Essendon vice-captain Zach Merrett has hit back at recent criticisms of the side's fitness in the wake of an external review into the club.
The review, which was conducted after a season which saw the Bombers finish 15th with just seven wins on the board, concluded that the the club lacked training standards and player fitness levels were of concern.
Speaking on SEN earlier in the week, David King lashed out at the senior figures of the club in the wake of the review, questioning how training standards weren't improved.
“If you can't get the standards at training right, then you cannot succeed,” King said.
“I can't believe it's taken a review to get that feedback.
“If you're a senior player at the Essendon Football Club you're aware of that. How can you not have shifted the course of training standards through that period?
“What hope did Ben Rutten have? I know his fingerprints are on quite a few of those (player-focused) areas. He should have driven training standards. And that alone is a reason to almost walk your coach.”
Merrett, who played 19 games for Essendon this season, rejected claims that the players weren't fit enough while appearing on 7 News, saying that it wasn't a "big issue".
"For me, it's not a big issue," Merrett said.
"I get that it's a part of the review and it's a pretty strong feedback that we aren't fit enough but I've got no doubt as well that we'll we'll fix that up pretty quickly.
"If we get our gameplan neater and actually aligned and play in a very similar way to each other, the other stuff will be fine."
The Bombers unveiled Brad Scott as their new senior coach last month, taking over from Ben Rutten.
