Whateley in a Snapshot | Wednesday (18.03.26)

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P4 by Farmer.

I'm Jared Waitley.

Here's a snapshot of Wednesday, March 18.

Ken Hinkley on Fuddy's most fascinating relationship.

Essendon and Zach Merritt.

Oh, it's, look at, it's really, I mean, Essendon are in the middle of what is clearly a

a list formation where they're transferring, forming everything they need

to get better for the future.

The problem we have with Essendon has been so long getting there,

you know, when we haven't been able to figure out what we need to be.

And that's why Zach's been the in and the outman.

You know, he's not quite sure of his in or he's not quite sure of his out

because he kind of, he certainly loves Essendon.

And you can sense that.

But it's whether he's, you know, he's got the patience to stay

and miss out an opportunity for finals.

There's so much going on at Essendon at the moment.

He's got a bit patient with.

Yes, and the patience is one of the questions.

So if you look at their list profile, I know you've done this and categorized

all the players on a list is, when can they hope to be successful?

So this feels to me like ground zero.

Last year's a total write-off that's destroyed by injury.

This feels like ground zero when that's a,

we're a long way into being ground zero.

I think last year really hurt him based on the fact

that they could get so many injuries.

And it allowed him to hide behind the injury banner a little bit

when I think in fact, their list still wasn't that great with the injuries.

So they needed to probably make the progress

last year and make it pretty known, known to everyone.

So they, they, they looked there.

Things happened quickly and I fell football, you know.

I remember when Carl I'm on left, left us to go to Hawthorne.

And at the time, we all looked at it and said,

Carl, what are you, what's going on here?

This is, this is going to be a long time before Hawthorne rebound

and get back up the ladder.

It was only three years later and they were back up in amongst it

and playing electric football and everyone wanted to watch him.

So it's probably a minimum of three years, Jared.

That's if that's if everything on the drafting goes

absolutely perfect from here with what they've already taken.

You know, it's, is caddy and caco going to be great players as sharp

and Farrow and the bikes abroad in this year.

They've all got to be, they've all got to be hits.

They've all got to be home runs almost in, uh, in their drafting space.

And if they're not, it may be even longer.

The game is really frustrating for bottom teams now.

It's really hard to rebuild from the bottom and get up

in any period of time that's less than five, six, seven years or reckon.

So who's to say what merit should do?

But it is this the right play for Essendon to end it

and to give in the long term offer and hope that he commits forever

or be more pragmatic at the end of the season and trade him.

Yeah, well, I did a lot of thinking around this over the last 24 hours

because of the story that's come out and, uh, and through Cal,

it's obviously pretty close to the market.

I'd imagine so, um, you know, it's, it's a really,

really difficult one and for Essendon, is it the right thing?

It takes away some distraction.

I mean, it will take away some distraction.

It'll add them to clearly put their eye on the ball and say,

look, look, Zach, you've got to help us now.

You've got to help us through this.

You've got to improve all these young players.

You've got to work really hard with them.

In fact, you've got to be a part of the recruiting,

you know, in some ways.

You've got to come to the meetings.

You've got to be a part of this is why you've stayed.

This is what, you know, this is an exciting story.

A little bit to the young people coming into the club

and potentially ger it any, you know, if I suppose free agents

that they may be looking at because I think there's some,

there's some method in the way they could go about it

with their free agency.

You know, they are, they got their eyeballs

on the very best free agents, probably not the right time

because that'll be a pretty high cost.

And they're not ready for that.

But are they going after for fear any type players

who are really high quality good leadership players

and they can add something over the short-term pain

and the journey to help develop young players?

So Zach's got to be all in though.

And Henkley is full of praise for the Richmond Rebuilds.

Did I hear you accept a five-year deal to go and coach Richmond for free?

At next time.

And what, what makes Richmond so attractive to your eye?

Oh, there you go.

They've done it.

There are, if you want to, if you want a model to rebuild

and how to do it, you've got to know.

And it's one of the things I've seen about before we started this morning

was to how do you progress to rebuild without everyone really saying

that you're team, we're going to go rebuild.

Richmond done that because they'd won flags.

You know, they'd won three flags in their most recent history.

So they just went, when these players come up

that other clubs had interest in,

would it be Rihale and Baker and Shae Bolton?

They just cashed in at the right time.

But they also knew when the good draft was coming to you.

Everyone knew that was a great draft.

And I was really passionate about the draft.

And I was watched them all pretty closely.

So the talent was there.

You just had to be brave enough to go there.

Now, if you're not that club and you're not thinking

you haven't won three flags in a row, it's a really hard sell.

But of course, Richmond had won three flags.

They kept the amount of senior experience that they needed to keep it okay

and to help coach young players.

Because that's really important.

Phil Davis, after seeing Marcus Bontan-Pelley live.

The great thing about a game is you get to sort of like choose

what type of play you like.

You can almost pick, you know, this is my favorite player.

You can love Nick Daikos because he is just beautifully skilled,

gets the ball world, tears away.

You have a big forward, a big back,

or you can have someone like Marcus,

who's first half on the weekend was just incredible.

The Giants put up a lot of resistance in the first sort of 15 minutes.

They looked at the better side, missed a few opportunities.

And then I felt like within reason Marcus just took the game away from them.

Not always and just pure a stoppage brilliance,

but just he's around the ground like.

He just, I think, I just find him a fascinating play.

He just added more and more and more goals to his game.

He sits forward, he's a big man.

And he's just an exquisite decision maker and kick.

Yeah, I try to think about who I think the best player in the comp is.

And yeah, it's hard to look past him.

Just he's so well rounded.

And I heard the comments about should they tag him?

Should they not tag him?

It's always a tight balance.

But yeah, he was the difference maker on the weekend.

And Adelaide caught Phil's eye.

They were good.

I thought the team, I thought their stuff around the ball was better.

And that's probably been my biggest concern for them.

I really like their backline.

I think they've got more than enough power and the four line.

Obviously Jordan Dawson's a star.

But I just felt as though are they missing?

A weapon, like all these other teams.

The best teams have got two weapons.

At least around the ball.

And I think you sort of need that to compete.

So that's still a watch.

But I thought they looked very good.

I thought they looked very, very sharp.

Probably more important.

They did what I thought they needed to do, Joe,

which is a big tick for me.

They, you know, that's a lot of expectation.

And to come over, take care of climate.

And just beat it.

It just shows an increasing sign of maturity.

I like the fact that they got challenged.

That's always a good sign.

It's easier just to be in front from start to finish.

But to get in front, to be challenged,

and then have to go again to finish the game.

I think all very, very big ticks and Matthew Knicks would be very happy.

I think they're in a good spot.

I sort of think about that.

We extrapolate a little bit.

They're the games that they need to win if they're going to win 16 games

and get another home final.

Melbourne Storm Chief Executive Justin Rodzki

ahead of the grand final rematch against the Broncos.

It's always a big build up.

There's no doubt about that.

The Broncos is probably our biggest ticket game

when it comes to, you know, the build up and the excitement

and obviously being the club that they are.

And we definitely do respect everything that they do.

But at the same time, we love coming up against them

and ultimately hopefully beating them.

You know, we've had a really good record against them at home.

And, you know, we're hoping for a big Melbourne Storm crowd on Friday night.

It's tracking towards close to a cell out,

which, which would be fantastic.

And, you know, we'll have a really strong team in.

So hopefully we can continue our undefeated start of the season.

And former National Coach Alan Stachich

after the Matilda's qualifying for the Asian Cup final.

They've been up and down in games and you've got to manage your way through that.

And, you know, there's been individuals that have stepped up

in moments where they haven't been dominating a game.

Alana Kennedy and Sam Kerr are probably the most prominent

of those two.

Obviously, they've just stepped up and changed the courses of results and matches

and been exceptional.

And Joe was right.

That first goal they scored last night was, was world class the way they,

the way they tore apart China's high press in that moment.

So they're going to need more of that against Korea or Japan.

You know, probably think Japan are probably the better team.

So I probably hope they play Korea,

but Japan is exceptional as well.

So that'll be a tough encounter.

Should Japan get through tonight?

So it'll be a 50-50 game.

But, you know, we're the kind of team that even if we're not playing well

when you've got weapons like we have,

we can, we can win at any time.

And, you know, Caitlin Ford and Kennedy and Kerr and Mary Fowler

and all those have got those things in their locker that can turn a game.

And that's just a snapshot.

The full program and all interviews are available through the Weightly podcast.

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