By Peter Ryan
It was mid-summer, and Jake Stringer and Zach Merrett strode out to open the batting in a local cricket match at Mont Albert Reserve to raise money for the Royal Children’s Hospital.
Merrett had mentioned to Stringer that he was playing in the charity game, and the cause was enough for Stringer to ask if he could join in.
Essendon’s odd couple: Skipper Zach Merrett and star Jake Stringer.Credit: Getty Images
That didn’t surprise Merrett, who has gradually become friends with Stringer since he arrived at the Bombers in 2018 after exiting the Western Bulldogs aged just 23.
He knew the work Stringer had done supporting children with cancer for Challenge, and the soft spot that the father of four had for children.
The approach Stringer took at the crease that Sunday morning didn’t shock the Bombers skipper either. “First ball he faced he went to hit a six and swung and missed,” Merrett recalled. His batting partner had forgotten to wear a box to the crease as well, which caused Merrett to laugh before delivering a deadpan response as efficient as his left foot. “He backed his eye,” he said.
That eye is a foundation of one of the game’s most enigmatic talents, a premiership player and All-Australian in 89 games at the Western Bulldogs and a game-changer in 110 matches at the Bombers, with his prodigious kicking and desire to win games off his own boot equally electrifying and, yes, frustrating.
The occasional outbreak of sporting chaos is not just confined to the football or cricket field either, said Stringer’s friend and former teammate Devon Smith. He recalled with fondness playing golf with Stringer at Mt Derrimut Golf Club soon after they arrived at the Bombers at the end of 2017.
“I reckon he had two eagles, a few birdies, and he would have had a 10 and a 12 [on two other holes]. It almost resembled his footy life. When he is on, his good is unbelievably good and his bad [can be] just atrociously bad,” Smith said.
Stringer and Smith played 57 games together at the Bombers and Smith can’t wait to watch him run on the MCG on Saturday night to play his 200th match. “I’m pretty proud of him as a mate. He has had some challenges and he deserves it,” he said. “I was there the day he snapped both his fibula and tibia [pre-draft]. We were playing the game after. It was cancelled as he was on the ground for about two hours while they waited for an ambulance.
“People forget that … he has done amazing things, but you never know how good he could have been because he was explosive and quick before he did his leg. He’s a matchwinner.”
Merrett and Stringer both admit the friendship they have developed over the past three to four years is as unlikely as it is real. The ultra-professional Merrett and the more mercurial but no less talented Stringer are an odd couple, but their respect is genuine.
“It’s a unique relationship and one built off mutual respect,” Merrett said. “We both understand we are competitive and we both want to win [and] we just have different ways of going about it, but we can get the most out of each other which is the main thing.”
Stringer told Fox Footy on Monday night that although the pair were different, they often lent on each other for support on and off the field. “It is an unlikely connection, we are very different, but we are sort of that yin and yang ... we both have great respect for each other,” Stringer said.
As their friendship flourished, Merrett became captain in 2023, suddenly conscious of the need to balance being a skipper and a mate. That they have walked that fine line so well is because they share certain similarities that might not be as obvious to others as their differences.
Close mates and former teammates Devon Smith and Jake Stringer.Credit: Getty Images
“[He’s] one of those guys who has a really, really small, probably tight, inner circle of friends in his life and if you get in, he is one of those guys who is extremely loyal and really looks after you once you are in there, but it can be hard and difficult to get into his circle, and I am probably similar,” Merrett said. “[The friendship is] something that will last beyond footy as well.”
That connection is helping them to improve.
While Stringer recovered from foot surgery at the end of last season, Merrett left his teammate to his own devices knowing that coach Brad Scott had already reminded the 30-year-old how important 2024 was for him as he entered the final year of his contract.
The skipper had told Stringer he considered his potential contribution vital to how Essendon could improve. “Brad and I were really clear on him and what we needed from him was going back to basic stuff,” Merrett said. “We needed him to cover the ground and chase and get up the ground and pressure the opposition. We needed him to be fit enough to be able to play centre bounce and move around the ground freely.”
When the team reconvened for the pre-season, Merrett became more involved in Stringer’s program, catching up with him, Nick Hind and Jayden Laverde most mornings. Stringer’s dedication to follow the club’s recommended diet and to do the work on the track to become as fit as possible impressed him. But it wasn’t all one-way traffic. Merrett was learning as much from Stringer.
“When tossing up ideas or thinking through things at the club, he gives a perspective that sometimes seems lateral, but it helps me,” Merrett said. “I see things similar to some guys, and he provides a unique perspective … just the way he goes about it and [he is] really cluey on the field, but also has a great relationship with so many players off the field because he is really personable and social, and he gives me an insight into how the group is going.”
No one pretends Stringer has been perfect throughout his career, nor that he didn’t need to do some growing up, but they are delighted with where he finds himself in life. Smith says his friend has significantly matured in the past three years and many of the assumptions about his mate, who was in his wedding party, are wrong.
He said he was always amazed at the time Stringer gives to fans, particularly children, but it’s his football IQ that is often underestimated. “He was a leader in his own sort of way. He does things in a quieter manner,” Smith said. “If people like Zach, who goes out to seek all sorts of leadership things … if he is going to Jake that is a sign he really values what he has got to say and his ideas.”
All Merrett wanted for Stringer was for him to be comfortable enough in the environment that he could be himself, which required the captain to reflect on his approach to his other teammates as well. “The growth of us as a group has been off the back of being able to see that different guys can provide different things for us and to maximise those areas for us in a game [and] not being frustrated with each other if we are not on the same page,” Merrett said.
The captain understands his value and the challenge he presents for opponents who tend to send multiple players to Stringer when the ball is inside the Bombers’ forward 50. He has gone through vision with Stringer showing when he was at his best and when he wasn’t.
Jake Stringer points to the sky, a nod to the support he has found in the Muslim community.Credit: Getty Images
“From my point of view, I could work with the other guys to understand what he could bring to us, but I also need him to hit a certain level in certain areas to justify his strengths,” Merrett said. “It can’t all be about the glamorous and the highlights, and to his credit he has been unbelievable at that. His forward-half tackles, forward-50 tackles and centre-bounce stuff has been amazing. It’s pretty easy as captain when your most talented player is doing a lot of the grunt work and the hard work behind the scenes.”
That they have become such good friends seemed a longshot when they laid eyes on each other in New York just days after Stringer had been traded to Essendon. Merrett was excited at the prospect of playing with him, but sensed Stringer was less thrilled to see him while he was on leave with his mates.
“I think he was ducking and hiding from me in the Nike store in New York … he was having a good time over there. Me, being a new teammate – he wasn’t real keen to see me,” Merrett said.
But now, the odd couple are aligned in their pursuit of success in football and life.
Stringer is open about his desire to become a better person on and off the field, with prayer becoming part of his personal growth as he opens himself to learning about himself and others while attending mosques in Melbourne. “I have got some great friends that are Muslims. I go down and pray with them one or two times a week and I really enjoy it, but I am a long way off going down that path. I am just learning – and learning a different way … I have got some great mentors in that space. I am just trying to discover new ways to be a better person,” he said on Monday night.
He is also celebrating goals with a gesture to the sky, confirming to Seven last month that the hand signal is a nod to the support of his Muslim friends. “It’s more just around the brotherhood. I ran with it the first week and I have stuck with it since so that’s actually it. I will probably stick it with for the rest of the year,” Stringer said.
While Merrett and Smith don’t know a lot about that aspect of his life, they are proud of the person he has become as he enters the next, and potentially most productive, phase of a career that has, at times, been akin to bull riding.
“He is gaining enjoyment from going and praying a few times a week here and there, enjoying challenging himself on the way he is living his life and setting himself up with his footy,” Merrett said.
“He hasn’t fully converted, but he has embraced the community and the community has embraced him back – massively – and I think he is enjoying that.”
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