Essendon has refused to budge on plans to keep wantaway captain Zach Merrett as the club opened the AFL’s trade period by shutting down talk of a deal with Hawthorn.
Merrett, who won his sixth club best and fairest last week and made an awkward speech conceding to “complexities and uncertainties” about his future having met with Hawks coach Sam Mitchell.
But following a statement from new president, Andrew Welsh, that Merrett would be kept to the final two years of his contract , list boss Matt Rosa was adamant on Monday the captain was a “required player” and he’d made no official request for a trade.
“It’s been an interesting little period, but nothing’s really changed,” Rosa said as representatives of all 18 AFL clubs filed in to Marvel Stadiun to begin talks over player movement confirming there had been on contact with the Hawks.
“Clearly, Zach has been gathering information and Zach’s a champion of our football club. He’s a required player.
“Conversations are ongoing. There’s been really good dialogue between Zac and the club, but Zach will be an Essendon player next year.
“If he does (request a trade) nothing will change from our end, and Zach’s fully aware of that. He’s a contracted player, he’s at the age where we still feel like he’s got plenty of football left to play, and he plays such an important role for our football club and our young players coming through, we feel like we’ve got a really, really strong, young and emerging list. And we also believe in our core group.”
The Bombe4rs have also been linked to St Kilda captain Jack Steele, who has been told he could explore options despite wanting to stay at the Saints.
Rosa said Essendon “admire’” Steele and would look at the potential to bring him in.
“Well, we admire him from afar the way he goes about his football. But again there’s a lot to play out over the week,” he said.
“We will look at all options to whether it’s bringing in role specifics or ideally we can bring in a grade talent, but we’re always looking to bring in high end characters and role specifics that can help the club also.”
The Bombers have three first round picks to play with in this year’s draft.
