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Essendon captain Zach Merrett has stopped short of publicly committing his playing future to the club he’s played 251 games with.

Speaking to Nine on the red carpet ahead of the Brownlow Medal count at Crown Casino, Merrett spoke of his love for the Bombers and said he understood the club’s best interests come first.

Merrett met with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell a fortnight ago, the news having blindsided Essendon. The Bombers’ lead-by-example skipper had dined with Bombers coach Brad Scott just days earlier.

“I’m never, ever going to lose the love for the club and I understand they are going to fight for the club,” Merrett said of the Bombers on Nine.

“I’m a contracted player and I fully expected them to do what’s best for the club. No player or individual is bigger than the club.

“All I will say to the fans is, ‘Thanks for your support over the last couple of years. These last couple of weeks have been difficult, but your support, your messages of support have been incredible’.”

Merrett is yet to play in a winning final for the Bombers, who famously last won a final in 2004.

But he told Fox Footy his playing future hinged on more than tasting finals success.

“There are broader things than that, and I’ll go into more detail at a later date, but I will get through tonight, wake up tomorrow and get back to training, then worry about that,” Merrett said.

He also spoke to Seven, adding he hadn’t yet requested a trade from the Bombers.

“I haven’t worked through my preference yet,” he said. “There is a lot of stuff to go through in the next few weeks, there will definitely be some conversations, some factors at play. But there is a fair bit of uncertainty all around, things will be made clearer in the coming weeks.”

Merrett, who is the red-hot favourite to next month win his sixth Crichton Medal as Essendon’s best-and-fairest player, said he’d had “great dialogue” with the Bombers around his playing future.

“They have been amazing, to be honest,” he told Seven.

“[Coach] Brad [Scott], [CEO] Craig [Vozzo] and [vice president] Andrew Welsh have been very supportive, [there’s been] a lot of dialogue between the four of us. Those decisions [on whether there’ll be a trade] haven’t been cleared yet, so we will see how we go.”

Merrett said he hadn’t made a “final decision” on if he would request a trade, saying: “Nah, [we’re] still working through that… As I said, I will keep working through that, things will get clearer in the coming weeks, and we’ll go from there”.

The Crichton Medal vote count will be held on October 2.