{"id":916785,"date":"2026-10-05T08:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916785\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T08:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:50:17","slug":"zach-merrett-trade-essendon-captain-joins-hawthorn-on-four-year-deal-in-opening-day-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916785\/","title":{"rendered":"Zach Merrett trade: Essendon captain joins Hawthorn on four-year deal in opening day move"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Michael<\/p>\n

October 5, 2026 \u2014 5:47pm<\/p>\n

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AAA<\/p>\n

In striking contrast to last year\u2019s protracted, ugly and ultimately failed move, this year Zach Merrett became a Hawthorn player on the opening day of trade period.<\/p>\n

Merrett will move to Hawthorn in exchange for picks 15 and 25 in this year\u2019s draft and a future second-round draft pick. The 31-year-old Merrett, who just won a record-equalling seventh Crichton Medal as Essendon\u2019s best and fairest, has signed a four-year deal worth $1 million a year with the Hawks.<\/p>\n

\"OutgoingOutgoing Essendon midfielder Zach Merrett.Ruby Alexander<\/p>\n

Hawthorn\u2019s best offer for Merrett<\/a> last year was three first-round draft picks \u2013 selections 10 and 22 at the time in the 2025 draft year \u2013 their first-round pick in this year\u2019s 2026 national draft and fringe midfielder Henry Hustwaite (who was delisted by the club last week).<\/p>\n

The swift move to secure Merrett this year suggests Hawthorn are confident that they can spend their draft capital believing they won\u2019t need to use it to form part of a trade for restricted free agent Ben King from Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

It indicates the Hawks are confident the Suns will not match their offer for King and instead accept a first-round draft pick \u2013 currently selection seven \u2013 as compensation.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, young Hawthorn forward Aidan Schubert will fly to the Gold Coast and be joined by his parents \u2013 flying up from the family home in Gawler, South Australia \u2013 to tour the Suns\u2019 facilities and consider a move after just one year at the Hawks.<\/p>\n

\"AidanAidan Schubert played one game for the Hawks in his first season.AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The move for Schubert is a standalone trade, separate from the King free agency move, but the Hawks being open to trading the player they took in last year\u2019s national draft clearly creates goodwill for the Suns not to match the contract terms for King.<\/p>\n

Having arrived at Hawthorn as pick 23 last year, a future second-round selection is likely to form the basis of the deal this year.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Zak<\/a><\/p>\n

Schubert, who played one game for the Hawks this season, was shocked and disappointed to discover the Hawks were open to trading him. For Hawthorn, however, after securing King and then re-signing Calsher Dear, there was a tight squeeze for spots for key forwards in a starting line-up in this year\u2019s preliminary final that already included Jack Gunston, Mitch Lewis and Mabior Chol.<\/p>\n

The past year has changed a lot of things for the Hawks, with the club moving swiftly this year to engage with Essendon about a trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do look and learn from what you do from previous trade periods, and we\u2019ve done that,\u201d Hawthorn list boss Mark McKenzie said earlier on Monday about the Merrett negotiations.<\/p>\n

McKenzie said the form of midfielder Cam Mackenzie and the emergence of Josh Ward in this year\u2019s finals series in particular would not be harmed by Merrett\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Zach<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the strength of Sam [Mitchell] and the coaching group is that they\u2019ve been able to show their ability to move around players and play them in different positions, so the versatility of some of these guys \u2013 Cam\u2019s played a bit more forward at times and wing, and Josh Ward\u2019s done that as well,\u201d McKenzie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it was great this year to see the development of those players. But don\u2019t be surprised to see a lot of those players, whether it is a new player who comes into the football club playing in a different position as well at times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the strength of the coaching group has been able to use that mechanism to go half-back, wing, midfield, or forward with a lot of our midfielders. So, I wouldn\u2019t think that\u2019ll change him anytime soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, Merrett will play midfield.<\/p>\n

Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"MichaelMichael Gleeson<\/a> is an award-winning senior sports writer specialising in AFL and athletics.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 5, 2026 \u2014 5:47pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":916786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-916785","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\/916785","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=916785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}