Daniel Merrett
Australian rules footballer
Daniel Merrett (born 12 December 1984) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Brisbane Lions in the Australian Football League (AFL).
01Early life
Merrett was born in Adelaide, but moved to the Gold Coast with his family at a young age. A talented schoolboy rugby league player for Benowa State High School, he was identified as a potential Australian rules footballer by AFL Queensland junior development scouts due to his imposing frame and ball-handling skills, and was groomed as a key forward with the Surfers Paradise Demons and later Southport Sharks. He was recruited by the Brisbane Lions with the number 30 draft pick in the 2002 AFL draft but took several years to develop sufficiently to make his debut.
02AFL career
Merrett made his AFL debut in Round 2, 2005 against Port Adelaide. He joined the Lions leadership group in 2009.
In August 2016, he announced he would retire from the AFL at the end of the season.
Merrett went on to work in the Lions sales and marketing department and was an assistant coach of the Lions' AFL Women's team for four seasons from 2017 to 2020. He coached a game against Gold Coast in round three of the 2020 season when regular head coach Craig Starcevich was hospitalised. The game ended in a draw.
In 2024 Merrett worked as an assistant coach for Port Adelaide’s AFLW team. In December 2025 the club announced that Merrett had been appointed as its new Head of AFLW going into the 2026 season.
Merrett was inducted into the Queensland Football Hall of Fame in 2023.
03Positions
Daniel Merrett used to play as a full forward, centre half forward or half forward flank in his early career but eventually regularly played as a fullback. He was the defender with the most spoils in the 2007 season.
04Statistics
| Season | Team | No. | Games | Totals | Averages (per game) | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | B | K | H | D | M | T | G | B | K | H | D | M | T | ||||
| 2005 | Brisbane Lions | 21 | 15 | 13 | 9 | 48 | 43 | 91 | 40 | 19 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 3.2 | 2.9 | 6.1 | 2.7 | 1.3 |
| 2006 | Brisbane Lions | 21 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 28 | 31 | 59 | 25 | 18 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 3.1 | 3.4 | 6.6 | 2.8 | 2.0 |
| 2007 | Brisbane Lions | 21 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 110 | 90 | 200 | 89 | 27 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 5.0 | 4.1 | 9.1 | 4.0 | 1.2 |
| 2008 | Brisbane Lions | 21 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 101 | 102 | 203 | 83 | 28 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 4.6 | 4.6 | 9.2 | 3.8 | 1.3 |
| 2009 | Brisbane Lions | 21 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 100 | 115 | 215 | 82 | 26 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 5.3 | 6.1 | 11.3 | 4.3 | 1.4 |
| 2010 | Brisbane Lions | 21 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 93 | 84 | 177 | 78 | 40 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 5.8 | 5.3 | 11.1 | 4.9 | 2.5 |
| 2011 | Brisbane Lions | 21 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 88 | 57 | 145 | 54 | 22 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 8.8 | 5.7 | 14.5 | 5.4 | 2.2 |
| 2012 | Brisbane Lions | 21 | 22 | 26 | 13 | 191 | 100 | 291 | 113 | 63 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 8.7 | 4.5 | 13.2 | 5.1 | 2.9 |
| 2013 | Brisbane Lions | 21 | 17 | 14 | 8 | 131 | 78 | 209 | 84 | 28 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 7.7 | 4.6 | 12.3 | 4.9 | 1.6 |
| 2014 | Brisbane Lions | 21 | 19 | 12 | 8 | 105 | 78 | 183 | 71 | 24 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 5.5 | 4.1 | 9.6 | 3.7 | 1.3 |
| 2015 | Brisbane Lions | 21 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 69 | 42 | 111 | 52 | 9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 6.9 | 4.2 | 11.1 | 5.2 | 0.9 |
| 2016 | Brisbane Lions | 21 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 96 | 76 | 172 | 57 | 32 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 5.1 | 4.0 | 9.1 | 3.0 | 1.7 |
| Career | 200 | 70 | 41 | 1160 | 896 | 2056 | 828 | 336 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 5.8 | 4.5 | 10.3 | 4.1 | 1.7 | ||
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Daniel Merrett”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Daniel Merrett 19.03.17.jpg by Tigerman2612, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Daniel Merrett.jpg by Lisa Muir, CC BY 3.0
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