Pure Footy: Stats gurus David King and Daniel Hoyne on the big trends ahead of round 16

Essendon skipper Zach Merrett was the 233rd-ranked player in the competition after nine rounds – but his past six weeks have been something else. Go behind the star’s return to form.

Essendon star midfielder Zach Merrett has moved into the top three of the “100X” ratings over the past six weeks.

The three-time best and fairest winner was ranked 233rd from rounds one to nine but now sits in third place only behind Nick Blakey and Taylor Walker.

On this week’s episode of Pure Footy, Champion Data analyst Daniel Hoyne mentioned that Merrett’s ball use was the main reason for his surprisingly low ranking through the first nine rounds.

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Zach Merrett has had a huge six weeks. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos

“We all laud it, I laud his ball use, but after round nine in terms of the impact that he was having through ball use, he was 295th in the competition,” he said.

Merrett has improved his ball use tremendously since round nine and now only one player has had more impact than the No. 7 when distributing the ball.

“The last six weeks, only Taylor Walker has had more impact with ball in hand then what Zach Merrett has actually done.”

The 100X ratings is Champion Data’s new formula that ranks every player per 100 minutes in every position against every other player in the competition.

In another big episode David King and Hoyne discuss the top four and the premiership market and why the Demons should be targeting Petracca inside the forward 50 more often.