Essendon is alleged to have no real interest in buying and selling captain and adorned midfielder Zach Merrett to Hawthorn if all that is provided is 2 first-round picks.
And that begs the query: ought to the Bombers comply with a commerce if the Hawks can cough up any extra?
“I believe Zach Merrett adjustments them from being a top-four or top-six group to probably a grand finalist,” James Hird mentioned in reply to that very query on 9’s Footy Furnace on Wednesday evening.
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“He is the type of participant they precisely want.”
Jimmy Bartel agreed.
“He is definitely a changer for the Hawks,” Bartel mentioned on Footy Furnace.
Zach Merrett leads his Bombers group out. Getty
“The Hawks had been distinctive this yr, I believe all of us acknowledge out of the finals collection. Will Day comes again into that aspect.
“However they had been one other midfielder, and a top quality midfielder, wanting being [there] on the final day in September.”
Merrett and his administration are but to request a commerce regardless of having made it clear that he doesn’t wish to be a Bomber subsequent yr.
However they’ve till 7.30pm AEDT subsequent Wednesday to get a commerce performed.
Merrett met with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell within the week main as much as the Hawks’ semi-final in opposition to the Crows.
9News’ Tom Morris mentioned new Essendon president Andrew Welsh had made his stance clear: the membership won’t be entertaining a commerce for Merrett … except Hawthorn’s provide is “distinctive”.
Which isn’t shocking given the calibre of participant — a triple All-Australian, a six-time greatest and fairest, the 2024 Anzac Medallist, and Essendon’s skipper.
“For me, nothing beneath two first-rounders goes to get within the dialog,” mentioned AFL Media’s Callum Twomey.
“It is not going to get performed in two first-round picks. It is simply not going to get performed.
“So there’s going to should be extra added to it if it may shake their [the Bombers’] view.”
