Winning the A-League double with Melbourne Victory in 2006-07 and 2008-09 ensured Ernie Merrick’s status as an A-League coaching legend.
He was twice awarded coach of the year, and he was the last foundation coach remaining when he was sacked by the Victory in March 2011.
Joining Wellington Phoenix for the 2013/14 season, Merrick’s time at the club is generally regarded as a disappointment. His first season saw the club place ninth, 10 points off a finals spot, and 24 behind competition winners Brisbane. His second season was much improved, as the Phoenix clinched fourth spot.
In 2015-16, Merrick’s Wellington again underperformed, finishing ninth with only 7 wins, 25 points and a goal difference of negative twenty. After losing six out of their first eight matches of the 2016-17 A-League season, Merrick resigned as manager of Wellington.
Calling the situation at Newcastle Jets a disappointment would be an understatement. Dire would be a better description. Not only has the club finished last in two out of the last three A-League seasons, it has been nine seasons since they have finished in the top half of the ladder.
For the past three seasons, the Jets have employed a new manager in their first professional role. Each one of them has failed, sometimes miserably, sometimes spectacularly.
Having let go of Mark Jones at the conclusion of the 2016/17 season, Newcastle are once again in the market for a new manager. Proven experience and understanding of the A-League are the leading prerequisites. Regarded as a safe choice, Ernie Merrick has been widely discussed as leading the shortlist of candidates for the role.
When considering Merrick’s record at Wellington in comparison to Newcastle over the past four seasons, the easy conclusion to make is that Merrick has done better. He has achieved more victories in fewer games, and he has a higher points per game ratio (1.15 compared with the Jets 0.97). Their records are comparable though.
| Phoenix | Played | W | D | L |
| 2013-16 | 94 | 31 | 15 | 48 |
| 33% | 16% | 51% |
| Jets | Played | W | D | L |
| 2013-14 (van Egmond) | 27 | 10 | 6 | 11 |
| 2014-15 (Stubbins) | 27 | 3 | 8 | 16 |
| 2015-16 (Miller) | $27 | $8 | $6 | 13 |
| 2016-17 (Jones) | 27 | 5 | 7 | 15 |
| 108 | 26 | 27 | 55 | |
| 24% | 25% | 51% |
Wellington Phoenix managed by Ernie Merrick won roughly one third of their matches during his tenure, however they did lose around half the time.
In comparison, Newcastle Jets won less than a quarter of their matches over the past four seasons. They have also lost more than half their matches, losing the exact same percentage of matches as Wellington under Merrick.
Much of the blame at Newcastle Jets has been placed at the feet of each respective manager. However in addition to their significant off-field issues over the ownership and functionality of the club, Newcastle has had a genuinely terrible player roster over the past three seasons.
Mark Birighitti was their only notably skilled player in that time. Andrew Nabbout has been one of the best players in the 2016-17 A-League, but literally no one would have picked that being the case at the start of the season. Dave Carney was decent, but moved on from Newcastle as quickly as he could manage.
The slightly better 2013-14 Jets featured Adam Taggart, Joshua Brillante and Craig Goodwin, three of Australia’s most promising youngsters at the time. Taggart dominated in front of goal throughout the season on his way to winning the A-League’s golden boot. All three left the Jets at the conclusion of the season, with two of them once again plying their trade in the A-League after failed stints overseas.
Apart from those six players, Newcastle has had less than a handful of players over the past four seasons that are good enough to even be starting in the A-League. Ben Kantarovski is a decent player. Scott Neville played for the Jets for two seasons, though he only managed 25 appearances.
Even as a shadow of his former self, Emile Heskey was still Emile Heskey. Many of Newcastle’s first-teamers from the past four seasons shouldn’t have even made it into an A-League squad, and most of their squaddies during this time have been genuinely bad footballers.
In contrast, Wellington Phoenix has undeniably had better players over the course of Merrick’s tenure. Nathan Burns, Kosta Barbarouses, Michael McGlinchey, Gui Finkler, Roly Bonevacia, Roy Krishna, and Marco Rossi all played for Merrick. They are all individual match winners on their day.
Wellington has also featured a solid set of players that are A-League starting XI quality, including Manny Muscat, Stein Huysegems, Albert Riera, Vince Lia, Ben Sigmund, Andrew Durante, Alex Rodriguez, Kwabena Appiah, Louis Fenton, Tom Doyle, Dylan Fox, Shane Smeltz, and Blake Powell.
Though they have had some great players, Wellington’s main issue during Merrick’s tenure was that their overall squads were always poor. They were always weak coming off the bench, and any time a key player was injured or out of form the team suffered heavily. As a club, Wellington has never invested as much money into their squad as others in the competition.
This past season was the first that Merrick had any marquee players in his squad, and while Kosta Barbarouses is a quality player he’s nowhere near the quality of a Berisha, Bobo or Fornaroli, and nowhere near the cost. Gui Finkler is a good player but is not a marquee; he’s a genuine cap-exemption.
The A-League salary cap results in all clubs spending roughly the same amount on their squad, but Wellington’s squads always look like they are at the cap floor. 2016/17 was the first season since Paul Ifill was Phoenix marquee that the club spent additional money on their squad.
The Jets starting line-up needs to be rebuilt from scratch. Andrew Nabbout is the only on-contract player that is a guaranteed starter. The Jets have 10 players off contract, including three internationals, Morten Nordstrand, Ma Leilei and Mateo Poljak. Underwhelming Aleksandar Kokko and Wayne Brown have one and two years left on their contracts respectively, and are no guarantee to remain now that the Jets have an owner with the money to pay-out players.
An increase to the A-League salary cap is likely, which means that solid wages and first-team football makes Newcastle a very attractive destination to all players just below the cream of the A-League crop.
Speaking to Fairfax, Newcastle Jets CEO Lawrie McKinna said of their owner Martin Lee “In terms of Martin’s commitment, he’s invested a lot of money in the club and he’ll invest a lot more next year. He’ll bring in new players. He’ll probably spend more on players than the club ever has, because he wants success at the club.’’
The Jets have already brought in Roy O’Donovan, who has proven himself as a quality A-League player. O’Donovan is a very solid in-cap signing, who if partnered with a marquee striker would ensure the Jets finally have some potency up front. Goals were a major issue for the Jets in 2016/17, scoring only 28, just over one per game.
Winger Andrew Nabbout was the club’s golden boot winner, scoring 8 goals, while midfielder Andrew Hoole picked up 5. Off-contract striker Morten Nordstrand contributed only 3 goals in 23 matches, and Finnish striker Aleksandr Kokko scored only once.
Daniel Georgievski has also signed on with the Jets for the next two seasons, having been a solid contributor at Melbourne Victory. Newcastle has had a bad habit of shoehorning players into right-fullback, such as Andrew Hoole, Jacob Pepper and Josh Brillante. A proven, dedicated right-fullback with a winning mentality will do wonders for the Jets defence.
Diego Castro is one of the A-League’s best ever players, and his name has been mentioned as a potential Jets marquee signing. Though he will be 35 next season, he undoubtedly still has it, having polled second in the Alex Tobin award standings as voted by Fox Sports’ football pundits.
What these three players indicate is an understanding that the Jets need and are committed to bring in high quality players that are proven in the A-League. In considering Ernie Merrick for their managerial posting, Newcastle Jets have two difficult questions to ask themselves.
Taking into account his recent managerial form, will he be able to improve the fortunes of the Hunter club? And given the Newcastle Jets need to put the broom through pretty much their entire squad, is Merrick the right man to do it?
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