate for success, Merrett had requested his trade to Hawthorn after losing &#8220;love and connection&#8221; with the Bombers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The six-time Bombers best-and-fairest winner has not won a final across 251 matches for Essendon since his debut in 2014.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The Bombers last won a final in 2004.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Merrett was forced to remain at the club after Essendon, refusing to trade the star midfielder under any circumstances, knocked back every offer from the Hawks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Jy Simpkin, who similarly had a failed trade from North Melbourne despite being contracted, is poised to join Merrett in giving up the captaincy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Simpkin, desiring more midfield time, could not engineer a trade to another club.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">North Melbourne has the second-longest drought without a finals win, dating back to 2015.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zach Merrett has stepped down as Essendon men&#8217;s captain after his failed trade request to Hawthorn left his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[10968,638,64,63,21452,9659,103145,3028,175470,16308,175471,3195,6855,144864,85,25581],"class_list":["post-308826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-10968","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bombers","tag-captain","tag-captaincy","tag-essendon","tag-failed-trade","tag-finals","tag-jy-simkpin","tag-kangaroos","tag-north-melbourne","tag-skipper","tag-sports","tag-zach-merrett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308826","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=308826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}