Brendon Goddard says Bombers ‘don’t accept’ Levi Greenwood’s elbow on Zach Merrett

DAVID Zaharakis has joined the chorus of Essendon players to slam Levi Greenwood after his crushing blow to Zach Merrett in yesterday’s win over the Pies. WATCH THE INCIDENT

Zach Merrett is groggy on the field after a high hit from Levi Greenwood. Picture: Getty Images

DAVID Zaharakis has joined the chorus of Essendon players to slam Levi Greenwood after his crushing blow to Zach Merrett in the Bombers’ 37-point victory over Collingwood.

A posse of agitated Bombers converged on Greenwood immediately after the third-term clash, intent on letting the Magpie tagger know his actions were out of line.

The mercurial Bomber said Greenwood’s off-the-ball elbow that left Merrett prone on the ground was “disappointing”.

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Angry Bombers wrestle with Levi Greenwood after his high hit on Zach Merrett. Picture: Getty Images

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“Zach is probably our best player, all year, and even last year, (so) we knew probably Levi would go to him because he does, yes, play that tagging role,” Zaharakis said on The Sunday Footy Show.

“But to do something like that, that’s pretty disappointing.

“A few of the boys flew the flag quite highly there because Joey (Daniher) and Tommy (Bellchambers) wanted to protect him and he has a case to answer this week.”

“It will be interesting to see what they (the AFL tribunal) do this week, but they have been handing heavy penalties.”

Yesterday, Essendon gun Brendon Goddard said he saw the incident out of the corner of his eye, but got greater clarity when the replay was shown on the big screen, prompting a fiery response from a handful of Bombers’ players.

“As a team, we don’t accept that, particularly when it is one of our younger stars, who Greenwood was tagging,” Goddard said.

“We don’t accept that as a footy club.”

Tempers were frayed after the 3rd quarter incident. Picture: Mark Stewart

His words were echoed by several teammates, including ruckman Tom Bellchambers, who admitted on Triple M he was “super angry” in the moments after the clash.

Merrett was taken from the ground for a concussion test, which he passed, and later returned to the field to play a strong role in the victory.

Greenwood was soundly booed after the incident, and is certain to cop a suspension when the match review panel delivers its verdict on Monday.

But Greenwood’s coach Nathan Buckley said his player was disappointed with what had occurred, suggesting his elbow slipped higher than he had intended.

Essendon coach John Worsfold was reluctant to speak too much about the clash, other than to say his players were angry.

“I didn’t see the strike at the time, but I saw Zach Merrett go down really heavily and saw it was off the ball,” he said. “If it is off the ball and it is an illegal strike, we will let that run its course.”

Goddard and the Bombers take on St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on Friday night, knowing they need to keep winning to stay in touch with the top eight.

“We know the situation, as do three or four other teams in our situation,” he said. “We just need to focus on what we can control and produce our brand of footy.”

Worsfold admitted he wasn’t too fazed early in the match when the Magpies had control of the possession count, but couldn’t manage to get clean passageway through to their 50m.

“We sort of knew Collingwood were going to come and use the ball short,” he said. “I think ... seven or eight of their first uncontested marks, they didn’t really move the ball anywhere.”

“They went back and sideways, and then came back and ended up almost in the same spot. We weren’t concerned about that.”

Brendon Goddard: Unhappy with the treatment given to Zach Merrett. Picture: Mark Stewart

He said the club’s first win in three weeks was off the back of hard work and not the criticism that the club had faced externally after fade out losses to Sydney and Brisbane.

“You get what you deserve ... we went out to work really hard today and to play footy that we have been trying to work on and improve on,” he said. “That was obviously a lot better.”

“Our attitude is we are challenging ourselves to keep playing the footy we want to play.

“If we are worrying about thinking that next week is going to be make or break us as a top-eight team, we are kidding ourselves. It is going to be about how we perform over seven weeks.

“We will start preparing well for our next opponent and building on the way we want to play the game.”