Dean Solomon has responded to Zach Merrett’s comments via external media yesterday, praising the former Captain’s ability to navigate the pressure he’s faced this season. 

Merrett has adapted well as the Bombers have opted to blood youngsters such as Dyson Sharp and Sullivan Robey into its midfield rotation more prominently, with the 30-year-old shuffling to half back and providing assurance to the side’s defence. 

That’s correlated to some improvement in the Club’s setup of the ground under Solomon, who says that Merrett has been as influential as ever behind closed doors. 

“He's driving meetings, he's been a real leader,” Solomon said. 

“He's developing the youth that we have, so I can't ask any more of him.” 

Merrett’s proved equally capable as a distributor from the back half as he’s been in the engine room, but the option to thrust him back into the middle remains an option going forward.

The Bombers will persist with Merrett in defence – where he most recently racked up 33 and 32 respective touches against Carlton and Melbourne – but play it by ear with scenarios in-game for the tweaks they’re making to their structure in the back half of the season.

“Yeah, at this point in time we are (going to persist with him at half back),” Solomon said. 

“We want flexibility with the way we play, we just want to drive a bit more ball forward and be more of a ‘time in forward half’ over a ‘possession’ team.

“We're just shifting some of our ball movement stuff, so we'll stick with Zach there at this point in time, but within the game get flexibility to come up and support our midfield.” 

Solomon was staunch in his support of Merrett’s recent comments around handling some of the external media criticism he’s faced as far back as his return to the Club this pre-season.

“I applaud him for being open and honest,” Solomon said.

“I love the fact that we can talk about our individual journeys, it's no doubt been a tough time for him and the way he's navigated it has been incredible inside our four walls.”