Essendon has coordinated a fightback against Zach Merrett in the media with two players criticising the captain for pursuing a trade to Hawthorn.
Senior Bombers players Mason Redman and Nic Martin both spoke out against Merrett's plans to leave the club, with Essendon promoting the separate interviews via their X account.
With Merrett taking a meeting with the Hawks as he angles for a move for 2026, Redman revealed his 'disappointment' at his skipper in an interview with AFL.com.au.
"From my point of view, the initial thought is disappointment (around Merrett exploring his options)," Redman said.
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"Irrespective of the injury issues we’ve had this year, which derailed our on-field progress, I feel like off-field we were really making some inroads into making the club a great place to be around.
"It’s disappointment that our captain, who is supposed to be leading us through this, is exploring other options.
"I haven’t spoken to him. To be honest, whenever you go through tough periods of anything you have thoughts pop into your head about all sorts of scenarios. I certainly don’t begrudge him for having those thoughts.
"But myself being a leader, or the captain of the football club in his scenario, you have to potentially think about things differently because it’s not just you that this impacts, it’s the whole club. It’s ‘Scotty’ as the coach, it’s us as players, and all the fans as well.
"He’s the best player I’ve ever played with, so of course you want him to be at the club and at this moment in time he’s my captain. With that being said though, it remains to be seen if that’s the way it works going forward."
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Martin, who will most of the 2026 season after suffering an ACL injury, declared he was 'hurt' and 'angry' after initially hearing the news about Merrett's wish to leave.
“My first reaction was hurt from it, and I was disappointed and a little bit angry about it but then again Zach is my teammate, so I think I have got a job to try to understand his perspective and what he is going through, but I was bitterly hurt from it,” Martin told The Age.
“We are going to have to build the bridge again.”