"Blows my mind": Why Cornes didn't love Merrett's performance

Following the Bombers’ defeat to Hawthorn on Friday night, Kane Cornes has questioned Zach Merrett’s performance despite Champion Data ranking him as the best player amongst his teammates.  

In his first home and away game since his trade request, Merrett put up a solid performance in their 62-point loss, having amassed a game-high 32 disposals.

This would see the former captain earn a rating of 20.1 from the AFL's stat provider, with the next best Bomber being Sam Durham on 15.5.

But despite the high rating, Cornes remains unconvinced that his showing against the Hawks should be the way he plays, believing he should be more involved in getting contested possessions.

“I’ve got a divisive opinion on it, I guess,” Cornes noted on SEN’s Crunch Time.

“He did what he needed to do, and I guess what he has done, but I hope he doesn’t get sucked into wanting to play a certain way.

“And I saw some things in his game that I didn’t love. I thought his first possession was getting it from the back pocket from a kick-in.

“I thought like, what is he even doing there. Clearly, wanted to get the first touch. Thought he was very much outside last night, and I mean Champion Data had him as the highest rated (Bomber) on the ground, which blows my mind.

“I thought it was an average 32 disposal game. I didn’t think he helped them at all when they were under the pump from stoppage (with) four clearances.

“So, I just hope he doesn’t fall into the trap of, ‘okay, this is a bit hard, I’m going to play a nice brand of football and I'm going to play a nice one that I don’t want really want to get hurt.

“It looked like he didn’t want to get hurt last night, Zach Merrett.”

Despite Cornes’ criticism, Adam Simpson would disagree, noting that he was the equal best for contested possession amongst his teammates

But the Port Adelaide legend then doubled down on his view.

Simpson: “He had the most contested possessions of his side.”

Cornes: “Yeah, but he had the most possessions. I mean, as a percentage, 30-odd per cent contested is probably under what he would usually get.

“It’s going to be a divisive opinion. I thought he was very much outside, very much handball receive, a couple of tackles, low clearance, and I didn’t think he was as invested in the little things.

“Runs on the ground last.”

Essendon will now have its eyes directed towards its Round 2 clash against Port Adelaide.

They’ll face off at Adelaide Oval on March 22, with the match beginning from 3:15pm AEDT.