Essendon captain Zach Merrett has stopped short of publicly committing his playing future to the club he’s played 251 games with.
Speaking to Seven on the red carpet ahead of the Brownlow Medal count at Crown casino, Merrett said he hadn’t requested a trade, but added: “I haven’t worked through my preference yet. There is a lot of stuff to go through in the next few weeks, there will definitely be some conversations, some factors at play. But there is a fair bit of uncertainty all around, things will be made clearer in the coming weeks.”
Zach Merrett of the Bombers and wife Alexandra Merrett arrive tonight.Credit: Getty Images
Merrett met with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell a fortnight ago, the news having blindsided Essendon.
Merrett had dined with Bombers coach Brad Scott just days earlier.
But Merrett, who is the red-hot favourite to next month win his sixth Crichton Medal as Essendon’s best-and-fairest player, said he’d had “great dialogue” with the Bombers around his playing future.
“They have been amazing, to be honest,” he said.
“[Coach] Brad [Scott], [CEO] Craig [Vozzo] and [board member] Andrew Welsh have been very supportive, [there’s been] a lot of dialogue between the four of us. Those decisions [on whether there’ll be a trade] haven’t been cleared yet, so we will see how we go.“
Merrett said he hadn’t made a “final decision” on if he would request a trade, saying: “Nah, [we’re] still working through that… As I said, I will keep working through that, things will get clearer in the coming weeks, and we’ll go from there”.
The Crichton Medal vote count will be held on October 2.
