David Zaharakis hopes banned Essendon teammates will re-sign soon
ESSENDON midfielder David Zaharakis has made an impassioned plea for Michael Hurley, Jobe Watson and Michael Hibberd to make a decision “soon” on their futures.
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ESSENDON midfielder David Zaharakis has made an impassioned plea for Michael Hurley, Jobe Watson and Michael Hibberd to make a decision “soon” on their futures.
Hurley has been linked to five clubs including Collingwood, while Melbourne is right into attacking defender Hibberd.
Watson remains in New York.
Small forward Ben Howlett and fringe defender Tayte Pears round out the five banned Bombers yet to commit to the club for 2017.
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Zaharakis said he hoped Essendon’s thrilling win over Gold Coast inspires the Bomber five to make their decision.
“(Hearing whispers) the guys are pretty impressed with how we’re playing and how the young guys are developing as a group,” Zaharakis said.
“I think that’s why you’ve seen (seven) have committed back to the club, and especially Hooksy went early because he could see some of our young guys playing really good footy and he was really excited about that.
“Hopefully Hurls and Hibbo and Jobe and the rest of them are seeing that and get quite excited about next year because we definitely want them playing — Ben Howlett and Tayte Pears the other two.”
Zaharakis said Hurley was back in Melbourne after his long European holiday, while Watson has given no indication of his travel plans.
“Hopefully (Hurley) makes a decision quite soon so then we can sort of get excited by the news, if it’s to come back to the footy club, so hopefully that happens,” he told RSN radio this morning.
“Who knows when Jobe’s going to come back, in the next sort of week or month or that kind of thing, so I’m definitely hoping he makes the decision again soon just so we can sort of go into the off-season knowing our plans and what we got to do going forward.
“He’s obviously (quite rightly) had time to make his decision and we’ve respected that, but hopefully he makes it soon.”
Originally published as David Zaharakis hopes banned Essendon teammates will re-sign soon
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