Merrett won the Crichton Medal with 378 votes, a staggering 105 more than joint runners-up Joe Daniher and veteran James Kelly, one of Essendon's contingent of "top-up" players this season.

Still only 20 and in his third AFL season, Merrett averaged 30 disposals per game, breaking Jobe Watson's club record.

After being voted into Essendon's leadership group pre-season, he captained the side in two games late in the season when Brendon Goddard was injured, and in doing so became the Bombers' third-youngest skipper.

"Zach played some exceptional football this season, and that was built off the back of his professionalism, living elite standards and a hunger to improve and develop with each game," said Essendon coach John Worsfold.

"Zach showed tremendous leadership in a season which challenged our playing group on a weekly basis."

In an upbeat evening as the club looked forward to its contingent of players suspended for the season by the Court of Arbitration for Sport returning to the fold, Merrett wasn't the only of Essendon's young brigade to feature prominently.

Emerging young stars Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, Orazio Fantasia and Darcy Parish all finished in the top ten, along with two older first-year players with the club, Mitch Brown and another top-up in former Richmond defender Matt Dea.

Earlier in the evening, Essendon chairman Lindsay Tanner told the function at Crown that while the club's recovery process was by no means over, the Bombers had made great progress.

"That progress has only been possible because of the amazing resolve, discipline and focus of the entire Essendon Football Club community." Tanner said.

"We haven't turned on each other. We haven't been distracted by the temptation to publicly re-fight the CAS decision, outrageous though it may have been. We've turned up to support our team, and still recorded attendance levels and membership among the highest in the competition.

"We've accepted some tough belt-tightening decisions that have affected everyone from members to volunteers to directors. And at no point have we dropped our heads or asked for quarter. 2016 has been an enormous character test for Essendon Football Club, and we have passed that test with flying colours."

Tanner also pleaded with the Bomber faithful not to assume that success would automatically follow simply because the supplements saga was reaching a conclusion, and to guard against "entitlement and complacency", which he said seeped into many organisations.

"I've had some Bomber fans say to me that the pain of the supplements issue will just make our next premiership that much sweeter. I must confess that for a while I thought like that too," Tanner said.

"Then it hit me. How many supporters of other clubs are talking about 'our next premiership'? Certainly not supporters from clubs with much longer premiership droughts than ours!

"The harsh reality is that if our mindset is about 'our next premiership', there won't be one. We're not in a 12-team competition anymore, as one of a handful of big, powerful clubs. We're one of five Melbourne clubs [along with Carlton, Collingwood, Melbourne and Richmond] who by 2000 had won almost two thirds of AFL-VFL premierships between them, and in the 15 years since have managed only one. And none of those five clubs will play finals in 2016.

"There is much to be optimistic about as we slowly return to normality heading into 2017, but nothing is guaranteed. We have shown unbelievable strength and resilience under the most extreme pressure. That's a great platform from which to launch our comeback and assault on 2017 and beyond, but that's all it is, a platform. How successful we are will depend on how we all apply ourselves from now on, not what we have done up until now."