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

 

[faible]

Here is another impressive stat courtesy of:


Froffking on BBlitz

Occasionally people seem to allege Zach doesn’t chase or tackle… so

View attachment 1580967


That's right in the Top 15 for tackles between 2018 - 2022

PS: I'm Bored.

200 less tackles than Jack Steele?

Delist.

 

[I Remember Bluey]

200 less tackles than Jack Steele?

Delist.

 

[I Remember Bluey]

Top 15, not top 10.

Pffft. Delist.

 

[Nugget 83]

 

[frodos gardener]

Stringer!

 

[fishardansin]

Good news is Jake Stringer will be able to bat for a long time in the subcontinent.

 

[VelvetSledge]

 

[I Remember Bluey]

‘Park my ego’: Dons star reveals rebuilt training program, learnings from brutal 2022

‘So bad’ we ‘looked unfit’: Dons star’s brutal take on 2022 — and how he rebuilt from ground up

www.foxsports.com.au

‘Park my ego’: Dons star reveals rebuilt training program, learnings from brutal 2022​

Virtually every player will tell you they’ve had a career-best pre-season at this time of year, but not many will tell you they’ve rebuilt their program from the ground up like Zach Merrett.

A bleak season for Essendon led to mass changes in off-field personnel and scathing findings from the club’s external review, which saw “training standards” listed as one of areas in need of improvement.

While bemused at the idea players in the AFL could be genuinely ‘unfit’, Merrett clearly took the feedback to heart.

“I think you always want to get fitter and stronger,” the 27-year-old told foxfooty.com.au.

“I know we copped a fair whack for the fitness level, but for me it was sort of like you always want to get fitter, you’re always trying to.


“I think for me, I had to park my ego a little bit. I had a system I felt was working, I was playing some pretty good footy, but to get to that next level, I felt like I had to sort of get back to being a bit more vulnerable.”

While Essendon has effectively refreshed almost its entire football department, Merrett too has taken some matters into his own hands in a bid to avoid the torrid on-field results in 2022, which saw the Bombers finish 15th with just seven wins.

“I changed my whole program basically from when I finished the season. I definitely got fitter, I got a few more a few more PBs under my belt running-wise and readjusted my whole gym program to cater for the way I wanted to run,” Merrett said.

“My attitude and mindset was very much around being the best defensive player at the club from day one and I’ve driven that extremely hard, but also did it myself without sort of talking about it, just sort of went about actions more than talking.

“I think the guys are probably noticing that shift.”

It’s a scary prospect for the rest of the competition given Merrett is already one of the competition’s most respected midfielders and a three-time best and fairest winner at the Bombers.

While nowhere near as extensive as this off-season’s changes, Merrett has become somewhat used to a senior coaching carousel during his time at the club - Merrett himself noted “I’ve had five (coaches) now in nine years, basically.”

He, along with everyone else at Essendon, will be hoping Brad Scott’s appointment is the circuit breaker that actually works.

The signs, so far at least, are promising.

“I think the big difference is probably his experience, I think that was obviously why the club went Brad’s way,” Merrett said.

“He’s seen it before, he’s really, really good with people. He understands personalities.

“I think we’ve resourced the whole footy department a lot more now as well with five or six new coaches to go with Brad. It just feels like it’s an environment to get better. Hopefully that results in some more success.”

There’s a lot to rebuild at Tullamarine, with a lack of unity and clear communication plaguing the side during its 2-10 start to last season and culminating in the sacking of Rutten and a host of changes at board and coaching level.

Frustration from Essendon supporters throughout 2022 was palpable and that frustration extended to the players, who said all the right things off the field but did all the wrong things on it.

“I think the frustrating part was probably that our defensive system was so bad that we weren‘t able to execute and then in turn you end up looking like you’re unfit as teams do when they lose,” Merrett reflected.

While not divulging Scott’s new game plan, Merrett added there was a welcome philosophical difference he had noticed so far.

“I think the way that probably ‘Truck’ (Rutten) and the coaches wanted us to play the last three years had been very role-based and very prescribed,” he said.

“Whilst it looked like Dylan (Shiel), Darcy (Parish) and I were there (in the midfield) a lot, we were actually playing sort of very unique roles, which without going into detail made it difficult to just to play on instinct.

“I think the way Brad wants us to play, the way the coaches are coaching now is that we have a lot more freedom just to play as normal midfielders do in the competition.”

Drafted with pick No.26 in 2013, Merrett enters his 10th full year at the club knowing what is a genuine change and what is papering over the cracks.

This time, rather than a fresh coat of paint, Merrett believes the engine - like his pre-season - has been rebuilt from the ground up.

“It does (feel like a new club) ... as a player, I think, you’re given the best opportunity now to improve every day, and hopefully now we can put it together, all that individual improvement to the team,” he said.

“It’s been really refreshing.”

 

[ant555]

“I think the way that probably ‘Truck’ (Rutten) and the coaches wanted us to play the last three years had been very role-based and very prescribed,” he said.

“Whilst it looked like Dylan (Shiel), Darcy (Parish) and I were there (in the midfield) a lot, we were actually playing sort of very unique roles, which without going into detail made it difficult to just to play on instinct.


And that is why it fell apart.

 

[andleanback]

“I think the way that probably ‘Truck’ (Rutten) and the coaches wanted us to play the last three years had been very role-based and very prescribed,” he said.

“Whilst it looked like Dylan (Shiel), Darcy (Parish) and I were there (in the midfield) a lot, we were actually playing sort of very unique roles, which without going into detail made it difficult to just to play on instinct.


And that is why it fell apart.

So merrett and parish weren’t playing on instinct and playing well when they were both all aus in 2021
hmmm I don’t know Zach

 

[ant555]

So merrett and parish weren’t playing on instinct and playing well when they were both all aus in 2021
hmmm I don’t know Zach

It can happen . The structure and positioning of the players gets confusing. Remember they where running a version of the game plan that was not as advanced in 2021. The 2022 version was more complex and involved more precise positioning as far as the team zone went but also ball movement. Sides that are switched on in defense and have a long history of being so get it. It took Clarkson over 6 seasons to perfect the game plan he wanted.

 

[ghostdog]

This is the part that tells me the ego hasn't totally been parked;

“I think the frustrating part was probably that our defensive system was so bad that we weren‘t able to execute and then in turn you end up looking like you’re unfit as teams do when they lose,” Merrett reflected.

It's the defensive system's fault that he couldn't execute, not that he couldn't sacrifice some part of his instinctive game to execute the defensive system. Well, that's how I read it anyway.

 

[ghostdog]

It can happen . The structure and positioning of the players gets confusing. Remember they where running a version of the game plan that was not as advanced in 2021. The 2022 version was more complex and involved more precise positioning as far as the team zone went but also ball movement. Sides that are switched on in defense and have a long history of being so get it. It took Clarkson over 6 seasons to perfect the game plan he wanted.

...and Truck had two seasons yet got sacked by Barham to court Clarkson and was never in the hunt.
I thought I was over it, but I just felt my hate surface.

 

[yodellinhank]

...and Truck had two seasons yet got sacked by Barham to court Clarkson and was never in the hunt.
I thought I was over it, but I just felt my hate surface.

Clarkson's side improved year on year on their way to the premiership.

 

[faible]

Clarkson's side improved year on year on their way to the premiership.

Having one of the all-time great onfield leaders in Hodge and an all-time great FF in Franklin probably helped that process.

 

[eth-dog]

Having one of the all-time great onfield leaders in Hodge and an all-time great FF in Franklin probably helped that process.

Plus they really only had one glaring deficiency on field in their key defensive stocks before they went out and got Lake/Frawley

 

[faible]

This is the part that tells me the ego hasn't totally been parked;

“I think the frustrating part was probably that our defensive system was so bad that we weren‘t able to execute and then in turn you end up looking like you’re unfit as teams do when they lose,” Merrett reflected.

It's the defensive system's fault that he couldn't execute, not that he couldn't sacrifice some part of his instinctive game to execute the defensive system. Well, that's how I read it anyway.

A defensive system requires all the parts (or at least most of them) to be where they're supposed to be.

There was some great footage mid-season where Shiel lapsed in his positioning to ball-chase when he didn't impact the play at all, and the hole in the zone it opened let an opposition player run through, be used in a chain of possession and ultimately cost a goal.

Rutten & Caracella both managed to implement a multiple Premiership winning defensive and offensive system at Richmond, where they do / did have a number of guys willing to sacrifice their natural game to make the system work, and allow a guy like Dusty to play his natural game.

People are also very quick to forget that our offensive ball movement was diabolical and lead to a bunch of turnovers that sent the ball pounding back in to our D50 uncontested leaving our defenders isolated and unprotected. That was Caracella's domain...

 

[yodellinhank]

Having one of the all-time great onfield leaders in Hodge and an all-time great FF in Franklin probably helped that process.

I daresay a lot of things helped. They even picked Rioli. Time alone wasn't simply going to replicate it all at Essendon.

 

[ant555]

Clarkson's side improved year on year on their way to the premiership.

From memory they lost 5 games by 60 plus in their second season.

 

[ghostdog]

A defensive system requires all the parts (or at least most of them) to be where they're supposed to be.

There was some great footage mid-season where Shiel lapsed in his positioning to ball-chase when he didn't impact the play at all, and the hole in the zone it opened let an opposition player run through, be used in a chain of possession and ultimately cost a goal.

Rutten & Caracella both managed to implement a multiple Premiership winning defensive and offensive system at Richmond, where they do / did have a number of guys willing to sacrifice their natural game to make the system work, and allow a guy like Dusty to play his natural game.

People are also very quick to forget that our offensive ball movement was diabolical and lead to a bunch of turnovers that sent the ball pounding back in to our D50 uncontested leaving our defenders isolated and unprotected. That was Caracella's domain...

Yep, and I think this goes to what ant555 has been saying for a while now; that some players instincts are so embedded that they can't be coached out of them.

 

[Lore]

This is the part that tells me the ego hasn't totally been parked;

“I think the frustrating part was probably that our defensive system was so bad that we weren‘t able to execute and then in turn you end up looking like you’re unfit as teams do when they lose,” Merrett reflected.

It's the defensive system's fault that he couldn't execute, not that he couldn't sacrifice some part of his instinctive game to execute the defensive system. Well, that's how I read it anyway.

It marries up with a comment from Guelfi's interview on Scooter's pod about the Freo game being picked apart a week or so ago by the current coaching group.

Talking about how the players looked at the footage in that team meeting and thought they didn't work hard enough and when they looked at the same game last year with last year's coaches, the coaches thought the same (i.e. that's how the players were taught to analyse that game last year).

This year's coaches say different, they think that the defensive system itself was problematic and the players ended up running a lot more because of it (i.e. fatiguing faster and therefore looking unfit).

Training - 2023 Mens Preseason Thread

Just had a look at the the Bendigo training pics on the Essendon website for the last 2 days, and didn't see one photo of Merrett even in the group pics. Did he go?????? or are my eyes playing tricks.

www.bigfooty.com

I will note that Cara is now in charge of defence and Gia has the midfield group, so even though they were here last year they're looking at it through a different lens, and being put in charge of fixing it.

 

[DERO]

ITS HAPPENING!

 

[dank420_]

ITS HAPPENING!

what?

 

[Schnitzengruben]

Surely has to be the next Captain. Quietly confident we'd get a career best season out of him too.

 

[citizen-erased]