As mercurial Bomber Jake Stringer reaches a major milestone, we speak to two of his closest football friends.
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.
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.
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. 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.
All Merrett wanted for Stringer was for him to be comfortable enough in the environment that he could be himself, which requiredas 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 not being frustrated with each other if we are not on the same page,” Merrett said.
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