My Story: Zach Merrett on life away from football, being ousted from Essendon’s leadership group and how his mum is one of his greatest inspirations
Every teenage draftee is buzzing when they arrive at an AFL club. But imagine walking into Essendon at the end of 2013. Zach Merrett reveals what it was like inside the Bombers and the ‘bizarre’ day his teammates were banned.
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My interest in sport lies just as much off the field as it does on it.
I’ve been doing a diploma of leadership and management and a Certificate 3 in fitness, and it’s an area outside of footy that I’ve grown more and more passionate about in recent years.
Last off-season was my fourth leadership and personal development study tours, which I’ve really enjoyed.
I’ve been lucky enough to attend 10 or 11 world-class universities, Nike colleges, NFL teams and NBA teams in that journey and been able to meet some really well-respected sports admin people and players in the industry around the world.
I was even fortunate enough to meet the San Francisco 49ers executive vice-president of football operations in my last trip, which was an amazing experience.
It’s something I really want to try to continue – that development and trying to learn holistically over there over the many years that I have left playing, and then ideally I would love to work in some form of sports management or administration at a club if the opportunity arises.
I’m doing a lot of stuff in the background now to build my resume while I’m playing.
Our chief executive Xavier Campbell is someone who has definitely been a role model in the last few years around this sort of stuff.
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He’s been able to open some amazing doors for me overseas and in Australia and we’ve had some really good chats around his journey and ways I need to grow and improve and using my time in footy to work on them.
He’s definitely someone I’ve developed a really strong relationship with.
I’m a massive sports fan generally. I just really enjoy watching all sports, especially American sports in the NFL and NBA.
I’m a huge Damian Lillard fan, from the Portland Trail Blazers.
The way he carries himself and his ability to keep fighting in a team that isn’t as loaded as other teams is amazing.
He’s not as big as LeBron James and Kevin Durant, but he’s certainly still one of the favourites in the NBA and the way he goes about it is how I try to model myself a bit.
I love watching him, and his press conferences and the way he speaks.
How he’s constructed his life and his personality is really enjoyable.
I’m a Cleveland Browns fan in the NFL, so it’s been a long road of disappointment for us for about 10 years, but hopefully there’ll be a bit of a shift. In summertime, the cricket is definitely my favourite time of the year. I love the Big Bash and the Tests, and really love the contest between bat and ball in a Test match, especially when the ball is new.
MUM’S STRENGTH
Growing up in Cobden, my brother, mum and dad were very close and we had my grandparents a kilometre up the road.
I was really fortunate to have a tight-knit family in a small community, which has developed me to the person I am now and kept me really down to earth.
I’m grateful for a lot.
Dad is really hardworking and made sure Jackson — who is another massive supporter — and I got everything we ever wanted.
My mum, Cathy, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was 23.
She and dad, Herbie – his name’s Greg, but no one calls him that – were engaged at the time.
Just to see the way they interact, his patience and care for mum has been incredible and something I’ve learned from first-hand.
Mum’s fighting ability to get on with things is something that drives me a lot and inspires me in training and harder sessions or games when it does get a bit tough.
MS is a debilitating and pretty isolating illness as it is, so with this year being forced into shutdown and not having any social connection has made it pretty tough on her.
But obviously she definitely can’t afford to get COVID.
It’s been challenging but with dad’s support and a lot of Facetime from here in the hub, it makes it a bit easier.
THE ‘OTHER’ BOMBERS
Cobden is just past halfway from Melbourne to Warrnambool, with a population of around 2000.
Cat Gary Rohan is from there too, and for me it’s where a love of footy – and cricket, too – started from a young age.
I was actually only reflecting on this on the bus on the way to the game last week.
My older brother Jackson played Auskick, and dad was a co-ordinator there so I was able to tag along from the age of about four or five and have a kick even though I wasn’t old enough.
I then played junior footy for the Cobden Bombers, and my first game was a night game when I was about eight or nine in the Under 12s. So I’ve always been wearing red and black.
The buzz and excitement I had driving to the ground was just huge, and from that moment on, the passion for competing and playing and trying to win every game with my mates was the best part.
We only played in one or two finals from memory – I don’t even think we won one – and I never won a best-and-fairest or anything like that. I played a bit of interleague but wasn’t selected in the Under 15 and Under 16 representative teams.
It was more about the fun – I loved Tuesday and Thursday night trainings and being there and hanging around watching the seniors train.
We were the closest team to Melbourne, so most of the opposition teams were down Warrnambool way or further, so every Saturday we’d jump in the car and watch the Under 19s, reserves and seniors all around the area.
We’d listen to Rex Hunt on the way home, and then junior footy on Sundays so it was a pretty consistent routine every winter.
I played my first senior game when I was about 16, and played eight or nine games including a grand final but we lost. It gave me a bit of a taste of playing against grown men – I just sat in the forward pocket and kicked a couple of goals, but it was a fun experience to see how the Cobden community got around the senior footy team because they were winning.
It was pretty special, and it’s great to be a part of games like the Powercor Country Festival game like today against the Cats and recognise the contribution of small towns to footy.
I grew up as a pretty big Doggies supporter, so the 1997 and 1998 seasons got a fair run on the VCR.
Dad and Jackson both went for North, so we got a good few years of highlights.
LANDING AT THE HANGAR
Jackson getting drafted to the Bombers at the end of 2011 gave me a bit of hope that maybe I could have a crack.
I was boarding at Melbourne Grammar and playing TAC Cup at the Sandringham Dragons.
Based off no real intel, they took me on for the pre-season and I didn’t go to well in the first time-trial, but that was when I really locked in and focused on the fitness side of things and knuckled down.
What awaited me at Essendon from the end of 2013, I couldn’t have scripted if I’d tried.
When you get drafted, you’re so excited.
I’d been able to see through my brother what was happening with the saga, but to see it first-hand daily from my first day there was something else.
I just figured it was normality, and that having cameras in the carpark each and every day was something that every club experienced all the time.
I was so ready to try and prove myself firstly to my teammates and coaches and was so zoned in and excited to be at an AFL club.
There was a lot of noise, but guys like Jobe Watson and Brendon Goddard really were able to shield us a fair bit.
January 11, 2016 is a day I’ll never forget. It was the day that the 34 guys who had been involved in 2012 learned their fate.
It was just bizarre. They were off-site, but then the rest of us were at the club.
After the ruling, I remember walking to the back of the hangar – I sat there for about 20 or 30 minutes in sheer disbelief. Were we even going to keep playing that year? What’s next?
It was BJ’s ability to pull everyone back in and realise that we had a role to play to keep working and building something forward to give hope and optimism to the guys that would eventually return.
It was our job to provide hope and allow the supporters to be proud of the group again. That was the motivation.
NO TITLE NECESSARY
The start of this season was a strange period of time.
I’d been part of the club’s leadership for four years and vice-captain for three.
When we got presented the new program that was going to be undertaken, I really quickly identified that it probably wasn’t suited as much to my characteristics or how I go about performing.
Once the results came back, I wasn’t in as much shock as I was at the time – it was more when the program was presented a few months earlier.
It became a much bigger deal than it was for me and the club. We were pretty clear as a group of what we were trying to get to and the guys that were picked were picked for a reason and I’m someone who is fully supportive of those five.
It’s the old cliche that you don’t need a title to be a leader, but it’s true.
Joe Daniher, myself and Orazio Fantasia have all certainly bought in and we’re proud to keep trying to be really good leaders for the younger boys.
HUB NO HOLIDAY
This will be a season we tell our grandkids about.
It’s been enjoyable in some ways, but hard in others.
Winning and losing has a bit to do with it as well. It can be difficult with guys out of contract and there’s stuff that we can’t really control – there’s so much that’s been different about this year.
That’s something that will be playing on a lot of players’ minds, so I think there’s definitely been a heightened level of anxiety and stress just as a general rule for everyone in the hub.
I’ve enjoyed the difference, with shorter quarters and a shorter season, you don’t have as much time so I’ve tried to maximise everything.
You do also build relationships with guys that you wouldn’t normally spend a lot of time with, just because you are here and eating meals together three times a day, training a lot and playing table tennis and golf together a lot more.
That’s certainly been a big plus, but there’s been trying times as well where you do question what you’re doing up here for such a long period of time.
My girlfriend Alexandra came up about four or five weeks ago, so it’s been good to have a bit of an outlet away from footy, just to bounce ideas off and potentially vent to at times has been really nice. It’s been great to have her up here.
Hopefully we can sneak into the eight and we’ll have a few more weeks here in Maroochydore yet.
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Originally published as My Story: Zach Merrett on life away from football, being ousted from Essendon’s leadership group and how his mum is one of his greatest inspirations