AFL 2025: Hawthorn captain James Sicily addresses club’s pursuit of Essendon captain Zach Merrett

The doubt over Merrett’s future at Essendon accelerated last week when the five-time best and fairest winner met with Hawthorn officials.

Sicily was honest after the Hawks met with West Coast captain Oscar Allen in April and straight forward again on Monday ahead of this week’s preliminary final.

He says he hasn’t spoken to Merrett but hopes the club is actively pursuing every player who can make the Hawks better.

“I haven’t (reached out to him), I will leave that in the hands of the guys to get it done,” Sicily said.

“We’ll see what happens. I think you’d be silly not have any good player who is going to help you win games of footy.

“Having Josh Battle and Tom Barrass come to our club from other clubs during the trade period has obviously made us better.

“When you have good players around you, it makes your job easier and I am sure someone like Zach would obviously add a lot to us.”

Merrett, who remains under contract, has sparked wide debate for meeting with a rival club while captaining another.

Some have called for Merrett to hand in his captaincy if he doesn’t leave, while Sicily says each situation is different for each individual.

He says the Hawks would be “stupid” for not meeting with players just because they’re in leadership positions and thinks Merrett won’t shy away from a big decision.

“I don’t know, depends on how someone feels about their situation, really,” he said.

“One thing I probably do have in common with Zach Merrett is that when I’ve made up my mind, I’ve made a decision and am probably similar in following through with it.

“We’ll see what happens. It’s not really our fault, it takes two to tango, (and) we’d be stupid if we weren’t trying to make ourselves better.

“(We’re) trying to get players like we did last year that make us better, so you’d be kicking yourself if you didn’t take meetings with players that hold leadership positions or anyone really that’s going to help you get better.

“I suppose it’s just the new norm, we’re going to have to get used to it, it’s going to happen to us at some stage for sure, probably already has been happening this season.

“But that’s just the norm, I think we’ve just got to get used to it.”

Jarman Impey, Jack Ginnivan, Josh Battle, Massimo D’Ambrosio, Jack Scrimshaw and Karl Amon have all taken their game to a new level after arriving at Hawthorn from other clubs.

When asked if that improvement is a lure for Hawthorn to recruit rival talent, Sicily joked that Merrett would “probably win a Brownlow then” if he became a Hawk.

“Geez, where would you improve? He’s already won six B&Fs or something. He’d probably win a Brownlow then if he came, I suppose that’s the only thing he can get,” he joked.

Originally published as AFL 2025: Hawthorn captain James Sicily addresses club’s pursuit of Essendon captain Zach Merrett