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"Silly not to": Hawks captain speaks on club links with Merrett
SEN • September 16th, 2025 3:19 pm
Hawthorn captain James Sicily has spoken on the ongoing links with Essendon skipper Zach Merrett.
The situation surrounding the Bombers’ captain has significantly worsened for Essendon, with Merrett reportedly all in on leaving the club to join the Hawks in 2026.
While Merrett does remain under contract and the Hawks would need to hand over a lucrative offer to satisfy the Bombers’ asking price, the relationship between he and the club appears far from repairable, with the side expected to strip the 29-year-old of his captaincy if he does remain at the club.
Speaking in a weekly presser ahead of the Hawks’ Preliminary Final with Geelong, Sicily revealed that although he hasn’t spoken with Merrett personally, the club would be silly not to attempt to recruit the star midfielder.
“I haven’t (reached out to him), I will leave that in the hands of the guys to get it done,” Sicily said.
“We’ll see what happens. I think you’d be silly not to have any good player who is going to help you win games of footy.
“Having Josh Battle and Tom Barrass come to our club from other clubs during the trade period has obviously made us better.
“When you have good players around you, it makes your job easier, and I am sure someone like Zach would obviously add a lot to us.”
Revealing his thoughts on contracted players speaking with other teams, the Hawthorn captain stated it may be the new norm.
“I don’t know, depends on how someone feels about their situation, really,” he said.
“One thing I probably do have in common with Zach Merrett is that when I’ve made up my mind, I’ve made a decision and am probably similar in following through with it.
“We’ll see what happens. It’s not really our fault, it takes two to tango, (and) we’d be stupid if we weren’t trying to make ourselves better.
“(We’re) trying to get players like we did last year that make us better, so you’d be kicking yourself if you didn’t take meetings with players that hold leadership positions or anyone really that’s going to help you get better.
“I suppose it’s just the new norm; we’re going to have to get used to it, it’s going to happen to us at some stage for sure, probably already has been happening this season.
“But that’s just the norm, I think we’ve just got to get used to it.”
The Hawks will battle with Geelong on Friday night, with a spot in the 2025 AFL Grand Final up for grabs.
