Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell has confirmed his desire to land Essendon star Zach Merrett, while taking a cheeky shot at Channel 7 pundit Kane Cornes for the constant commentary around the Bombers midfielder.
Merrett trade saga reignites
Merrett requested a trade to the Hawks last year, but the two clubs couldn't agree on a deal with the Bombers knocking back Hawthorn's best offer. The 30-year-old is once again expected to explore a trade at the end of this season after being pushed out of the Bombers' starting midfield in recent weeks.
Mitchell was asked point-blank if he believes he "dodged a bullet" by not landing Merrett, but the Hawks coach quickly hit back at Cornes as the two traded friendly barbs on The Agenda Setters.
Mitchell fires back at Cornes
Cornes: "Last time you were on, it was Round 1 or 2, I said that you dodged a bullet with Zach Merrett. You kept your three first round picks, you kept your million dollars, and you developed (Cam) McKenzie, you developed (Josh) Ward. On the weekend you win centre bounce 32-0 (20-12). Do you now think that you've dodged a bullet with Zach Merrett?"
Mitchell: "Well, you haven't just said it in Round 1 or Round 2. You've said it every week, on every show. So you've said it everywhere, every day, and I've heard you."
Cornes: "Are you coming around?"
Mitchell: "And we can agree to disagree. I think Zach is a good player, and he would have helped us, but that's not to say it would have held back the development of our young mids, who are going very, very well. And I talked about it last year when we talked about McKenzie. He's a long-term player for our organisation, and we were really pleased with how he was going last year, and he's gone to another level this year.
Mitchell won't commit publicly
Cornes: "Have you committed to Zach again to make this happen at the end of this year?"
Mitchell: "I won't be getting into any individual players, but what I do know is our list management, and we've been pretty open about trying to improve our list. So I don't think there's any coach or any club that isn't trying to improve their list through players at other clubs at this time of year. We're going to try to do that at season's end, and I won't get into specifics about who that is."
Mitchell backs his midfield
Mitchell went on to back his side's midfield despite many critics claiming it was their weakness coming into the season. Led by new co-captain Jai Newcombe, the Hawks have more than held their own despite not having the star power that other teams have.
"I wasn't overly concerned, even in the pre-season you guys said the midfield is going to be the weakness," Mitchell said. "Maybe on paper, our midfield isn't as star-studded or as many early draft picks, but I think the way they work together and how our midfield mix has worked and at the moment (is going really well).
"We still haven't had (Will) Day and (Conor) Nash play together so we still have one more to add to it. There's a fair bit of depth coming through so I'm not unhappy with the midfield we've got."
