Essendon youngster Zach Merrett isn’t worried about the team’s fitness, despite club great Matthew Lloyd labelling it “alarming” amid a “blame game” over the Bombers’ horror 2022 season.
This week, it was revealed the club’s external review found players were not fit enough while the training standards were lacking.
AFL commentator Kane Cornes yesterday said players should be “embarrassed” by the shock findings, but Merrett believes it’s not a “big issue”.
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“We obviously care so much about footy – it feels like the whole world at times,” he said.
“Everyone can grab data but our numbers running wise are higher than they’ve ever been.
“For me, I don’t think (the fitness findings) is a big issue.
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“I get that it’s a part of the review and it’s pretty strong feedback that we aren’t fit enough but I’ve got no doubt as well that we’ll fix that up pretty quickly.
“I think if we get our game plan neater and aligned and play a similar way to each other … the running stuff will be fine.”
Merrett’s comments came after a meeting with new coach Brad Scott, who has already pledged to get players working harder this pre-season.
“I think players’ hearts skipped a beat a little bit with that firm take,” Merrett said.
“But at any stage, you want to come back fit and healthy to put your best foot forward.”
Bombers great Lloyd was clearly disappointed in the review findings on player fitness, and said the club was “crying out” for stability.
“It’s amazing how players have gone backwards and the lack of All-Australian players across the last 10 years at the Bombers, you might have had Zach Merrett, Darcy Parish, maybe (Michael) Hurley once potentially, but there hasn’t been much in that regard and then not playing finals or winning finals football, it wasn’t good,” he said on Sportsday.
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“You can see even in the different areas of the Essendon football club that haven’t been functioning, they’re just not even on talking terms, but the blame game starts and everyone gets threatened by their job, that’s not what good and strong clubs do.
“The players have probably gotten away with a fair bit, they’ve been let down by their club with the lack of development, the amount of changes in coaches, the amount of changes in the head of football at the club, that doesn’t help the club one bit whatsoever.
“They want to be coached hard and I think you can see the standards have been so low that players at AFL level haven’t been fit enough.”
