Frontrunner yet to enter 16-man coaching process; \u2018difficult\u2019 Hird dilemma<\/a><\/p>\nZach Merrett is set to once again pursue a move from Essendon to Hawthorn. (Photo by Daniel Pockett\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Hawthorn currently holds Pick 16 and three second-rounders – selections 24, 25 and 34. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been told to just play good football, don\u2019t rock the boat, don\u2019t let this one get messy,\u201d Ralph added. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t want to leave Melbourne. Gold Coast was a little bit interested \u2026 he and his wife are absolutely hellbent on Hawthorn again. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think Hawthorn, right now, would say, \u2018We\u2019ll give a first and a second-rounder\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
If such a deal went down in October, the conversation would quickly turn to Essendon\u2019s decision not to capitalise on Merrett\u2019s value when it was higher last year. <\/p>\n
But Corbin Middlemas is \u201cstill in the other camp\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, I understood what Essendon did what it did. I feel like I can understand why they turned that deal down,\u201d he said on Midweek Tackle. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the deal was just about what Zach Merrett was worth, whereas I think for Hawthorn to try and rip your captain out in the way that it played out, with two years to run on his deal, they needed to pay over the top to get him out. <\/p>\n
‘Lipstick on a pig’ Raz on ump contact | 08:32<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t do that, and now, essentially, they\u2019re going to get what he\u2019s worth, which is one year later, which might be – all said and done – a slightly different deal. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think it was worth rolling the dice at the time \u2026 even though it\u2019s panned out the way that it has.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ralph, meanwhile, said \u201ceverything they wanted to do by keeping him has failed\u201d – but the Bombers are still set to take a draft-pick haul into November. <\/p>\n
\u201c(Keeping Merrett) hasn\u2019t helped them keep Jordan Ridley, who wants to go to either of the Queensland-based clubs, and it hasn\u2019t helped them not sack their coach,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe only positive is there won\u2019t be an exodus – Kyle Langford and Darcy Parish are likely to stay. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the most important draft in Essendon history. And they could have as many as six or seven picks in the top 25. They\u2019ll get an extra pick when they bid on either Dougie Cochrane or Cody Walker (at number one). <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re optimistic they\u2019ll get an AFL assistance package pick at the end of the first round. (And) of course, potentially three picks for Ridley and Merrett.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Only one who can save Essendon’ | 07:54<\/p>\n
Essendon, meantime, has decisions to make on 13 out-of-contract players, as seven weeks remain in its season. <\/p>\n
Ralph says calls on that in-limbo contingent won\u2019t be made \u201cuntil they get a new coach\u201d, as he and Middlemas went into detail on the circumstances surrounding a few of those Bombers. <\/p>\n
Jade Gresham<\/p>\n
Ralph: \u201cGresham is the interesting one. He\u2019s got a games-based trigger – he\u2019s played seven games. He\u2019s been told by the club, \u2018The reason you\u2019re not playing is not because we don\u2019t want you to tick off that clause, you\u2019re just not playing well enough\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe might need to play all the games this year to get that clause. The money is not the $700,000 he secured in the first three years of his tenure there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will Setterfield, Tom Edwards, Jaxon Prior<\/p>\n
Ralph: \u201cI think (they) probably get one-year deals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Archie Perkins and Elijah Tsatas<\/p>\n
Middlemas: \u201c(The Bombers) have shown with what they did with Ben Hobbs last year that they\u2019ll make tough calls, even if they used high picks for them. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to be right on the bubble. What\u2019s going to help them is maybe if (the Bombers) get an additional couple of list spots, which is going to be part of that assistance package, but I feel like those guys are going to be right on the bubble.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ralph: \u201cAnd maybe Hirdy – I\u2019m getting ahead of myself – would say \u2018they\u2019re my restoration project\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other Bombers without a deal for 2027: Jayden Nguyen, Matt Guelfi, Nik Cox, Rhys Unwin, Saad El-Hawli, Liam McMahon, Kayle Gerreyn. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The likely trade package for Zach Merrett has been revealed, as the Essendon star once again prepares to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-785729","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\/785729","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=785729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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