By ASHLEY BROWNE
When we talk about the great coaches in Australian sport we tend to focus on either those from an oval ball background, or those who have helped steer us to Olympic gold.
There are some already lamenting that no place can be found for Brian Goorjian in Australia. Arguably our best ever basketball coach is now plying his trade in China.
Let’s hope that Ernie Merrick never needs to blaze a similar trade because we’re hard pressed to think of a better coach in Australian sport at this particular time.
The Melbourne Storm’s Craig Bellamy is coaching superbly, as is Geelong’s Mark Thompson, but Merrick’s work in getting the Melbourne Victory to their third A-League grand final in five seasons and the club’s second in as many seasons has been every bit as impressive.
Major hurdles have been thrown Merrick’s way all season. First came a spate of injuries, then some suspensions and finally some ridiculous scheduling that saw the Victory having to juggle the finals of the domestic competition with the opening fixtures of the Asian Champions League.
First the injuries. Melbourne’s season looked shot for good when within days, Archie Thompson, Matthew Kemp and Robbie Kruse all went down with leg injuries. Once the whipping boy of the Victory faithful (probably because he used to play for Adelaide), Kemp emerged as a vital part of Melbourne’s defence and it was feared his absence would leave too big a hole for Melbourne to cover.
Then came Thompson and Kruse. Thompson is the best striker in the A-League, while Kruse is a rising star, inexplicably let go by Brisbane, and seemingly able to conjure a goal from nothing.
Add a suspension to skipper Kevin Muscat and Merrick was forced to dig deep into his reserves just to put a team on the pitch. But the Victory rebounded from a 2-0 loss to Sydney in the final round of the season – which handed Sydney top spot – to beat the Sky Blues 2-1 in the first leg of the major semi-final at Etihad. Within days the Victory was in Beijing with a depleted squad, losing their ACL opener 1-0 and again the epitaphs were being written, mainly (and perhaps wishfully) out of Sydney. But after Sunday night’s 2-2 draw with Sydney, and 4-3 win overall on aggregate, Melbourne is again preparing to host another grand final at Etihad Stadium.
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Merrick has instilled resilience and determination in his squad. A bit like Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson, his mantra is that if you lose one soldier, you replace them with another. Merrick has moulded a group of players he knows can come in and do whatever is required, be it for five minutes, 90 minutes, or as was the case on Sunday night, 120 minutes.
He also has a crack medical squad that was able to get Kruse and Thompson up for the game. Kruse ran hard in his first game back and scored a cracker of a goal that will feature on the highlights reels for years. Importantly, it swung momentum firmly towards the Victory and for most of the time on Sunday night, they were the better team.
Kruse made way after about 60 minutes and then it was Thompson’s turn. There was not a hint of rust from the Melbourne frontman given he hadn’t played for five weeks and had the assistant referees been paying attention, the game might not have even needed extra time. It was a case of when, not if, Thompson would score.
Next on Merrick’s to-do list is to get his team up within 48 hours for their next ACL game. Then comes the grand final, both at home.
For Merrick, the hard work might just about be over.
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