Essendon supporters urged to release Zach Merrett amid club’s poor performance

Updated October 5, 2026 — 5:11pm,first published 3:36pm

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There is a point in any negotiation when resolve begins to look like stubbornness. When holding firm ceases to be a demonstration of strength and instead becomes an exercise in proving that strength exists.

Essendon reached that point with Zach Merrett.

The first version of this column, published earlier on Monday afternoon, argued that the Bombers should do a deal already. Their former skipper wanted to leave, Hawthorn wanted him. Everyone in football knew it.

In this updated version, it’s kudos to the Bombers for knowing when to give up the fight.

Merrett will join the Hawks in exchange for picks 15 and 25 in this year’s draft, and a 2028 second-rounder.

It didn’t always look like that would be the case. President Andrew Welsh again talked tough, a year after holding Merrett to his contract, warning Hawthorn not to “fumble” negotiations, not to get “too cute” and declaring that Essendon wouldn’t be “crumbling”.

He reminded Hawthorn that Merrett was Essendon’s best player. That he was contracted. That last year’s attempt to prise him out of Tullamarine failed.

But none of it changed the most important fact in this entire saga: Merrett wanted out.

There’s a difference between trying to win a negotiation, and just trying to win.

The Bombers have spent too much of the past two decades fighting battles that ultimately haven’t taken them anywhere. They have changed coaches, chief executives, presidents, football bosses and strategies. They have defended their people, sacked their people, promised patience and demanded standards.

But on Monday, they made a choice. Instead of spending another trade period arguing over precisely what a 31-year-old Merrett was worth, extracting every last drop from Hawthorn and telling the football world they would not be pushed around, they made the deal, took the picks and moved forward.

Hawthorn’s opening offer this year, of picks 15 and 25 and a future third-round selection, was rejected. Fine. Essendon are entitled to ask for more and Hawthorn should expect to pay a premium for a contracted champion.

But the real win for Essendon was that this did not become another exercise in institutional pride.

Merrett has given Essendon more than enough.

He has won seven Crichton Medals. He has carried the club through some of the bleakest years in its history. He stayed when leaving would have been understandable. He performed while administrations changed around him and September success remained perpetually on the horizon.

Now, at 31, he wants the opportunity to chase something Essendon have been unable to give him: a premiership.

Holding him to his contract might have been Essendon’s right. That doesn’t make it right for Essendon.

And there is an irony here that should not be lost on anyone.

More than two decades ago, Essendon and Hawthorn played the famous “Line in the Sand” game.

It was time for the Bombers to draw another one – and they did. Not with Hawthorn, but for themselves; a line underneath the Merrett era.

Strong clubs don’t need to constantly tell everyone they’re strong.

They make hard decisions and live with them.

If Essendon genuinely believe in their direction, the departure of one 31-year-old midfielder – even one as decorated and important as Merrett – cannot be allowed to derail it.

My advice for the Bombers before the deal was agreed was to take the best deal available. Turn those selections into players who can be part of Essendon’s next serious premiership push. Give the next generation ownership of the football club, and let Merrett go.

Negotiate hard, but get a deal done. Because there is a difference between driving a hard bargain and holding a player hostage to make a point.

Essendon needed to decide what mattered more: proving to Hawthorn that they cannot be bullied, or building the football club that Welsh insists is coming.

The Bombers didn’t need another victory at the trade table. They need victories on the football field.

Now they can move on.

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