THE ZACH Merrett-Essendon Football Club fight may be unfolding in a supposedly elite sports system, but the petty, obstinate and immature behaviour on display have given it a school playground feel.
Zach is the dux and clearly believes he's been completing all the major work in the group projects which ultimately get graded with Es and Fs, and has now cracked it with everyone – classmates, teachers, the principal and even the parents' committee. He wants to be educated at a new school.
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His fellow students have had enough of him. When asked for their opinions by the teachers, the principal and the committee, they've ratted on him, accused him of starting the problems, and no longer want him moping round their school.
The AFL system is littered with irreparable fallouts between elite players and clubs. Before Merrett and Essendon, there was Jason Akermanis and Brisbane, Tony Modra and Adelaide, Tony Lockett and St Kilda. Clubs and players move on.
The Merrett-Essendon standoff has gone past the point of no return and the hurt in all people attached to this is acute. In Merrett's case, it has been accumulating for years.
It was only mid-July that he did what he normally does and defended the Bombers publicly, as well as committing himself to the club, when asked publicly on Fox Footy. Those comments came a day after his future with Essendon was seriously questioned on Channel Nine.
His unrest would have normally played out privately. It usually had. But on the back of 13 straight losses to close the 2025 season, this time was different. This time, he was committed to a different, volatile strategy, beginning with the calling of yet another meeting of all key Essendon officials in the final week of the season, where the club felt it again needed to "sell" an exciting vision.
His decision to both meet Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell and allow enough people in on that meeting to have it relayed to Channel 9 was proof he could not bring himself to add one more match to the 251 already completed as a Bomber since his debut in 2014.
Essendon quickly employed its own, well-planned aggressive strategy. In order, the coach, CEO and president made public comments which focused on the contract they had with Merrett to play until the end of 2027. Then, senior players Mason Redman on AFL.com.au and Nic Martin in The Age went public on Friday with comments that expressed "disappointment" in their captain. Two days later Andrew McGrath spoke similarly on Channel Seven.
Merrett, a five-time Bombers best-and-fairest winner, and soon to be sixth after another excellent 2025 season, is managed by Tom Petroro, who is close with the Bombers' CEO Craig Vozzo. Petroro does not normally oversee big-name contracted players having their football affairs played out this way, and clearly Merrett, who has every right to do so, has driven a lot of this aggressive attempted exit strategy.
Not sure what Merrett expected, but he has been upset by some aspects of the Bombers' public pushback on his decision to meet Mitchell. Maybe there was coincidence in a media narrative on Tuesday suggesting Redman, who criticised Merrett for his meeting with Mitchell last Friday, had himself been shopped around to rival clubs. But maybe there was no coincidence.
It's simply too far gone now for Merrett and Essendon to stay together. The Bombers need to embrace that scenario, and demand that Hawthorn presents it with the right amount of payback for their captain. That would almost certainly mean picks and players from other clubs also being involved.
Once the Essendon school deals with the exit of its dux student, the tenure of the principal, or president David Barham, needs to be addressed. Barham created his own carnage in August 2022 when he sacked coach Ben Rutten, rolled president Paul Brasher and forced the resignation of Xavier Campbell. He described himself in that period as an "agent for some sort of change".
Here we are, three years later, and the captain now desperately wants out. Nothing has changed under Barham's watch.
