This guy was back to his best today.
Didn’t waste a disposal.
Shows why you don’t need to be “big bodied” to dominate the stoppages.
Will be a better player for working through his struggles.
i have a new drinking game where i take a sip every time zerrett is illegally hit or punched in a contest with no call
vs north i was shfitzen by qtr time.
BOG today.
Was huge inside the contest, clearance machine today.
Noticed this.
A lot of teams have been decking Merret sooner or later the umpires will notice.
Legally tackle Merrett = haymaker to the breadbasket of Merrett.
Legally bump Merrett = knock Merrett’s head off.
I doubt that. I think the standard of umpiring is getting worse not better. whether this is right across the board or not I don’t know it was very confusing to figure out the umpiring interpretations.
In the end I lost count in the confusion.
Watch Merrett and Heppell at the bounce. They get held at every contest, yet I don’t see a lot of frees coming.
Club need to come out about it now, was decked three time yesterday off the ball and high. It’s ridiculous the umpires are not protecting him.
Tough little buggger though, keeps coming!
Might have to become a Brownlow fav before he starts getting looked after a bit.
Or he could just eye gouge someone
What does it take for this kid to get a free? Gets shoved and knocked out every week and zilch from the umps.
I’d like to know what he’s done in the last 12 months to upset the umpires. He was one who usually got paid the frees he deserved. Not this year. Poor bugger nearly gets his head knocked off a couple of times each week and the officiating umpire coincidentally just happens to be unsighted?
I love Zerrett more than anyone, the only thing I would change is that he does tend to flap his arms about when he does get contact.
Now I do believe the contact is there, and that it’s usually high and infringes Zachy, but I think the extra flapping of the arms or the exaggeration could be a deterrent to the umps to pay the free to Zach.
Rookie error.
What he should be doing is rasing his arm, leaning into the tackler, dropping his knees and then flap his arms about.
You mean like this?
Close, but a little more like this.
The off-season arrival of three key and influential players has given Essendon a new-look in 2018 but what has been less apparent has been the tinkering of roles for existing personnel.
Jake Stringer, Devon Smith and Adam Saad have had an undeniable impact at the Bombers, especially in the middle patch this season as Essendon rejuvenated their campaign with five wins in six games to raise hopes of securing an unlikely finals berth.
One of the club’s most damaging midfielders, high possession winner Zach Merrett, has been one player who’s had to adapt with a slightly different role.
This time last year Merrett was emerging as something of a Brownlow Medal threat as he dragged in 30 touches a game, the fifth highest in the AFL in 2017 behind Tom Mitchell, Gary Ablett, Matt Crouch and Clayton Oliver.
But this season that figure has dipped to 24.1 possessions per game with Merrett spending slightly less time behind the ball and more time at the coalface.
“I think I’ve been building and influencing games more so than just getting possessions this year, which has been a shift and something that I’ve been focusing on as a leader of the club and someone that I want to build and become going forward,” said 22-year-old Merrett.
“I think I was probably getting a lot of possessions in the back half which although set up our play a little bit, I was probably a bit out of play when the ball went forward.
“I’ve tried to adjust that just a little bit.”
Given the intense scrutiny on AFL footballers, the fifth-year Bomber even encountered some knocks on his game.
“I wouldn’t say it drove me any more,” Merrett said when asked about the criticism.
“I’m a pretty driven individual and just try and achieve team success.
“It didn’t really affect the way I’m motivated to train (or) get out of bed in the morning, to try and get better as a person, better as a leader and ultimately better as a footballer to help this group achieve something special together.”
Essendon confront second-placed Collingwood at the MCG on Sunday and another win for the Bombers would turn the finals chatter into violent discussion.
But Merrett says the Bombers haven’t changed their approach much since they slumped to a 2-6 win-loss after the round eight loss to Carlton.
“(The) win-losses (ratio) have obviously been a massive shift. It looks obviously better on paper but I think we’ve been trending upwards for 18 months now in the way we’re playing and starting to be more consistent as a group,” Merrett said.
“It’s nice to win more games of footy but I think we’re starting to play a way that’s going to hold up in finals, whether it’s this year or next year.
“I think it’s just being a little bit more clear within the group around our structures and systems.
“That’s probably the only thing that changed. We did a few more meetings but not much changed in terms of our training loads, and the way we trained and the way we talked around the group.
“Not much has changed in terms of our personnel. We’ve just clicked a bit more on the field.”