{"id":868617,"date":"2026-08-26T04:04:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T04:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/868617\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T04:04:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T04:04:29","slug":"afl-news-2026-zach-merrett-essendon-bombers-trade-future-after-james-hird-reveal-and-mark-mcveigh-coach-appointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/868617\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL news 2026, Zach Merrett Essendon Bombers trade, future after James Hird reveal and Mark McVeigh coach appointment"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Hird<\/a> says he was confident superstar midfielder Zach Merrett<\/a> would have stayed at Essendon<\/a> had Hird been appointed head coach.<\/p>\n

Hird missed out on the Bombers job when his former teammate and close friend Mark McVeigh landed the role on Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Zach<\/p>\n

Zach Merrett is expected to leave the Bombers.\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

McVeigh immediately left his job at the embattled Swans and was reportedly in Bombers HQ having meetings about the playing list for next season.<\/p>\n

The biggest change looming over the team is the likely departure of Merrett, who is expected to request a move again during the October trade period.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old onballer tried to go to Hawthorn last year but was refused a release by the club.<\/p>\n

He began his AFL<\/a> career in 2014 and briefly played under Hird, who coached the team before exiting in disgrace following the infamous peptides scandal that brought the proud club to its knees.<\/p>\n

A Code Sports report earlier this week claimed Merrett would stay if Hird landed the job this time, but now looks likely to leave despite McVeigh also being a club great.<\/p>\n

\u201cZach and I had discussions and I was pretty keen (on keeping him),\u201d Hird confirmed on Nine\u2019s Footy Classified on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty sure Zach would have stayed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hird had also been speaking to Giants forward Toby Greene and Lions midfielder Lachie Neale<\/a> about potentially playing under him at Essendon. He and McVeigh worked with Greene when they were both at GWS several years ago.<\/p>\n

Merrett and experienced defender Jordan Ridley are likely to request trades come October. Outspoken former player Kane Cornes has also suggested the likes of highly-paid players Darcy Parish and Ben McKay should be put up for trade.<\/p>\n

But McVeigh has a glut of young talent already on the list he\u2019s adopting, as well as the No.1 pick in this year\u2019s AFL draft given Essendon finished bottom of the table.<\/p>\n

While Hird missed out on the job he wanted, McVeigh indicated he will offer his friend a role of some kind at The Hangar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Zach Merrett and Darcy Parish of the Bombers.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Hird says he has fielded offers from other AFL clubs, too, but will consider working with his beloved Bombers if asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d always take Mark\u2019s phone call, the love is there both ways,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will sit down over time. But this is about Mark, his moment, and let him shape the club the way he wants it. I\u2019ve got to give Mark the space he needs to do the job the best he can do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been a couple (of clubs) reach out in the last couple of weeks before this. I\u2019ll have a good think about what I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not worried about my life. I hope it is in football, because I love being in football, but if it\u2019s not, it\u2019s not. I really wanted that job, and I\u2019m very disappointed\u00a0I didn\u2019t get it. But you have to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hird says he was planning to offer McVeigh a job at the Bombers if he had become head coach.<\/p>\n

The Bombers won just two games this season and collected the wooden spoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Hird says he was confident superstar midfielder Zach Merrett would have stayed at Essendon had Hird been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-868617","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\/868617","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=868617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}