{"id":69494,"date":"2021-05-10T14:04:24","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T14:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=69494"},"modified":"2021-05-10T21:01:40","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T21:01:40","slug":"dons-confident-they-can-stop-the-rot-with-merrett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=69494","title":{"rendered":"Dons confident they can 'stop the rot' with Merrett"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon great Matthew Lloyd says the club believes star free-agent Zach Merrett<\/a> will "stop the rot" of recent player departures and re-sign with the Bombers.<\/p>\n

Merrett's future looms as one of the major talking points for the remainder of the season, particularly in light of an excellent personal campaign so far in 2021.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>MORE: <\/strong>New suitor emerges in Merrett sweepstakes<\/a><\/p>\n

The 25-year-old admitted that he had not made a decision in a candid interview over the weekend, and Lloyd said the club wasn't surprised by the left-footer's admission.<\/p>\n

"I asked the people around the club about that and they said he can't be anything else but honest," he told Nine's Footy Classified<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"That's just who Zach Merrett is, he's honest with his teammates, he's honest with everyone around their performance.<\/p>\n

\"Zach<\/p>\n

"I have no issue with it because he's played 150 games and never won a final before, so I think he'd be asking himself that question."<\/p>\n

Lloyd said he believed Essendon was the right club for Merrett, given the club's positive trajectory this season, but suggested it could come down to what Merrett himself wants out of his immediate future.<\/p>\n

"I think it is (the right club for him) because he's got time to build and grow with this club and they are a much happier environment where they are at the moment," he said.<\/p>\n

"It depends, if he wants to be in the top four next year, well Essendon is not the place to be. So it's just whether a Brisbane or a Port Adelaide or someone could tempt him into that.<\/p>\n

"They'd be embarrassed as a club (to lose Merrett). I think they have to stop the rot of it and they feel internally that they should get his signature."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Essendon great Matthew Lloyd says the club believes star free-agent Zach Merrett will "stop the rot" of recent player departures and re-sign with the Bombers. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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\/69494"}],"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=69494"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69496,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69494\/revisions\/69496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}