AFL Player # 7: Indefatigable Zach Merrett (c) - 5 time Crichton Medallist! 🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅

[Beerfish]

Contract Status: Unrestricted Free Agent 2027
My Boy Draft 2024: Pick 10, I Remember Bluey

 

[BrunoV]

It's amazing how he can have a teammate open in F50, totally ignore that teammate and instead kick it to an opposition player. Did it inside the first two minutes against the Saints.

Musn't have been leading hard enough.

 

[ant555]

Stunned that anyone doubts this guy. Absolute jet and our best Midfielder by a long shot.
If he had a couple more players in the midfield his level, we'd be a good team.

Some people are easily pleased I suppose. I am not asking him to tag or even play on anyone. All I want to see is some effort to move onto the next phase of the game rather than seeing a long shot where is is just walking from a contest we have cleared rather than jogging to a spot in the zone where he may be able to make the opposition think twice about coming through that area if we turn the ball over which we generally do.

He is a very good midfielder but he is not Dustin Martin good so he has to do his little bit in the defensive plan.

 

[Mikevk123]

If we can get two first rounders for him I’d go for it.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Schnitzengruben]

If we can get two first rounders for him I’d go for it.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

Then we can draft two more players his size with half the skillset. One will be a bust, another will be a plodder. No thanks.

 

[ant555]

If we can get two first rounders for him I’d go for it.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

So would I but only if Stephan Wells was making the picks for us.

 

[Lore]

It's been a change of role for Merrett this season with the 2017 All Australian moved out to the wing. He's produced some excellent games, including in wins against Adelaide and Sydney, and last week's draw with Gold Coast, and has averaged 24 disposals.

Bombers in All-Australian contention

AFL.com.au identifies the Bombers' four All-Australian contenders.

www.essendonfc.com.au

 

[DERO]

Bombers in All-Australian contention

AFL.com.au identifies the Bombers' four All-Australian contenders.

www.essendonfc.com.au

BrunoV thoughts?

 

[BrunoV]

BrunoV thoughts?

The people who put together these squads largely have no idea about football and/or they wouldn't carefully watch enough games to express a meaningful opinion about such things.

They routinely focus on the number of possessions midfielders get completely ignoring the reality that possession differentials among midfield squads are generally non-existent and have no bearing on an outcome (except rarely during a complete rout when 1 side isn't up to it). We hear this during the coverage of every match.

They have no regard for the structure of a midfield, the way a side is trying to play (between them Hawthorn and Richmond have won 5 flags in 8 years playing a midfield game that is not supported by any of the tropes), the role that is played by each midfielder, the correlation between midfield minutes and number of possessions, the definition of what a contested possession is or the reality that the lowliest ranked midfielder on any list who is physically mature enough to play would get 30 possessions if giveen the midfield minutes of a player like Merrett.

The best recent example on our list is Nick O'Brien. A half forward converted to inside distributor who played out 5 to 10 games finishing 2015 in Jobe's role (from memory) averaging about 25 possessions. He was de-listed at the end of that year.

The commonly held position is that a high possession count is the mark of a quality player and a quality performance but it isn't. It says nothing more, in and of itself, than a player was playing high midfield minutes.

Being a quality player is the mark of someone who is given the minutes. The problem with football coverage is that it switches its brain off the moment a player has reached this status, assuming that player X is a gun because he's getting the ball as much as other players who are guns.

Merrett was very close to being a gun when he was slicing up zones with his kicking. There is virtually nothing about Merrett's performances of the last few years that has required him to play it, it could be played by any competent B grade midfielder (who would never be discussed in AA calculations). At that point, and because of his limitations as a midfielder, there is nothing about his performance that is the Merrett of 2015 to 2017 who also happens to be the player who is being spoken about as an AA squad member in 2020.

Edit: if Merrett gets back to slicing zones apart with his kicking he is an A grader and one of the more damaging midfielders in the AFL. It's not like the view I have of Heppell who, much as I respect him, I do not believe has ever been an A grade player, never someone so damaging distributing from the inside or moving the ball outside with run or by foot that any coach would even both putting work into him.

If Merrett's midfield role has changed, and I do not believe a role change has anything to do with the way he uses the ball, it would simply be an indictment of the coaches who are misusing players.

Much as Clarke can't kick the ball all but one passage of play against GC (when Merrett did use the ball in the way few players can) could have been performed by Clarke who in close will instinctively hack the ball forward.

 

[DERO]

The people who put together these squads largely have no idea about football and/or they wouldn't carefully watch enough games to express a meaningful opinion about such things.

They routinely focus on the number of possessions midfielders get completely ignoring the reality that possession differentials among midfield squads are generally non-existent and have no bearing on an outcome (except rarely during a complete rout when 1 side isn't up to it). We hear this during the coverage of every match.

They have no regard for the structure of a midfield, the way a side is trying to play (between them Hawthorn and Richmond have won 5 flags in 8 years playing a midfield game that is not supported by any of the tropes), the role that is played by each midfielder, the correlation between midfield minutes and number of possessions, the definition of what a contested possession is or the reality that the lowliest ranked midfielder on any list who is physically mature enough to play would get 30 possessions if give the midfield minutes of a player like Merrett.

The best recent example on our list is Nick O'Brien. A half forward converted to inside distributor who played out 5 to 10 games finishing 2015 in Jobe's role (from memory) averaging about 25 possessions. He was de-listed at the end of that year.

The commonly held position is that a high possession count is the mark of a quality player and a quality performance but it isn't. It says nothing more, in and of itself, than a player was playing high midfield minutes.

Being a quality player is the mark of someone who is given the minutes. The problem with football coverage is that it switches its brain off the moment a player has reached this status, assuming that player X is a gun because he's getting the ball as much as other players who are guns.

Merrett was very close to being a gun when he was slicing up zones with his kicking. There is virtually nothing about Merrett's performances of the last few years that has required him to play it, it could be played by any competent B grade midfielder (who would never be discussed in AA calculations). At that point, and because of his limitations as a midfielder, there is nothing about his performance that is the Merrett of 2015 to 2017 who also happens to be the player who is being spoken about as an AA squad member in 2020.

Edit: if Merrett gets back to slicing zones apart with his kicking he is an A grader and one of the more damaging midfielders in the AFL. It's not like the view I have of Heppell who, much as I respect him, I do not believe has ever been an A grade player, never someone so damaging distributing from the inside or moving the ball outside with run or by foot that any coach would even both putting work into him.

If Merrett's midfield role has changed, and I do not believe a role change has anything to do with the way he uses the ball, it would simply be an indictment of the coaches who are missusing players.

Much as Clarke can't kick the ball all but one passage of play against GC (when Merrett did use the ball in the way few players can) could have been performed by Clarke who in close will instinctively hack to ball forward.

Who puts together the AA squad?

Also, are you saying that people who disagree with you do so because they don't know anything about football?

The coaches who give him coaches votes clearly don't know anything about football either.

 

[BrunoV]

Who puts together the AA squad?

Also, are you saying that people who disagree with you do so because they don't know anything about football?

The selection panel for the 2019 All-Australian team consisted of chairman Gillon McLachlan, Kevin Bartlett, Luke Darcy, Danny Frawley, Steve Hocking, Glen Jakovich, Chris Johnson, Cameron Ling, Matthew Richardson and Warren Tredrea.

2019 All-Australian team - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Real bunch of heavy weights there.

Why don't you try to engage the points that are being made?

It's not a matter of opinion that midfield minutes and role directly correlate to number of possessions, for example.

 

[yodellinhank]

The coaches who give him coaches votes clearly don't know anything about football either.

They're learning though

 

[The Devils Advocate]

Yeah, it feels like Merrett used to be used to make really difficult kicks, which he'd hit with regularity, it used to have commentators talking him up as one of the best kicks in the game, now he's not used in that way.

 

[DERO]

The selection panel for the 2019 All-Australian team consisted of chairman Gillon McLachlan, Kevin Bartlett, Luke Darcy, Danny Frawley, Steve Hocking, Glen Jakovich, Chris Johnson, Cameron Ling, Matthew Richardson and Warren Tredrea.

2019 All-Australian team - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Real bunch of heavy weights there.

Why don't you try to engage the points that are being made?

It's not a matter of opinion that midfield minutes and role directly correlate to number of possessions, for example.

You lost me when you put up Nick O'Brien as a comparison.

 

[DERO]

I'll just leave this here:

AFL COACHES VOTE LEADERBOARD
75 Lachie Neale BL
54 Christian Petracca MELB
47 Travis Boak PORT
44 Taylor Adams COLL
44 Jack Steele STK
41 Nic Naitanui WCE
39 Jack Macrae WB
38 Cameron Guthrie GEEL
36 Zach Merrett ESS
35 Zak Jones STK
34 Clayton Oliver MELB
32 Todd Goldstein NMFC
31 Jarrod Witts GCFC
30 Matthew Rowell GCFC
29 Marcus Bontempelli WB
29 Jack Viney MELB
28 Andrew Brayshaw FRE
28 Charlie Dixon PORT
28 Toby Greene GWS
28 Dustin Martin RICH

 

[BrunoV]

You lost me when you put up Nick O'Brien as a comparison.

I didn't put him up as a comparison with Merrett.

I used him as an example of a VFL player, which is really what he was at that point, being able to get enough of the ball that he looks something like an A grader on a stat sheet.

 

[BrunoV]

I'll just leave this here:

AFL COACHES VOTE LEADERBOARD
75 Lachie Neale BL
54 Christian Petracca MELB
47 Travis Boak PORT
44 Taylor Adams COLL
44 Jack Steele STK
41 Nic Naitanui WCE
39 Jack Macrae WB
38 Cameron Guthrie GEEL
36 Zach Merrett ESS
35 Zak Jones STK
34 Clayton Oliver MELB
32 Todd Goldstein NMFC
31 Jarrod Witts GCFC
30 Matthew Rowell GCFC
29 Marcus Bontempelli WB
29 Jack Viney MELB
28 Andrew Brayshaw FRE
28 Charlie Dixon PORT
28 Toby Greene GWS
28 Dustin Martin RICH

Very quickly, do you know what is interesting about this list but which is not really on point?

As it stands there are 2 midfielders (Guthrie and Martin) who play for a side which has a chance of winning the flag. 1 of them is a run with player who I'm not even sure is playing that much midfield. The third player from a team in contention is Nic Nat.

 

[DERO]

Very quickly, do you know what is interesting about this list?

As it stands there are 2 midfielders (Guthrie and Martin) who play for a side which has a chance of winning the flag. 1 of them is a run with player whom I'm not even sure is playing that much midfield. The third player from a team in contention is Nic Nat.

I’ve seen Guthrie play twice this year. Hardly noticed him in the Port game but thought he was really, really good against Port Adelaide.

 

[citizen-erased]

Yeah, it feels like Merrett used to be used to make really difficult kicks, which he'd hit with regularity, it used to have commentators talking him up as one of the best kicks in the game, now he's not used in that way.

he used to have space and targets.
in his AA year our fwd line was Daniher, Hooker, Stewart, Tippa and Raz - all playing at the best we've seen them
Was also our best fwd line since Lloyd, Lucas, Hird.

im as guilty as anyone in criticising the **** show we've been getting every week for a few years now.
But i do give them some leeway for the fwd line being decimated. I don't think we can fairly judge the plan and the players role in it until we have our main targets back

 

[Tang]

I’ve seen Guthrie play twice this year. Hardly noticed him in the Port game but thought he was really, really good against Port Adelaide.

huh?

 

[Seagrave_Holmes]

I'll take the 2017 version of Merrett thanks.

 

[CBombers17]

McCluggage V Merrett on a wing - who would you take?

 

[JT_the_Man]

Very quickly, do you know what is interesting about this list but which is not really on point?

As it stands there are 2 midfielders (Guthrie and Martin) who play for a side which has a chance of winning the flag. 1 of them is a run with player who I'm not even sure is playing that much midfield. The third player from a team in contention is Nic Nat.

Don’t rate Brisbane? (And to a lesser extent, Port?)

 

[JayJ20]

McCluggage V Merrett on a wing - who would you take?

Depends on what you want. Merrett will see more of the ball but McCluggage uses it more effectively.
2017 Merrett used to be like that. Not so much now.

I'd take McCluggage because of his ability to kick goals.

 

[DERO]

So you mean the 2019 version that could kick goals yeah?

 

[BrunoV]

Don’t rate Brisbane? (And to a lesser extent, Port?)

Not as a premiership contender. Neither do enough to negate an opposition tactically.

It's Geelong, West Coast and Richmond at this point in time. Collingwood has fallen into a trap but its also the Andy Murray of the 4.