Mercuri was my favourite player.
IMO he is second behind Hird. He’s so underrated amongst supporters. No doubt it was the big contract, and lack of form late in his career.
The guy would have won the Brownlow if he played in round 22 in 99. He was leading in round 21. Then Crawford got him in the last round. People forget this.
You hear interviews with retired players. 99% of them said he was the most talented player they played with, and is at same level as Hird.
Interesting about Misiti. Robert Shaw said on Twitter that he’d be in his best EFC side of the last 40 years. Shawry said his centre clearance work was the best he’s ever seen.
I made the point that he was better than Jobe.
Sometimes the last few years are what people remember the most. He really tailed off post 2000, but from 1993-2000 he was as good a mid/fwd as there was. There was a game where Andrew Ukovic took 3 votes off him, the 2nd Carlton game in ‘99. He was magic that season, had we gone on and won it as we should’ve that would have been his crowning glory, to be the best player in a premiership team missing Hird for all but 2 games that season. Of course because of how that year ended we tend to not want to think about 1999, but that was one of my favourite years of footy.
For instance Danny Morgan won VFL B&F in 1994 and 1996 and was actually a pretty good onballber (never played back that I saw), just unable to break his way into a baby bombers team that won the premiership the year before.
Crueled by injuries from 1997 onward.
And if he’d just kicked that goal in the dying minutes there’s a fair chance we’d have had that flag.
It’s always about Dean Wallis, but far out, that was the moment of that match, and Mercs being Mercs you just expected it to be slotted.
At that point of their careers I would have said Mercs was pretty much on par with Hird, and given Hird’s injuries you could potentially have expected Mercs to end in front of the pair.
Easily in the mix. Last 2 years haven’t been amazing (despite the B&F last year), but I’m amazed at how many fans have rubbished him recently. That GWS game at the start of last year seems to have given his reputation a massive hit.