Pretty much, yeah.
Think they have a set number of hours each year they gotta do (though someone can correct me if it’s otherwise).
Those highlights are magnificent, you forget just how good he was. The vision, reading of the play, play on at all costs and the goals. Had it all, only his groin injuries could stop him.
These days you have flogs doing bow and arrow when they kick a goal every third game, where Mercs just banged them in, no fuss, just in a hurry to kick more.
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Was just as good imo.
We haven’t had a player as good as him since he left.
He had lots of surgery on those groins, so much so that his skin thinned out. I heard he went through hell and back when the stitches would break. He literally bled for the club many times.
As others have said, very little Ego, humble guy.
Those were different times. Being an Essendon player for life meant something.
As for the Brownlow, many of the best players including him never won one. Instead guys like Woewoden, Hardy & Dippa won them.
In today’s age he would have three or four.
He is a great guy still and does well with the tiles.
Luckily we have Henry coming through.
God bless the Mercuri’s
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My favourite bomber was on a different level to most.
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Shesh I forgot his older son Edward. He is also coming through!
Sorry mark!
Those were the days my friend
We thought they’d never end
We’d sing and dance forever and a day
We’d live the life we choose
We’d fight and never lose
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The word “Superstar” gets bandied about all too freely about anyone that pulls on a jumper in the AFL these days but Mercs actually deserved that title in his playing days, he was a genuine superstar.
Was my equal second favourite player along with Wanganeen behind Hirdy in all the years I’ve followed the Bombers.
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Loved watching Mercs taking care of business. If not cut down by injury, he’d be remembered as one of the game’s greats.
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He is defo one of the games greats imo.
Certainly one of the best players at EFC all time.
This is an article on him from Robert Shaw, that I’ve saved from 2004.
DON’T POT MERCURI - YOU JUST WISH YOU WERE HALF AS GOOD
Tuesday, 13 April 2004
200 games to the man from the local area – the last of the Mohicans. And an ex under-19 player -there wouldn’t be a lot of them left. When Mercs eventually leaves Windy Hill he will go for good. That’s Mercs.
Some severe arm-twisting will need to be done to get him to branch into coaching. When Mercs is finished I wouldn’t expect him to buy a hotdog and sit and watch football. He’s been hurt too much to want to sit back and embrace the game when he finally hangs the boots up - hurt mentally and physically. Unlike his great mate Joey (Misiti) who will line up for his local club Keilor Park until he’s 45, I don’t reckon Mercs will continue the affiliation with the game post retirement.
As an opposition coach and more so lately as a member of the coaching panel, I WILL categorically state that in my time there has been no one, I repeat no one that at their best can play and influence games like Mercs has. I prefer to look at his career, not like others that will look at the last 18 months, of injury, lack of form and a broken heart.
The whispers along the ‘green mile’ when Mercs was on song, speak in glowing terms. Others shake their head and marvel. Judge the man on a career. Very few had the ability to start and finish a game all at the same time.
What I mean by that is - I remember in a final against Sydney Mercs kicked three goals, had a hand in two and just mesmerised the crowd. By the way Mercs left the ground with a groin injury midway through the second quarter, yet such was his startling performance all scribes had him in the best players. Mercs had played just 35 minutes.
Mercuri has dominated more games and had a telling influence on more matches than any other player at Essendon since 1999. And if you want to get in an argument I’ll get James Hird to repeat that Mercuri is the best player he has played with! Against some players you have a chance to fight back, Mercuri just destroyed opposition players.
While Rex has his saying - ‘the fat lady has sung’ - a few of us in the coaching box called a win a lot further from home. When Mercs turned it on. I’m glad I came back to Essendon to witness it first hand.
The half-forward flank is a tough position to play, yet if Essendon has had a better one, name him. The test of a player is if people enjoy their work. So get out your 'best of tapes’ and we’ll have a competition. I’ll bring the ‘best of Mercuri’ and stack it up against whatever you bring.
As a coach it is not often that you sit in a coaching box and actually reflect and appreciate what is before you. No matter what the state of the game, no matter what the opposition. I always took time out to watch Mercs - it was worth losing concentration on the job at hand.
And so you lot will judge him on his last18 months, maybe some might judge him on the fact that you don’t know him (he’s not a media person or a mate of the media, so you won’t pump him up too much). Not many of you understand him. I’m not sure I do, but I’m in the ballpark. He’s probably never been totally and utterly engrossed in the game. He’s a private person.
Mercs wanders in and out of the club. But many years ago he wandered down from Keilor Park and ever since then the Essendon Football Club has been a far, far better place.
When the end comes (and there is no doubt he is in or certainly approaching the twilight) and retiring players get that cavalcade around the MCG. Put Mercs in a car up the front and give him a clap for the 200 plus games that it has been our privilege to see.
He’s no Reynolds, Coleman, Hutchison or Hird in many ways, but in the most important way he is their equal. A wonderful advertisement for the people, talent and culture of this wonderful football club.
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I could watch his highlights all day. He was one of my very favourite players, as silky and as clean as they come. When he turned it on he made everyone else look second-rate.
He’s not as appreciated as he should be. He’s one of those players, like Baker, that only those in the know understand just how good he was. Beautiful to watch.
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Robert Shaw was always a huge supporter of Merc’s so was Hirdy. When many supporters were calling for him to be dropped after a run of poor form they both publicly stood by him.
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That article turned out to be pretty much spot on.
A mate of mine was on the Essendon list in 1993 (never played a game for the club), he reckons Mercs was the most talented player at the club. He was class personified, probably the best wet weather player I’ve seen in the sense that he was able to handle the ball as if it was dry. Jimmy Bartel was a great wet weather player, but he played a good wet weather game. Mercs took the ■■■■ and played as if it was dry. Whilst everyone else was slipping, sliding and just happy to get ball on boot and hack it forward, he was poised, balanced, never lost his feet, one grab off the deck and in the air and the skills were still elite. He was a special player, if 1999 worked out as it should have that would’ve been his crowning glory, leading us to a flag minus Hirdy. But to me he’s a great of this footy club. From 1993-2000 he was a jet and maybe on a par with Darren Bewick as the bloke you wanted with the footy when a clutch goal needed to be kicked from anywhere inside 50.
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I have few extra years on you but have to agree. Top 5 for sure. His 1999 Goal of the Year, which I witnessed live, was breathtaking. Have the video in my time capsule.
McAvaney: …Mercuri… 45 out…Wonderful!!!..Magnificent.
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There’s no doubt about it: Mercs was class personified.
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I’ve watched this 4 times!
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His qualities as a player have been expressed by others earlier in the thread but the thing I like most about him is that he never says a word. Nothing. Said everything that needed to be said through his actions on the field but when his time in the game was over, nothing.
You get the feeling he doesn’t miss football but I reckon it’s fair to say that football misses him. Dearly.
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Just so good. Wish he’d won that Brownlow so he got the wider recognition he deserved. Amongst my top 5 favorites. Only Dean Rioli matches him for skill, poise and pure class imo.
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