Our preparation has been excellent – Melbourne’s Merrick

Melbourne Victory coach Ernie Merrick believes his sides preparation for tomorrow’s A-League Grand Final has been excellent.

The reigning champions face arch rivals Sydney FC tomorrow in the 2009/10 decider at Etihad Stadium and Merrick is confident his team is in a good position going into the clash.

“It’s been a perfect build up for us. We played against Seongnam (Ilhwa) at home, the rest of that week we spent recovering in rehab,” he said at today’s pre-match press conference.

“The boys got the weekend off so mentally they could get a break from the game and we started seriously on Monday so it’s been an excellent preparation for us.”

The Victory have had a heavy schedule in recent weeks, trying to juggle the Asian Champions League with their domestic finals campaign but Merrick said that was not a problem for the players.

“I often say that we are extremely fortunate to be playing both in the finals, now a Grand Final, and to be playing in the Asian Champions League and the travel’s never bothered us,” he said. “Fortunately finals games have always come first. Whatever happens after that in the ACL, we will make the most of it but it’s given us a chance to give game time to such a large number of our squad.

“I’ve always said we’ve had good depth and that depth has also had good time, match time, and as coincidence would have it, we have probably got our best team available for the most crucial game and I think the best is yet to come from the Melbourne Victory.”

Merrick was also of firm belief that the depth of his squad would go a long way to helping them win an unprecedented third A-League championship but admitted there had been no talks of back-to-back titles after their triumph last season.

“I think as any coach would tell you, often the quality of a team can be measured by the quality on the bench and I thought our bench in the second semi-final against Sydney was outstanding,” Merrick added further.

“Every time I brought someone on, whether it be Archie (Thompson) or Marvin Angulo or Evan Berger our team just seemed to get better and stronger.

“There’s no doubt we would love to do that (win back-to-back) but again it’s not been discussed in any way, shape or form when it comes down to preparation. It’s all about preparation for the game at hand and the outcome will look after itself.”