The Football Coaching Life: Ernie Merrick

The Football Coaching Life Podcast

Ernie Merrick is well known in Australian football circles. His most recent coaching role was Head Coach of A-League side the Newcastle Jets, and he has also coached the Wellington Phoenix and Melbourne Victory in the A-League, where he had great on-field success in terms of both results and developing players.

Ernie also had a short stint as the Coach of the Hong Kong National Team.

Prior to his A League experiences Ernie played at Frankston City, coached and played at Doveton, and was assistant coach at Frankston Pines in the Victorian State Premier League.

He moved on from the Victorian competitions to the National Soccer League and coached at Preston Lions and Sunshine George Cross.

He was then appointed as the inaugural Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) Head Coach, where he helped to develop players for the Australian Junior National teams, including Josh Kennedy, Scott McDonald, Matthew Spiranovic, Eugene Galekovic, Paul Giannou, Con Blatsis, Danny Allsopp, Leigh Broxham, Adrian Leijer, Roddy & Andy Vargas, Jimmy Jeggo, Simon Colosimo and Vince Grella – to name a few!

Perhaps most well remembered as the hugely successful inaugural Coach at Melbourne Victory, where he helped build one of the A-League's benchmark clubs from the ground up. During his time at Melbourne Victory from 2005 to 2011, he won the Championship in 2006-2007 and 2008-2009, the Premiership in 2006-2007 and 2008-2009 and the Pre-Season Cup in 2008-2009 completing the treble.

Ernie’s teams have always had a focus on attacking and scoring goals and indeed his record shows this.

Enjoy this journey into Ernie Merrick’s Football Coaching Life.