Zach Merrett set to consider handing in captaincy to ‘force’ trade away from Essendon

Zach Merrett has levers he can pull to force his way out of Essendon in the upcoming AFL trade period, and he may be about to use one.

The disgruntled Essendon skipper will have people in his camp tell him to consider handing in his captaincy over the next three weeks to signal his clear intention to leave, according to 7NEWS Melbourne’s Mitch Cleary.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Zach Merrett may quit Essendon captaincy to force trade.

Speaking on Monday night’s episode of The Agenda Setters, Cleary flagged the possibility as a “further layer” that could “force a trade out of the footy club” for Merrett.

“He is all in on this. He has gone nuclear. And Zach Merrett knows now that this is all-out war with the Essendon Football Club,” Cleary said.

“It’s a long way going back and this will be just another step in him trying to force his way out of the Essendon Football Club.”

Essendon coach Brad Scott, president David Barham, and CEO Craig Vozzo have all insisted publicly that their contracted skipper, who has a lucrative deal to stay at The Hangar until the end of 2027, will not be going anywhere.

Merrett is yet to formally tell the club he wants a trade, but it’s now clear he does.

Craig Hutchison said Merrett’s position as captain is already untenable, regardless of who pulls the trigger on it — be it club or player.

“It feels inevitable that he won’t be there, but the moves ahead of the move, do you think it’s a matter of who quits the captaincy on the other first?” Hutchison asked.

“Potentially,” Cleary responded. “So you jump before you are pushed out of the footy club.

“And Zach may well get on the front foot here to get ahead of Essendon there before they take it away from him as another sign to the footy club (that) ‘I won’t be going back to your footy club’.”

Hutchison said the Bombers need to let go of their stubbornness in what is becoming “a borderline Mexican stand-off” because there might be a lot to gain from off-loading Merrett.

“It’s an emotional breakup that they’re struggling to come to terms with and to deal (with), and part of that is they’re worried about the optics and how quick they succeed,” he said.

“But if he leaves, how quick they succeed, it becomes less relevant. And like Hawthorn did, were brave some time ago, and like Richmond have done recently, there’s a huge opportunity to reset their club.

“And I’m told there’s already some dialogue between Brisbane and Essendon as part of this in the background.”

Outgoing Bombers ruck Sam Draper has already declared he will exercise his rights as a free agent and is expected to join Brisbane, while injury-plagued defender Jordan Ridley has also expressed an interest in heading to the Lions, though he remains under contract at Essendon.

And while the Bombers have been just as firm with their stance on Ridley as they have with Merrett, Hutchison says they may not be quite as resolute behind the scenes, with dialogue between the Lions and Bombers having possibly already taken place.

“I’d be surprised if that doesn’t happen in the end,” Hutchison said of the Ridley move to Brisbane.

“If you look at it from an Essendon perspective, if they can remove the cloud of emotion, they’re going to get some unbelievable assets out of this.

“Now, they may not want all of these picks, right? But look at this, what they could do. Merrett will be (worth) at least two first-round (draft picks in a trade).

“Hawthorn are sitting on pick eight and also, you want to take some of these picks into next year, which is stronger, arguably, than this.

“They say the Draper compensation is a work-through with Essendon. It might be as much as $1.2m to get a first round compo this year. But that’s something Brisbane can play ball on if they get Ridley out of it.

“I think there’s a Draper and Ridley to Brisbane-situation brewing.”

In essence, Hutchison is suggesting that Brisbane could manipulate Draper’s contract to ensure Essendon it triggered first-round compensation for him, on the proviso that they agree to trade Ridley separately.

“Essendon have to agree to cough up Ridley, which they’re (Brisbane) going to overpay for with (pick) 17,” Hutchison said.

“Then they’ve got the two existing first rounds. Essendon could end up with (picks) 4, 5, 6, 8, 17, 22, 25 this year, and still have two into next year.

“And it’s a war chest that you can use not only for players and reset your footy club forever, but they could also use it potentially next year for some serious traits.”

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Kane Cornes wasn’t so certain that it would be a good strategy for the struggling club though, even if they intended to use the picks to trade for other players.

“So that’s great. And that looks magnificent, Hutchy. But at what point do you take a stand as a footy club?” he said.

“Good luck getting players in at this stage when players like Merrett and Ridley and Draper want out. Like, that’s going to be difficult.”

Caroline Wilson added: “We talked last week about the Draper press release, which was so strangely worded, where he talked about the mental and physical toll that the injuries had taken on him. I mean, it wasn’t a great ad for the club.

“But Kane, this has got personal now, and I reckon it’s been personal for a while.

“And the reason I reckon he’ll go is because the club, in the last few weeks, have just been selectively letting people know about little acts of selfishness, disrespecting AFLW players, just little things along the way.

“And players like Redman speaking last week, and we know there was a meeting this morning with McGrath.”