Essendon midfielder Zach Merrett has confirmed reports of a ''very preliminary chat" regarding a contract extension at Essendon.
Decision makers at the Hangar have opened the dialogue with Merrett, who is still contracted for another two seasons, mere months after his highly publicised and heavily scrutinised attempt to desert the club of his drafting.
"I wouldn't say I was considering (extending his contract straight away), but I mean, there's some openness to listen, as there always is when you're on the back nine of your career, so to speak, you're always open with what that could look like. But nothing has progressed outside of a very preliminary chat," Merrett said.
Merrett alluded to personnel changes in the club's strength and conditioning arm as a key factor in his willingness to potentially commit the final years of his career to the struggling Bombers, after years of injury chaos have stymied on-field development.
"I think things have shifted," he said.
"I think the fitness department's really beefed up, and the club's invested heavily (in) resourcing that to make sure that players get the best opportunity to be fit, healthy and on the park for longer periods of time, so that we can hopefully have more talent on the weekend to string together some more wins."
The midfielder has conceded that there was "a bit of awkwardness" attached to returning to the club, after his bold ploy to defect to Hawthorn, Essendon's most bitter of rivals, fell through in the dying embers of last year's trade period.
Senior members of the playing list, notably Mason Redman and Nic Martin, were outspoken in their criticisms of Merrett's desire to leave the struggling club he was leading, but the 30-year-old broke bread with his contemporaries in an attempt to alleviate their anguish before he returned to the club.
"I think, no doubt (there) was a bit of awkwardness, just to start with, given what we went through those three months. But to Mason and Nic's credit, we had dinner before we went back to make sure that we're on the same page...and ready to get cracking in the preseason," he said.
Merrett, a six-time Crichton medallist as the Bombers' best and fairest player, will play his first match after his tumultuous off-season this weekend when he lines up alongside fellow modern-day greats for Victoria in the first iteration of the recently revived AFL Origin concept.
