Reigning Essendon Best and Fairest winner Zach Merrett has revealed he was "a little bit surprised" upon hearing of the club's internal review.
Following a disastrous first half of season 2022, the Bombers announced an internal review into 'every element of the football program.'
Despite the club suggesting recently it would not conduct any review, but rather be continually reviewing, they have now opted for a full-scale look into their operations.
In his exclusive column in The Herald Sun, Merrett revealed he was "having a quiet drink with a mate" during his mid-season break when he first learned of the review.
While saying his "immediate reaction was a little bit of surprise", he was quick to point out that for him "personally it didn't seem like a big deal."
Merrett pointed out that the AFL is "such a review industry, and as players we review everything." With AFL players constantly needing to review games and training sessions, it's easy to understand his point.
The 2021 club champion was at pains to point out that while it can seem dramatic, it was more "about working out where we can improve across the board".
He did, however, concede the first half of the season was below expectations for the Bombers.
"The first half of the season was clearly disappointing and there's no shying away from that, and our bye week was a good opportunity to hit the reset button." he wrote.
"I'd love to be able to pinpoint the reason why we're at 2-9 [wins and losses], but I think we probably thought it would just flow on from last year and we tried to add on a few aspects that potentially weren't fully established at the expense of some fundamentals."
Merrett acknowledged that the players were aware of the fans' frustrations.
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"I'm sure our fans want to see consistent effort, which has to become a mainstay for our group and instilled into our young players moving forward," the ball-winner wrote.
"Hopefully on the back of that we'll see our team playing with more freedom, while consistently showing up in the contest. We want to change and we want to give the fans some excitement."
Despite all the negative attention on the club this year, Merrett was keen to find the silver lining, discussing some of the youngsters showing great potential.
"The flip side of that has been the emergence of the likes of Ben Hobbs and Zach Reid in particular, along with some performances from Archie Perkins that have been very exciting to watch. We're getting some really good games into our young group."
When trying to pinpoint just what was behind the slump in form to start the season and where to from here, the midfielder wrote that it came down to 'pressure' and 'good habits'.
"Early on this season we went away from our pressure, which was our core fundamental from last year, and it's something we're trying to get consistently back to as it was our hallmark in 2021.
"We need to drive home some fundamentals and try to establish some good habits across the board for all our players.
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"There are a few areas we've tried to hone in on the past few weeks around our contest and defensive areas."
The article comes in a week where some Bombers midfielders have been criticised for speaking about the club's form.
Fox Footy analyst David King spoke on SEN's Breakfast on Friday morning, saying he was sick of hearing Essendon's midfielders talking about the club's form.
โYou know what makes me laugh, when I hear the Essendon players speak. They speak like the problems theyโre talking about are not their own personal problems, itโs the group," he said.
โThe midfield at Essendon refuse to engage in the game when they donโt have possession. They just refuse. Then they come out and speak and itโs โoh we need to get our pressure rightโ, but itโs you mate.
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โIt is Zach Merrett, Dylan Shiel, Darcy Parish, it is those guys, Andrew McGrath, what? Do they take us for fools? We can see it. The game highlights their flaws. The AFL standard is well past where they are."
The scrutiny on the Bombers has been high for weeks now, however, a crunch clash against Carlton after the break presents an opportunity to get back on track. Friday night's game will provide the club with the opportunity to walk the walk.
