![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
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The Bombers kicked off their season in unsightly fashion against Hawthorn – the club Merrett sought a move to – last Friday, falling by 62 points and conceding their fifth-worst score in the Brad Scott era. <\/p>\n
And not only did spearhead forward Riewoldt say the Bombers are no longer part of the AFL\u2019s \u201cbig four\u201d clubs, but he predicted them to spend the next several years in the doldrums after standing still at the trade table. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is this aura inside Victoria about the \u2018big four\u2019 – Richmond, Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. And I think, and I think many would think, that Essendon is no longer part of the big four,\u201d Riewoldt began by declaring on Fox Footy\u2019s On the Couch. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey are not a big club, Essendon. In the way that they have performed – they have not played in a winning final in 20 years \u2026 the Zach Merrett saga last year. <\/p>\n
\u201cI firmly believe that they have completely missed the trick here to get ahead of the rebuild. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey are telling us that they are rebuilding on the fly \u2026 to think they got offered three first-rounders, plus Henry Hustwaite, for Zach Merrett last year – have they read the tea leaves, or have they completely missed the boat?\u201d<\/p>\n
Buckley front row for Scott spray | 02:14<\/p>\n
On trade deadline day last year, Essendon rejected Hawthorn\u2019s offer of Pick 10, Pick 22, a future first-rounder and Hawks midfielder Hustwaite. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got worries that Essendon may sit in the bottom four for not one or two years – (but) for four, five, potentially six years, with the addition of Tasmania coming in,\u201d Riewoldt said. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve only got to look to another team in the big four to go \u2018well, maybe they did it a bit better\u2019 – and that was Richmond.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tigers let go of Daniel Rioli, Shai Bolton, Liam Baker and Jack Graham in the 2024 movement period, in return netting eight first-round picks that are now exciting young players. <\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, if you were to put Richmond versus Essendon against the wall and go \u2018who\u2019s got a better chance of winning a flag?\u2019 Richmond are miles ahead of the Essendon Football Club.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Is it system, or selfishness?’ | 02:42<\/p>\n
Champion Geelong stalwart Tom Hawkins explained that Merrett\u2019s presence alone last Friday was likely what prevented a 100-plus-point shellacking, but Riewoldt was steadfast in his stance. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m an Essendon supporter, and I\u2019m waking up to a 62-point loss or a 100-point loss versus Hawthorn in Round 1, I\u2019d rather Zach Merrett be in Hawthorn colours – knowing that I\u2019ve got three first-rounders to come, and maybe the future is just a little bit brighter,\u201d Riewoldt added. <\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I don\u2019t think they\u2019re ever going to win a flag with Zach Merrett at Essendon, and they\u2019ve probably missed the boat there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon\u2019s colossal decision not to trade Zach Merrett at last October\u2019s deadline could set the club back years,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,12923,269510,14390,33069,11231,269511,1127,13658,2105,269507,7492,12417,1823,19080,647,269509,677,28008,672,85,269508,19118,1140,13154,660,25581],"class_list":["post-543875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-chris-scott","tag-colossal-decision","tag-daniel-rioli","tag-deadline-day","tag-essendon-bombers","tag-exciting-young-players","tag-fox-footy","tag-geelong","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-grace-claim","tag-hawthorn-hawks","tag-jack-graham","tag-jack-riewoldt","tag-jordan-lewis","tag-melbourne","tag-movement-period","tag-oceania","tag-quinn-rooney","tag-richmond-tigers","tag-sports","tag-tea-leaves","tag-tom-hawkins","tag-trade-table","tag-triple-premiership","tag-victoria","tag-zach-merrett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543875","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=543875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}