{"id":530945,"date":"2026-03-10T11:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T11:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/530945\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T11:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T11:43:10","slug":"zach-merrett-reflects-on-failed-trade-to-hawthorn-hawks-video-interview-essendon-bombers-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/530945\/","title":{"rendered":"Zach Merrett reflects on failed trade to Hawthorn Hawks, video, interview, Essendon Bombers, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon superstar Zach Merrett has reflected candidly on his failed trade move to Hawthorn<\/a>, and the effects the highly-publicised saga had on him and his loved ones. <\/p>\n

It comes as the Bombers and Hawks prepare to clash in a blockbuster Round 1 meeting at the MCG. <\/p>\n

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Merrett, who said it\u2019ll feel like a \u201cblur\u201d when he clashes with the Hawks on Friday night, explained that the \u201chardest part\u201d about his trade saga was the media intensity and a handful of narratives he thought were \u201cpretty unfair\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely difficult \u2013 and, not to go through everything, but there\u2019s no doubt I was struggling a little bit at the back end of last year, personally,\u201d he said on Fox Footy\u2019s AFL 360 on Tuesday night. <\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to find and see the light for where we\u2019re going as a footy club and myself, to then get to the point of asking for a trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat wasn\u2019t the hardest part \u2014 I think the hard part was all the intensity in the media, and probably some narratives and some discussion and points that were made that I thought were pretty unfair, and a fair way from the truth. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was hard to live with. And then seeing how that puts pressure on your family and friends around you – it was certainly a unique situation I\u2019ve never been in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking on AFL 360 on Monday night, Brad Scott insisted there was no relationship breakdown between him and Merrett, defiantly starting: \u201cThat never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: \u2018People don\u2019t believe you\u2019: Coach\u2019s response to Merrett claim as Bombers lean into \u2018spicy\u2019 clash<\/a><\/p>\n

Hawks duo were locked up in America?! | 01:04<\/p>\n

The five-time Crichton medallist said he never thought he\u2019d be one of those to seek a move to greener pastures. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was tough, but I\u2019m pretty comfortable with most of the things that went down, and there are things I certainly learned as well,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard when you\u2019re the club captain and you\u2019re having these constant battles internally around what\u2019s best for you and your footy \u2026 I got to a point, to be honest, that I never thought I was going to reach. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen plenty of players and staff before me reach a point where they felt they needed to remove themselves from the club and go to a different place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought I would get there, and unfortunately, I did at the end of last year, and that was why those next few months unfolded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaz insists players still want Origin | 02:04<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the final moments of trade deadline day on October 15 last year, Merrett admitted there was \u201ca lot of emotion flowing\u201d – compounded by non-footy events – but had \u201cno anger\u201d towards the Bombers for holding him to his contract. <\/p>\n

\u201cTom (Petroro, his former agent) is such a passionate and loyal guy – he was fighting tooth and nail to get the job done, and I was just sitting at home with my wife and my cousin watching the Petracca deal happen, and then the Curnow deal and it looked like it was going to happen \u2013 and it didn\u2019t,\u201d Merrett said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe clock ticked over 6.30, and then pretty quickly trying to wrap your head around you\u2019re going back, and what that may look like.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a weird time. I had my nana\u2019s funeral two days later, which was probably the hardest part of that two-week period.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, there was a lot of emotion flowing (but) not anger \u2014 I signed that deal four years prior. They committed to me massively, so there was no anger around the decision-making to hold me to the contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was more probably a bit of disappointment around how things had played out publicly; some conversations that had been had behind closed doors that were aired in the public eye. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was definitely some disappointment and frustration initially, but \u2026 by the time I got back to Melbourne (after the funeral), it was (about) getting my head around going back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blues move forward from Docherty rant | 02:26<\/p>\n

Merrett said he preferred to have had some conversations behind closed doors, citing interviews that club leaders Mason Redman and Nic Martin did<\/a> with media outlets during the saga. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose two articles that were public (about Redman and Martin\u2019s reactions) \u2013 I think that was one of the things I was a little bit frustrated at the start that that was public,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think there were conversations that could have been had behind closed doors. Those two boys were understandably frustrated \u2026 if I were in that position, I\u2019d probably be the same \u2026 so, their actions were fully entitled. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe caught up off the back of the trade not going through \u2014 we had dinner on (Andrew) Welshy\u2019s card, which was nice.<\/p>\n

\u201c(It was) probably two or three weeks later, we caught up with Andy McGrath and Kyle Langford and just talked about everything – they put their cards on the table around their frustrations, and then I gave them a little bit more context. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the learning from me was that I should have been more up front through the back end of the season with how I was feeling, and what I felt I needed to do just to give them more understanding. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think they felt a little bit in the dark, so, as I said, completely understand their position – for me, it would just have been nice to have those conversations behind closed doors.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon superstar Zach Merrett has reflected candidly on his failed trade move to Hawthorn, and the effects the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,106612,64,63,689,55,639,45716,263710,82683,118426,218845,262794,12111,175470,667,10145,61,2105,263712,92519,7492,263711,3231,33330,2504,263714,118425,647,3257,3032,677,672,14272,85,7200,217688,3254,660,263713,25581],"class_list":{"0":"post-530945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-andy-mcgrath","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","13":"tag-australian-football-league","14":"tag-australianfootballleague","15":"tag-back-end","16":"tag-candid-tell-all","17":"tag-closed-doors","18":"tag-club-leaders","19":"tag-connor-macdonald","20":"tag-dan-gorringe","21":"tag-dylan-moore","22":"tag-failed-trade","23":"tag-footy-club","24":"tag-garry-lyon","25":"tag-gerard-whateley","26":"tag-getty-images-inc","27":"tag-hardest-part","28":"tag-hawks-duo","29":"tag-hawthorn-hawks","30":"tag-highly-publicised-saga","31":"tag-jack-jovanovski","32":"tag-josh-chadwick","33":"tag-lifts-lid","34":"tag-media-intensity","35":"tag-media-outlets","36":"tag-melbourne","37":"tag-michael-voss","38":"tag-nic-martin","39":"tag-oceania","40":"tag-richmond-tigers","41":"tag-sam-docherty","42":"tag-sports","43":"tag-sydney-swans","44":"tag-trade-deadline-day","45":"tag-trade-saga","46":"tag-victoria","47":"tag-weird-time","48":"tag-zach-merrett"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530945","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=530945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}