{"id":474492,"date":"2025-10-08T19:52:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T19:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=474492"},"modified":"2025-10-08T22:18:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T22:18:51","slug":"potential-merrett-trade-a-changer-for-the-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=474492","title":{"rendered":"Potential Merrett trade a 'changer for the Hawks'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon<\/a> is said\ufeff to have no interest in trading captain and decorated midfielder Zach Merrett<\/a> to Hawthorn<\/a> if all that's offered is two first-round picks.<\/p>\n

And that begs the question:\ufeff should the Bombers agree to a trade if the Hawks can cough up any more?<\/p>\n

"I think Zach Merrett changes\ufeff them from being a top-four or top-six team to potentially a grand finalist," James Hird said in reply to that very question on Nine's Footy Furnace<\/em> on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

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"He's the sort of player they exactly need."<\/p>\n

Jimmy Bartel agreed.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"He's certainly a changer for the Hawks," Bartel said on Footy Furnace<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Zach<\/p>\n

"The Hawks\ufeff were exceptional this year, I think we all acknowledge out of the finals series. Will Day comes back into that side.<\/p>\n

"But they were another midfielder, and a quality midfielder, short of being [there] on the last day in September."<\/p>\n

Merrett and his management are yet to request a trade despite having made it clear that he does not want to be a Bomber next year.<\/p>\n

But they have until 7.30pm AEDT next Wednesday to get a trade done.<\/p>\n

Merrett met with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell in the week leading up to the Hawks' semi-final against the Crows.<\/p>\n

9News' Tom Morris\ufeff said new Essendon president Andrew Welsh had made his stance clear: the club will not be entertaining a trade for Merrett … unless Hawthorn's offer is "exceptional".<\/p>\n

\"Merrett<\/p>\n

Which is not surprising given the calibre of player \u2014 a triple All-Australian, a six-time best and fairest, the 2024 Anzac Medallist, and Essendon's skipper.<\/p>\n

"For me, nothing below two first-rounders is going to get in the conversation," said AFL Media's Callum Twomey.<\/p>\n

"It's not going to get done in two first-round picks. It's just not going to get done.<\/p>\n

"So there's going to have to be more added to it if it's going to shake their [the Bombers'] view."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Essendon is said\ufeff to have no interest in trading captain and decorated midfielder Zach Merrett to Hawthorn if all that's offered is two first-round picks. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":474494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=474492"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":474496,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474492\/revisions\/474496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/474494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=474492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=474492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=474492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}