AFL
3 days ago
Why premiership coach thinks Merrett is too hard to tag
By Nicholas Quinlan
Adam Simpson has given praise to Essendon captain Zach Merrett on his performance on Thursday night highlighting what makes him tick.
Zach Merrett was an important aspect for Essendon in their 12-point win against Port Adelaide on Thursday night.
He contributed with 34 disposals, 477 meters gained and, eight score involvements in Essendon’s first win of the season.
On SEN’s Crunch Time, Simpson pondered the fact whether Port Adelaide could have done much more to prevent Merrett from influencing the game as much as he did.
“Is Merrett too hard to tag?” Simpson wondered.
However, quickly after that, he answered his own question providing his insight from his time at West Coast.
“What he does is he does things for himself to get the ball which is frustrating,” Simpson said.
“Because he can put himself in different positions around the stoppage.
“But then he will do things for others.
“So, he’s got the balance between, I want 30 (disposals), I need 30, that’s how I live. And also, I want the team to win, so we couldn’t do it (tagging Merrett).”
Merrett has had a hot start to 2025.
He had a game of the ages against Adelaide in Round 2 managing to score four goals and total up 36 disposals which saw him achieve his highest player rating in his entire career of 34.8.
He also managed to kick two goals and tally up 26 disposals against Hawthorn in Essendon’s opening clash for 2025.
On Friday, SEN’s David King would use similar wording to describe Merrett’s performance.
“There was a couple of moments in the game where he was just able to make a big run-down tackle in the middle of the ground at a critical stage, get a fist in when most midfielders wouldn’t bother, to create a spoil and an opportunity to go forward late in the game and probably ice the game really,” King said.
“I would like to give him a huge wrap, and I know he is in really good form in terms of getting the footy, he didn’t have his best night by foot last night, a bit scrappy in the first half.
“But he was ever-present.”
Essendon have the bye next week.
Their next game will be against Melbourne during Gather Round. That will be played on Saturday the 12th of April at Adelaide Oval.
