In 2018
fevnut wrote several times in ‘fevnut’s musings’ about our awful disciplinary record
- too many penalties given away and too many red and yellow cards.
In 2019
there was a remarkable improvement and it was clearly down to Dave Merrick
working alongside Ryan Carr.
This week, in the Yorkshire Evening Post, Dave Craven has
written an article about Dave Merrick’s work at Fev and we wanted to reproduce
it on the blog for anyone who hasn’t read it.
Dave Craven’s
Yorkshire Evening Post article
A Grade One official
until a serious injury in 2016, Merrick was utilised by boss Ryan Carr last
season as Featherstone made their shock surge to the Championship Grand Final.
Although Carr has
since returned to Australia, new head coach James Webster also clearly values
the 43-year-old’s input after tapping into his knowledge for the 2020 campaign.
“I originally started
doing this for Glenn Morrison and then Neil Kelly at Dewsbury Rams after a
chance conversation with (former Dewsbury prop) Tony Tonks,” he explained.
“When Ned (Kelly)
left Dewsbury I showed it to Jon Duffy at Fev but he ended up leaving.
“Ryan, though, was
all over it and asked me to compile a report and it went from there.
“In the season just
gone, we conceded 224 penalties.
“In 2018, under John
Duffy, that number was 318 so we knocked 96 penalties off.
“Ned let me do more
actual coaching sessions so I had players like Paul Sykes looking at me
thinking ‘He’s a ref him!’
“Whereas Ryan wanted
me to give him the information and he’d use it where he saw fit but I was still
down at training.
“For Webbo I do a
full match review of every game looking at trying to reduce penalties by giving
him information on whether the penalty is right or wrong and look to see if
there’s any trends with certain players/ referees.
“I attend training
when I’m not at work and help the running of sessions by giving the players
correct calls and tipping up on any issues we may find that occur through the
year.”
Merrick has plenty of
playing knowledge having featured with hometown Featherstone’s academy and
reserve side as a stand-off and also briefly for Doncaster before switching to
become a referee. He added: “We halved the penalties at Dewsbury but didn’t
capitalise on the possession we had.
“If you cut the
penalties down with the squad we have at Featherstone – giving people like Dane
Chisholm and Callum McLelland space to do their stuff – it makes a difference.
“We’re not saying not
to give penalties away as sometimes you do need to but it’s the type we were
giving. Josh Hardcastle, for instance, was in double figures for ball steals
the year before but he’s controlling them better now.”
For his analysis,
Merrick can spend up to five hours on each game as he watches every ruck and
then slows down the frame to see if it is player or referee error while
gleaning tips.
“I worked out what
the top seven offences were; interference at the play-the-ball, 10m offside,
high tackle, ball steal, not square, foul play, dissent and others and then
hand it all over,” he added.
“There’s little
things you can do to improve things and, without giving too many secrets away,
Carry did that and now Webbo is, too.”
Merrick grew up in
Featherstone with Leeds Rhinos boss Richard Agar and has worked with him at
Hull FC – where he helped referee contact work on the wrestle mats – and
Wakefield Trinity where he also first linked up with Webster.
Agar invited him down
to training at Headingley before Christmas and he has reviewed a couple of the
Super League club’s pre-season friendlies.
He concluded: “I
don’t really know anyone else who does this sort of thing but I do enjoy it and
getting to work with players so hopefully it carries on.”
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