here<\/a>.<\/p>\nMERRETT \u2018IN A GOOD SPOT\u2019 TO DEAL WITH DRAMA<\/p>\n
Essendon star Zach Merrett says he\u2019s \u201cin a good spot\u201d to cope with the external melodrama and soap opera surrounding his 2026 season.<\/p>\n
A six-time best and fairest winner, Merrett has made another impressive start to an AFL campaign, averaging 27.0 disposals and 5.3 tackles across his first six games.<\/p>\n
It comes months after the 30-year-old\u2019s highly-publicised attempt to join Hawthorn via trade fell over, leading to Merrett relinquishing Bombers captaincy duties after three seasons.<\/p>\n
Merrett\u2019s wife, Alexandra, posted a now-deleted social media post that indicated she\u2019d left Essendon\u2019s Round 4 loss to the Western Bulldogs early. She posted a video to TikTok showing herself sipping a glass of wine, presumably at Melbourne restaurant Gimlet, with the caption: \u201cWhen your husband\u2019s team is losing by 50 points at half-time so you go to Gimlet instead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked by AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley on Tuesday night what his \u201cdefence mechanism\u201d is for the external noise surrounding his 2026 campaign, Merrett told Kayo Sports: \u201cThere\u2019s probably two ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a humorous side of it as well. So I can find some things quite funny and enjoying them.<\/p>\n
Zach Merrett on post-trade drama | 01:35<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other ledger is the effect on family and friends around you. That\u2019s probably the one that gets me the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, I sign up to play AFL footy, I love it. The other side of the ledger, there\u2018s Ts and Cs that some of it isn\u2019t so much fun, but it\u2019s more the effect on Mum and Dad and my wife and family and friends close when they see things.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen there\u2019s critique around your game, I think that\u2019s all part and parcel. As players, we accept that\u2019s what we sign up for. You can review and critique the game however it is between the lines, but I think when there\u2019s things outside the lines \u2013 which there\u2019s been a fair bit (of) the last couple of months, in particular \u2013 has been disappointing.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut ultimately I can\u2019t really control or do anything about it. So if you\u2019ve got a coping mechanism, feel free to pass it on because I haven\u2019t worked it out fully. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think I\u2019m in a pretty good spot around understanding that it is there, but it\u2019s not really \u2018real\u2019 in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked cheekily by Garry Lyon if he paid full price for his most recent Gimlet meal, Merrett said with a laugh: \u201cWell I was actually chasing \u201cScotty\u2019 (Essendon coach Brad Scott), who said he\u2019d give me a voucher that I\u2019m still waiting for!<\/p>\n
\u201cI did actually enjoy a nice feed there Sunday afternoon, so I used my humour a bit to have a little bit of fun with that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are fresh concerns over premiership Cat Tyson Stengle\u2019s playing future at Geelong, while Melbourne is pushing for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,3239,12928,301780,2362,667,301776,2105,28450,301779,86147,60510,301781,301330,647,514,299620,301782,301778,677,31723,232595,60969,301777,85,1144,660],"class_list":{"0":"post-622647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","12":"tag-australian-football-league","13":"tag-australianfootballleague","14":"tag-carlton-blues","15":"tag-caroline-wilson","16":"tag-cat-tyson-stengle","17":"tag-contract-talks","18":"tag-footy-club","19":"tag-footy-department-bosses","20":"tag-getty-images-inc","21":"tag-glenn-mcfarlane","22":"tag-health-marquee-game","23":"tag-kevin-sheedy","24":"tag-management-group","25":"tag-marquee-game","26":"tag-match-seasons","27":"tag-melbourne","28":"tag-mental-health","29":"tag-mental-health-episode","30":"tag-mental-health-game","31":"tag-mental-health-marquee","32":"tag-oceania","33":"tag-paul-guerra","34":"tag-preliminary-talks","35":"tag-ray-chamberlain","36":"tag-real-indication","37":"tag-sports","38":"tag-tom-morris","39":"tag-victoria"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622647","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=622647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}