{"id":513699,"date":"2026-03-02T10:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/513699\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T10:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:45:12","slug":"jack-riewoldt-has-complete-lack-of-trust-in-essendons-zach-merrett-after-trade-request-leaving-bombers-after-2026-season-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/513699\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Riewoldt has complete lack of trust in Essendon\u2019s Zach Merrett after trade request, leaving Bombers after 2026 season, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richmond great Jack Riewoldt has criticised Zach Merrett, saying he would have no trust in him as a teammate, following the Essendon star\u2019s off-season trade request.<\/p>\n

Merrett failed to get to Hawthorn as he desired, with the Bombers rejecting the Hawks\u2019 best trade offer of three mid-to-late first-round picks and fringe midfielder Henry Hustwaite.<\/p>\n

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Instead he had to return to the Bombers, losing the captaincy and facing up to teammates who publicly criticised his desire to leave the club.<\/p>\n

Leadership group members Nic Martin and Mason Redman both conducted interviews during the trade period as part of an apparent media strategy from the Bombers.<\/p>\n

Martin said he was \u201cbitterly hurt\u201d and \u201ca little bit angry\u201d when he heard the news, while Redman said he was \u201cdisappointed\u201d given as captain Merrett was \u201csupposed to be leading us through this\u201d.<\/p>\n

Neale wants to stay in Brisbane! | 01:32<\/p>\n

Merrett\u2019s first game since the trade request will be against Hawthorn in Round 1, but speaking on Fox Footy\u2019s On the Couch, Riewoldt questioned how fans could have any faith in the midfielder sticking around after 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cFascinating the way it all finished. Mason Redman, who\u2019s part of the club\u2019s leadership group, saying he didn\u2019t trust in Zach Merrett,\u201d Riewoldt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe aftermath of everything that\u2019s happened with Merrett – it leaves me in this position. We get reports that Zach is open to extending his contract past 2027<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m an Essendon supporter and I hear those sorts of comments from my ex-captain, a man who has wanted away from my football club, I think in eight months\u2019 time we\u2019re gonna be in the exactly the same position.<\/p>\n

\u201cMason Redman summed it up – I\u2019d have a complete lack of trust in him as a player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zach Merrett was criticised by Jack Riewoldt.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n

Riewoldt expects the Bombers to miss the finals again and Merrett to therefore seek another trade to a contender.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of us here would say Essendon would make the final 10, so they\u2019re gonna be in exactly the same situation,\u201d Riewoldt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cZach Merrett\u2019s gonna be a year older, potentially his trade value\u2019s gonna come down, and I feel like we\u2019re gonna be having the same conversation in eight months\u2019 time and he\u2019s gonna be asking for a trade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merrett enters the 2026 season with 251 career games, all of them at Essendon, having lost all four finals he has played in.<\/p>\n

How high are the stakes for Voss in 2026 | 02:34<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richmond great Jack Riewoldt has criticised Zach Merrett, saying he would have no trust in him as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-513699","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-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513699","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=513699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}