Past Player of the Week - Andrew Merryweather (Guthrie)

[The Speaker]

Andrew Merryweather​

Merryweather (L) with his wife and four sons​

DOB: 18/01/1961

Height: 192 cm

Weight: 83 kg

Playing number: 34

Arrived: Recruited from Doncaster for the 1988 season

Debut: Round 1 vs North Melbourne, 1988

Games: 5

Goals: 0

Departed: Delisted at the end of the 1988 season

Andrew Merryweather was a key defender who will probably be remembered better for the product of his loins than he will for his own playing career. Merryweather played one game for Fitzroy in 1982 before plying his trade for five years at Doncaster in the Eastern Districts Football League. Essendon apparently liked what they saw enough to offer Merryweather a contract for the 1988 season. He played the first five games of the year, but after a match against Geelong where a certain G. Ablett kicked 6.4, he was dropped and never appeared in the league again.

Instead, he moved up to Sunbury, coaching some of the youth sides there, and adopted his father's surname of Guthrie while fathering four sons. Cameron, the second oldest, was an Essendon fan growing up, but has played 128 games for Geelong as of the end of 2017 and was joined in the team this year by the youngest, Zach, who played nine games. Josh, seeing his brothers pursue a football career, joined the Geelong VFL side this year, while the eldest, Ben, is a reporter for the AFL website. Mark Blicavs also credits Merryweather, who coached him at Sunbury with his AFL career, as the latter let the Cats recruiting staff know all about the athletic ability of his charge.

 

[Rack Watts]

Man, this is one of the better past player of the week's.
Being dropped after Gary Ablett rolled you, then Geelong take your sons away.

 

[eth-dog]

Man, this is one of the better past player of the week's.
Being dropped after Gary Ablett rolled you, then Geelong take your sons away.

It is rather ironic, isn't it?

 

[The Speaker]

Man, this is one of the better past player of the week's.
Being dropped after Gary Ablett rolled you, then Geelong take your sons away.

The thing I enjoy most about history is how stories emerge as you engage with it.

 

[Run and carry]

Keeping Ablett to 6 goals and then getting dropped. Football can be cruel sometimes.

 

[Pweter]

As seasons wore on and Ablett kicked big bags against quality defenders, Merryweather could say "the chump only kicked 6 on me".

I have to admit I don't recall him beyond a very faint recollection of the name.