Star Essendon midfielder Zach Merrett says he needs to improve his attacking output to take his game to the next level in 2019.

While the ball-magnet is among the league’s best young leaders, he was kept to just five goals in 2018 – his second-lowest season haul to date.

But Merrett won’t let tallies constantly dictate the evaluation of his performances and he is confident he can lean on a number of teammates to elevate his influence on each match next year.

“I think I need to kick more goals and have more impact going forward,” Merrett said on Monday.

“It’s not always defined by numbers, by goals and by impact, but also around encouraging my teammates as well to go forward.

“To have Orazio Fantasia, Jake Stringer and the likes of those guys moving through the forward line is going to help me as well, and adding Dylan (Shiel) should be a good help.”

GALLERY: Bombers' full squad trains

Merrett was forced to endure new challenges this year as he was targeted with heavy tagging from the opposition during the Bombers’ disappointing opening two months of the season.

He says learning from those early hurdles and setting clear team plans moving forward at that stage played a crucial role in his subsequent improvement.

“I just had a few things I wasn’t used to and hadn’t experienced before, and that was where I got those learnings from," he said.

“As a team as well, we were struggling to jell and click at that stage, so it was a good learning curve for us as a team as well as individually and it was a good time to reflect upon where we were at.”

The 23-year-old says he saw his opponents’ efforts to quash his impact on the game in a positive way.  

“It’s just an exciting challenge, I love going out there and playing on the best player.

“The fact that opposition teams will do their plans during the week to try and stop me individually is exciting.

“If that means I can help my teammates more to win, that’s all it’s about.”

Merrett averaged 22.6 disposals, nine contested possessions and 2.9 clearances between rounds two and eight this year, but a significant return to his best coincided with the team’s drastic improvement for the remainder of the season.

From rounds nine to 23, the on-baller raised his averages to 30.4 disposals, 11.8 contested possessions and 5.3 clearances, but he says you can’t put that change down to ‘form’ – a term he doesn’t believe in.

“I just go out there and experience every contest as it is and I’m obviously not going to win every one, but I don’t believe there’s some form thing over my head that’s going to mean I play well or poorly before a game.

“That’s why I enjoy training so much and playing so much, it’s just being really in the moment and just enjoying it with my teammates – that’s the foremost thing that I enjoy.”

Merrett has also put in plenty of time off the field over the off-season to add to his game and further develop the squad’s culture, taking part in a leaders’ course with teammate Joe Daniher in London over the off-season.

“I was just overseas with him doing a little bit of study and a bit of training with him over there.

“(We were) just trying to improve and upskill our work around performance and, in particular, the culture of our club moving forward. That was a really exciting time with Joe.

“There were a few other AFL head coaches and performance guys over there, but it was good to rub shoulders with some elite sport performance people from around the world.”