Eagles land Merriman as new High Performance Manager

The West Coast Eagles are excited to announce Phil Merriman has joined the Club as the AFL program’s new High Performance Manager.

Highly experienced and respected across the AFL industry, Merriman has spent the past five seasons at Fremantle, following previous roles at Melbourne and Hawthorn.

“We are thrilled Phil has joined the West Coast Eagles at an important phase of our on-field development,” General Manager Football Gavin Bell said today.

“Phil brings a wealth of AFL experience with a proven track record of working with young players to reach their physical potential and consistently compete at the highest level.

“His results leading an AFL high performance program made him an outstanding candidate amongst an impressive field of applicants.

“Phil’s expertise will help us build on the excellent platform Mat Inness established for our players over the past two years before he returned to Melbourne for family reasons.

“We look forward to welcoming Phil and his family to the West Coast Eagles as we prepare for an important pre-season.”

Merriman commenced his career in the AFL industry in 2011 at the Hawks and has been mentored by world-class high performance leaders Darren Burgess, Andrew Russell and John Quinn.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Exercise Science from Edith Cowan University and BA in Exercise Spots Science from Deakin University.

“My family and I were planning to head interstate and then this golden opportunity came up to work with this group and this Club. It was something that I just couldn’t pass up,” Merriman said.

“What excites me is the ability to work with a young and up-and-coming group who have clearly got a great athletic profile.

“Also, from the moment I met with Andrew McQualter, Gavin Bell, John Worsfold and Don Pyke there was great alignment from the top down. They’re the two big things that really strike me coming into the footy Club.

“There has clearly been some great work done from Mat and that’s not to be underestimated. Having a good relationship with Mat and having similar philosophies, it’s a great entry into the Club.

“Having a good understanding of what the players have been doing is a really good stepping stone to jump into it.”

Merriman will begin familiarising himself with West Coast’s high performance program next week before officially commencing on November 1, prior to the Eagles’ first-to-four-year players’ returning to training on Monday, November 10.

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