The Zach Merrett trade saga has turned into “full-blown civil war at Tullamarine” amid claims of a “character assassination” of the Bombers skipper.
And according to Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle panel, the latest story leaks have ensured Merrett has now played his last match for the club.
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“It has reached the point of no return,” journalist Lauren Wood said.
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“This has gone nuclear and it’s gone beyond the point of no return,” Glenn McFarlane added.
“Now there is absolutely no doubt about it – he won’t be at the Essendon football club next year.
“It must be heartbreaking for Essendon supporters.
“They must be thinking … how the hell did we ever get here? That the captain of this football club is so disgruntled.
“This is ugly. I’ve been in footy a long time – this is as ugly a stoush as I can remember between his captain and a club.”
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It comes as a “shattered” Merrett has been forced to defend himself against claims of AFLW disrespect that emerged late on Monday night.
“They have denied the claims in no uncertain terms and really see this as an attack on Zach and undermining from club figures behind the scenes,” Wood reported.
It had been claimed Merrett had been “kicking balls” and “getting in the way” of the women’s team training at club HQ.
But according to journalist Jay Clark, those claims were exaggerated with Merrett taking four shots on goal during an extra goal session at the same end of the practice facility.
“He completed the drill and then moved on as directed … after finishing the pre-planned set amount of shots,” he wrote.
AFL360 hosts Garry Lyon and Gerard Whateley agreed that the latest attack on Merrett was “a planted story” and “character assassination”.
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“There ain’t any chance in my eyes any way he’s going back,” Lyon said.
“You’ve got players now that are going public and expressing their disappointment – for me that’s the biggest one out of everything that’s happened. Now you’re getting the backgrounding going on – I think it’s messy and unseemly.
“Stories now emerging about the way he’s treated AFLW – now that’s a planted story. That doesn’t make it’s way into the public domain without someone maliciously, in my mind, wanting to plant that seed because you’re saying that your captain is disrespecting your female football team.
“That’s when it gets real messy.
“It’s just ugly.”
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Whateley said it was “nigh on impossible to see” Merrett return to the Bombers – where he still has two years left to run on his contract.
“The character assassination is the worst part of this,” he said.
“Clearly it hurts Merrett and totally understandable why he would be hurt by it. That is no way to do business – either the internal side of things, nor really we as a media I don’t think.
“There’s no need to tear down a good man because he is the crossroads about where he wants to play his footy.”
While there’s reports Merrett won’t be present at the club best and fairest – where he’s hotly tipped to be picking up his sixth Crichton Medal, there’s now claims Merrett would be uninvited to sit at the Bombers Brownlow Medal table on Monday night – where he is expected the be the club’s top vote getter.
“I hope that’s not true,” Whateley said.
“It’s going to be a bitter divorce … I would hope there’s not an edict that says don’t come – that would be nasty.”