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Silver Ferns LIVE from 7.30pmLyon challenges new Dons President about Merrett situation
Andrew Slevison • September 24th, 2025 10:07 am
New Essendon President Andrew Welsh insists captain Zach Merrett is not disgruntled with the Bombers.
The five-time Crichton Medallist has been the talk of the trade world in recent times after it emerged that he had met with Hawthorn despite being contracted until 2027.
Merrett is seemingly pushing for an exit but the club continues to stand firm by saying he is not up for trade.
Welsh, who replaced Dave Barham only yesterday, addressed the situation on SEN on Wednesday morning.
“I don’t think, with all due respect, that Zach is disgruntled,” Welsh said on SEN Breakfast.
“He is yearning for success. He wants to achieve success.
“He has dragged our club in many games off his own back through mud to try and keep building on where we want this place to be.
“We’re not there yet and we’ve got a lot of work to do.
“He’s not disgruntled, he just wants to be successful. He’s highly complimentary of our list and where we’re going and what we’re doing.
“We need to continue to embrace that and support Zach because it would be tiring. He does it every week. Week, in week out he puts our club on his back and we need to support him.”
However, Garry Lyon did not quite agree with Welsh’s suggestion that Merrett was in fact not discontent.
Lyon challenged the former Bomber on his comments, highlighting the much-publicised meeting with a rival club as a major sign of disgruntlement.
“I’m not being argumentative for the sake of it, but it doesn’t ring true to me,” Lyon said.
“He is disgruntled otherwise he wouldn’t be meeting with another club in the manner that he has.
“I know what you’re saying, it’s tiring, and he puts the club on his back, but he’s the captain of your footy club - that’s what he’s paid to do.
“Every leader in the competition would be feeling tired and at times be a bit disillusioned, but they don’t go out and meet with another AFL club and have it drawn through the media in the manner that it is.
“Now, it might not have been his choice to get it out into the public, but for you to sit there and say, ‘He’s not disgruntled’, it doesn’t ring true with me to be honest.
“I think there’d be Essendon fans listening thinking, ‘I’m not sure’. Is the truth being told here? Is he telling you one thing and acting on another? I think there’s been an element of that in recent times.”
Welsh then responded to Lyon.
“I fully appreciate that view,” he said.
“I can only say from conversations with Zach that he is driven for success, and he hasn’t seen that at our football club which is disappointing.
“We’re all there for working for success and we want to make sure that he sees the vision, he sees where we’re going and he’s a very big part of that.”
Listen to the full chat with Welsh below:
