AFL 2025: How Essendon captain Zach Merrett’s attempted escape blew up the Bombers’ fragile rebuild and piled pressure on president David Barham and his board

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How Zach Merrett’s escape plan blew up Essendon’s fragile rebuild

Caroline Wilson Football columnist for The Age September 19, 2025 — 4.43pm Advertisement

Zach Merrett’s desperation to escape from Essendon has blown up the shaky foundations of the David Barham-Brad Scott rebuild and resurrected the ghosts that have haunted the Bombers since the drugs scandal.

Not that those ghosts ever really died. This is a club that has long worshipped at the shrine of the individual so it is fitting that, despite the best efforts of the relatively new three-year regime, it has taken a controversial exit strategy by its driven but individualistic on-field leader to expose the cracks beneath the surface at Tullamarine.

Brad Scott and Zach Merrett in May. Cred