Lots looking at Merrett this week including myself. Any concern about the hard tag coming his way, he is the obvious tag in the bomber side and yes did okay against Cincotta (who started out of CBAs and only tagged from half forward, Merrett scored a lot of those points from the CBAs) but historically can turn out some horrible scores when hard tagged.
Next 4 are WCE/Gee/Coll/Melb
Maybe gets the Ginbey run with role but he isn't a major worry in my opinion
Geelong are giving up big numbers to elite mids this year
Pies don't tag
Dees may use ANB but have never been one to deploy a hard tag recently
His lowest score this year is 94, only twice under 100 all season - has been very consistent
Historically finishes seasons well, think the last 4 or 5 years he has averaged more in the 2nd half of the season than the first half.
In the past he had some poor scores when tagged hard but he is a much more rounded player these days, his tackling for example is almost at a Jack Steele level these days which is great for keeping his score ticking over if being closely marked.
Outside of the big 3 pure mids (Bont,Butters & Serong), I think he is the next best mid premium with the least amount of question marks about him, safest & most logical mid premium to bring in.