{"id":528179,"date":"2026-03-09T05:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T05:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/528179\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T05:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T05:23:11","slug":"essendon-coach-brad-scott-says-his-club-has-moved-on-from-zach-merrett-saga-as-bombers-set-to-face-hawthorn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/528179\/","title":{"rendered":"Essendon coach Brad Scott says his club has moved on from Zach Merrett saga as Bombers set to face Hawthorn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon coach Brad Scott intends to stay out of Zach Merrett’s way as the star midfielder navigates a potentially uncomfortable build-up to the round-one clash with Hawthorn.<\/p>\n

All eyes are on Merrett ahead of Friday night’s MCG blockbuster after the 30-year-old’s failed attempt to join the Hawks during last year’s trade period.<\/p>\n

The Bombers held Merrett to his contract, and the league has scheduled the traditional rivals to meet in an early-season promoters’ dream, which is expected to draw about 90,000 fans.<\/p>\n

Merrett quits as Bombers skipper <\/a><\/p>\n

Zach Merrett steps down as Essendon men’s captain after his failed trade request to Hawthorn left his position untenable.<\/p>\n

“In my experience with the best players, they prepare themselves unbelievably well physically, but even more so mentally,” Scott said today.<\/p>\n

“I’ve seen some strong, resilient characters in my time in footy, and Zach Merrett’s in the top echelon in terms of guys who have resilience.<\/p>\n

“So, of course, my job as coach is to support him, but with those guys, my experience tells me just to get out of the way and let him do his thing.”<\/p>\n

Merrett’s desire to leave after 251 games in red-and-black has been the story of the off-season at Essendon.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Zach Merrett seems to be enjoying his footy in 2026 for the Bombers. (Getty Images: AFL Photos\/James Wiltshire)<\/p>\n

The prolific ball-winner won a sixth club best-and-fairest award but stepped down as captain on return, replaced by former deputy Andy McGrath.<\/p>\n

Disappointed teammates Mason Redman and Nic Martin held clear-the-air talks with Merrett, and the Bombers have been adamant the playing group has moved on over summer.<\/p>\n

It emerged in recent days that teammate Jye Caldwell cheekily gave Merrett a Hawthorn jumper signed by Jack Ginnivan as part of the Bombers’ Secret Santa gift exchange.<\/p>\n

“I loved it. If I’d thought of it, it would’ve been even funnier I reckon,” Scott said.<\/p>\n

“It probably speaks to the fact that it’s a big deal to everyone, I get it, they’re fair questions \u2014 but we moved on a long time ago.<\/p>\n

“Now we’re at the stage where we’re making jokes about it.”<\/p>\n

Decimated by injuries last season, Essendon enter the 2026 campaign in a far better position as it eyes a possible climb towards the finals.<\/p>\n

Scott indicated it would be a risk to play young gun Isaac Kako (hamstring) against Hawthorn, and the club’s top draft pick Sullivan Robey (back) is unavailable.<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

But fellow first-round selections Jacob Farrow and Dyson Sharp are in the mix for round-one debuts.<\/p>\n

“Certainly, on pre-season performance, we’re extremely happy with our draftees, but we’re not in a position where we have to blood players,” Scott said.<\/p>\n

“We’re not trying to bring players in just for the sake of being young.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to pick the side that’s going to give us the best chance, and if that happens to include a couple of debutants, I think that’s really exciting for our future.”<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon coach Brad Scott intends to stay out of Zach Merrett’s way as the star midfielder navigates a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,696,9659,262534,3028,6854,59906,588,85,576,25581],"class_list":["post-528179","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-brad-scott","tag-captain","tag-discussions","tag-essendon","tag-hawthorn","tag-questions","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-trade","tag-zach-merrett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528179","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=528179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}