I think all the switching in his development hindered him and many other ‘vanilla’ types. We are desperate for role players. Not middling Jack of All trades types.
That’s because Hird and Bomber liked to play a defensive forward and Merrett was often their go to player. In 2016 he got games under Woosha for obvious reasons (although only getting 11 in that year with no serious injuries from memory probably isn’t a great sign), and then in 2017 with Tippa moving forward and the addition of Green there was no room for a player who had previously played a role that no longer existed.
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Better than having shitt taste in music 100% of the time.
Ya got me.
No wonder he looks confused. Probably thought he was going OK for four years.
I think he just got overtaken by superior players.
He is an outside HFF, both tippa and Fanta took his spot. Not sure he is good enough to take it back.
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I hate early November, it’s when far too much time is spent on threads like this
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I said he’d stay, and there’s very good reasons why.
If you don’t see them, you don’t see them, that’s fine, maybe you don’t watch enough, or you’re not savvy enough on list management.
As I’ve already said a few times, he was playing very well in the ressies before he got the busted leg, and would have been 1st in line for upgrade when we had the late season injuries fwd. Had been playing his role and doing it admirably.
May not be best 22 ever again, but is an excellent back up, and if/when he get’s a chance, he just might make quite a few here look very stupid, … again.
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In round 18, the week before Merrett broke his leg, Green went out injured. We brought in Laverde to replace him, with Begley (similar position), Langford and Dea as emergencies. The next week when he broke his leg playing VFL he wasn’t named on the extended interchange (behind Begley, Langford and Dea again).
Maybe he was in fact the next preference behind Laverde and they didn’t name him as an emergency for Reasons, and possibly by the time you get to round 22/23 Laverde would have worn out his welcome, but at the time he got injured Merrett was definitely not first in line for a call up, and was arguably third in line.
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Maybe he was, and (as I’ve said) I’m super ambivalent about Jerrett staying, but if he was first in line behind Green (and Howlett, who came in for Green early in the year), Begley has changed that pretty conclusively.
Jerrett was in better form in the VFL last year and struggled to get games in a team that had half of it’s best 22 missing so I find it hard to believe that same coach thought he was next in line a year later when the two previous games before he got injured he had 11 touches and just managed 11 kicks and no impact in the other. Laverde came in off a few games in the VFL from a 4 month layoff before him so I think that shows what they thought of him in the pecking order. For a guy supposed to be entering his peak at 24/25 his VFL form was OK with a few good games mixed in, hardly knocked down the door. If we’re keeping him to be an OK backup VFL player and then reload in next years stronger draft then so be it, but lets not pretend he was on the cusp all year and was in great VFL form. Him getting another year is nothing but a gift of the highest orders, so lets hope he repays it a bit next year.
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I wonder if Merrett is one of those players that suffers from VFL syndrome. i.e. players who get stuck playing in the VFL get known as VFL players and can’t get out of the VFL.
he was always fringe 22 when he was in the seniors, so its not so much a matter of him being stuck in the magoos, as it is that he probably belongs in the magoos…
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I mean more that if you play lots of games at VFL level you get used to VFL level speed and intensity and then struggle at the higher level.
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You still reckon he’ll come good.
He is playing for the mighty Bombers - he must be good.
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I reckon he is a better player in a good team. He won’t turn a game on his own but he’ll play a role when heppell etc are playing well
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I think all of McKernan, Merrett, Long are somewhat fortunate to be on the list next year.
I think they all JUST scraped in.
So…what’s done is done…I’ll move on…and try to avoid getting more worked up about one than the others. Because it’s splitting hairs.
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He’s a chance.
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Have to post re the “forgotten bomber”.
Given intra clubs are tricky to read into, I have to say he was more than half decent yesterday on the wing.
Like Corgi, had a lot to play for, but racked them up, covered ground, and beat some much better players at times in one on ones.
Depth, but as Jackets or Richardson ( can’t remember which) said, in a very good team he could be a very useful player.
Still.
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