They must decide how to navigate the Zach attack, weighing up the all-of-club impact of letting Merrett remain or leave.
If they hold to their line and retain Merrett, they must also consider removing the captaincy from him. Merrett, indeed, would be best to voluntarily relinquish the role if he remains at Tullamarine.
Merrett’s on-field standards can’t be faulted.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
It is difficult to hold the leadership position at an organisation that you don’t believe in. Or don’t believe will succeed soon enough. Oscar Allen’s flight from West Coast is altogether different, since the Eagles preferred him to go (and he wasn’t contracted).
In a sense, the Hawthorn meeting has raised the stakes for Essendon because their choice is between trading their best player, or retaining one whose actions are a poor example for younger teammates.
Perhaps, after 12 years of more false dawns than Anzac dawn services, he’s jack of losing and doesn’t give a fig what anyone thinks.
Last weekend offered a revealing counterpoint to Merrett when David Swallow, on his last legs after 15 years of valiant service to the Suns, booted the game-winning point to secure a stirring finals victory for Gold Coast.
David Swallow stayed the course at the Suns.Credit: AFL Photos
When co-captains Tom Lynch and Steven May walked out in 2018, Swallow and Jarrod Witts assumed the captaincy together and began the task of refashioning the least successful club in the AFL.
Saturday night was a victory, above all, for the Suns’ true believers, headed by Swallow and Witts. It also left Essendon as the only club not to have won a final since Gold Coast’s entry in 2011.
Merrett, at this point, clearly favours following the path of May and Lynch, both of whom played in premiership teams for their second clubs.
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If any player is entitled to that choice, it’s questionable whether, ultimately, it is as fulfilling as staying the course, accepting the slings and arrows and – just maybe – helping a blighted club return to prosperity before you finish.
Winning finals at Hawthorn, after giving up on Essendon, is hardly a hero’s journey.
Shane Crawford, a perfectionist like Merrett who had numerous opportunities to leave the Hawks, played in a winning grand final in his final game.
Hawthorn had found Jarryd Roughead, Lance Franklin and Jordan Lewis four years earlier, just as the Suns were blessed to gain Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson 12 months after the May-Lynch walkout.
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Last summer, Essendon sent Merrett and his vice-captain Andy McGrath to the United States with Scott, in part, to further their understanding of leadership, via meetings with the Los Angeles Rams and others.
Merrett’s frustrations, born of a raging desire to succeed, are completely understandable.
But his response – to look for the exit ramp – are not those of a skipper in stormy seas.
