The Lions will play finals football, but they haven’t won in the past three weeks and Merrett believes they need to show more confidence from the opening bounce to turn things around.
Coach Michael Voss has highlighted the team’s slow starts as a trend that needs to be arrested, and the rock solid full-back agrees.
“It’s like we let the game dictate to us until it’s a now-or-never situation and then we start playing good football,” he said.
“We wait until we’re 30 or 40 behind and it’s something we need to address.
“I think at the moment we’re probably getting away from what we want to stand for as a team, hunting up at the contest, putting pressure on the ball carrier, and tackling.
Merrett said the Lions were thinking about things too much instead of playing what was in front of them.
On Saturday night against the Bulldogs, the Lions were often caught stagnant and chipping the ball around before they began attacking in the final term.
Similar scenarios have played out earlier in the season against West Coast, Carlton, Richmond, St Kilda and Port Adelaide where the Lions trailed significantly before reining in deficits to put themselves back in the contest.
“We’re in two minds a bit. It’s not our ability, we’ve got the ability, it’s just a mindset,” Merrett said.
“We’re probably trying to be more precise, and we’re not a precise kicking team, that’s not our strength, we’re more of a take-the-game on and play-on type team.”
After losses to top-four teams Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs and a draw against eighth placed Essendon in the past three weeks, Merrett said the Lions had already learnt plenty.
“Those two games (Bulldogs and Magpies) had a lot of pressure, probably finals-like pressure and it was interesting to see how everyone reacted to it. We probably learnt when the pressure was on we went away from our game-plan,” he said.
While the 24-year-old defender has played 84 senior matches, he will play his first final in September but said he did not want the Lions to limp into post-season action and exit in week one.
“We have to narrow our focus to this week though. We want to win these games (Port Adelaide and Sydney) and move ourselves up the ladder and once we get to September that’s what you play football for,” he said.
“Port are playing for their future so we’re expecting them to come our firing.”
