The report indicated Merrett had linked back up with manager Nick Gieschen, who left TGI Sport in late 2019 to join Paul Connors\u2019 management stable, which rebranded to CDG Sports late last year.<\/p>\n
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The only place to stream every match of the 2025\/26 KFC BBL LIVE is on FOX CRICKET, available on Kayo Sports. | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n Merrett\u2019s potential move from Essendon was the headline story of last year\u2019s AFL Trade Period, with the Bombers taking a tough stance on not letting him go.<\/p>\n The Hawks offered up Picks 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 The deal fell through, with Merrett instead returning to Essendon training in November. He\u2019s contracted to the Bombers until the end of the 2027 season.<\/p>\n Speaking with the Herald Sun\u2019s<\/a> Jay Clark<\/a>, Merrett recounted how difficult it was to request a trade after 251 games and 12 years at The Hangar.<\/p>\n Zach Merrett and Hussien El Achkar. Picture: Mark StewartSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n \u201cIt was at Brad\u2019s house after he had cooked a nice steak and that was, to be honest, the hardest conversation \u2013 or one of the hardest conversations \u2013 I have ever had to have in my life,\u201d Merrett told the Herald Sun.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really hard to get the words out. My bottom lip was quivering because I felt like we had been through so much together. In some ways, I felt like I was letting him down because he had given me my childhood dream of captaining Essendon.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it was a difficult couple of hours at his house. It was raw. I was emotional. We were both upset, and I had probably lost a little bit of love and connection I had had for the footy club, and that has been pretty deep.\u201d<\/p>\n In a separate interview, Merrett said he holds out hope of helping Essendon to breakthrough finals victory.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very single-minded around success and very focused on growing and getting better and performing, but success underpins all of that stuff, and I knew I was knocking on the door of 30 (years old),\u201d Merrett told <\/a>The Age<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAs much as I want to play forever, I\u2019m definitely on the back nine rather than the front, so it felt like, \u2018Do I need a shift or a new environment to achieve what I want to achieve?\u2019 Everyone\u2019s journey is different, but I have had five head coaches and 160 teammates in my 12 years.<\/p>\n \u201cThroughout the year, guys kept going down injured, and then we\u2019re losing games. I was really trying to compartmentalise and focus on performing and leading as well as I could in the season.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I lost faith (in those running the club). It was just more around through all those changes, everyone\u2019s got the right intentions and passions \u2026 (but) the evidence obviously suggests we haven\u2019t won a final for a long, long time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six-time Essendon best and fairest winner Zach Merrett has reportedly parted ways with his manager, three months after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,217685,217687,217684,217683,175470,10031,667,7492,54980,132257,19125,611,26508,100419,217686,85,51303,92572,217688,25581],"class_list":["post-411559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-breakthrough-finals-victory","tag-deadline-day-scenes","tag-dramatic-trade-deadline","tag-ends-arrangement","tag-failed-trade","tag-first-round-pick","tag-footy-club","tag-hawthorn-hawks","tag-head-coaches","tag-headline-story","tag-jay-clark","tag-mark","tag-nick-gieschen","tag-paul-connors","tag-sensational-attempt","tag-sports","tag-stewart","tag-tom-petroro","tag-trade-deadline-day","tag-zach-merrett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411559","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=411559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}