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Sport Nation
“It’s annoying me”: King and Cornes slam Essendon’s use of Merrett
SEN • June 20th, 2025 10:49 am
Essendon captain Zach Merrett failed to have an impact on Thursday’s loss to Fremantle in Perth after being tagged by Corey Wagner.
Wagner kept the star on-baller to just 17 disposals (six kicks, 11 handballs) as coach Brad Scott tried to free Merrett up by shifting him to the wing. 59% of his disposals also came in the defensive half.
David King and Kane Cornes were both frustrated by how Scott tried to break the Wagner tag, with the duo believing that Merrett should have worked through the attention in the midfield.
Merrett only attended four centre bounces in the second half as the Bombers were thrashed 9-2 in centre clearances, leading King and Cornes to question where the club’s best player is utilised.
King: “I need to talk about the use of the captain, it's annoying me.”
Cornes: “It's annoying me too.”
King: “It's the fact that your best player is not starting in the midfield and in at centre bounces, every centre bounce.”
Cornes: “You wanted him to half-back, we had this argument two weeks ago about him playing half-back, you liked it.”
King: “The wing? Elephants die on the wing. The wing is the worst position you can put a gun.
Cornes: “I know, but the half-back was ridiculous as well.”
King: “As long as he's not picking up a man, I can understand half-back, but I cannot understand wing, he played a quarter of the game on the wing.
“He had six kicks, had 14 centre bounce attendances, which was his fourth lowest for the year, and only four in the second half and they got hammered in centre clearances 9-2.”
But it wasn’t only the use of Merrett that annoyed King, with the North Melbourne great also frustrated by Nic Martin playing in defence with 80% of his touches coming in the back half.
“To add sort of salt to the wounds, Nic Martin just continues to get junk touches down back,” King said.
“He is a centre-forward player. Four of his 21 touches were in the front half.
“If they go to half-back (I don’t mind it) as it is a nominal starting point, but they freewheel, they're aggressive, they are charging forward.
“They're not getting junk in the defensive 50.”
The Dons will go back to the drawing board after their Round 16 bye when they host the Suns at Marvel Stadium on July 5.
