Zach Merrett has no hard feelings towards his former teammates at Essendon after finally having his wish to be traded to Hawthorn granted.
In fact, he still hasn’t even left the Bombers group chat.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Zach Merrett embraces fresh start at Hawthorn
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“I’m waiting to get booted, to be honest. I probably should leave that,” he laughed, speaking to reporters at Caulfield Racecourse on Wednesday.
Merrett last year had his trade request denied and was made to play another 12 months at eventual wooden spooners Essendon before asking to get out again this month.
This time around, the Bombers relented, trading Merrett to Hawthorn in exchange for picks No.15 and No.25 in this year’s draft, plus a 2028 second-round pick.
The 31-year-old says he still has a lot of love for his now former teammates though.
“I have some great relationships still,” Merrett said.
“I ran into Sam Durham the night that it (the trade) happened and gave him a big hug, so there’s still plenty of strong relationships there — not only with players, but staff and, more importantly, volunteers; I spent 13 years with those guys.
“Colin Hooper’s been there 50 years, Charlie Italia 30 years, guys that I have really strong relationships with that I’ve received some very emotional messages from.
“Very thankful for those relationships and they’ll continue far beyond footy.”
Merrett captained the club between 2023 and 2025 and will go down as one of their greatest ever players, having won seven best and fairest awards across his decorated 274-game career there.
He said he tried to pass down some final words of wisdom to the group before departing The Hangar, adding he believes in their developing talent.
“I spoke to a number of the boys individually, but then sent a group message and have chatted to a few of them in the last couple of days,” Merrett said.
“There’s a lot of talent there, no doubt. There’s probably 12 or 14 guys that certainly have more talent than I did when I walked in the door 13 years ago, so I think they’re in a really strong position to build out of that.
“With Andy McGrath leading, he’s a terrific person and a great leader, I think he’ll mentor those young kids really well.
“I think everyone will be surprised; we’ll blink in two or three years and they’ll be back up the ladder.
“My message was just to keep working extremely hard, as they are — they’re good characters, they’re good kids.
“I think Spike (new coach Mark McVeigh) and John Longmire are going to do a terrific job at rebuilding that footy club to be a successful club again.”
