Sombre skipper close to tears
You could feel the hurt in every word Andrew Durante spoke about the man to his right.
Until Sunday night, the Wellington Phoenix captain would never have imagined he would be sitting at a press conference discussing the resignation of his coach, Ernie Merrick.
But here he was, voice breaking and fighting back tears as he described what the 63-year-old Scot meant to him.
‘‘It’s sad, he’s been a great coach, a great role model for me, a great mentor and we let him down.’’
The ‘‘we’’ he was referring to was the playing group, who he said were left in stunned silence when Merrick informed them of his resignation at dinner after the 2-0 loss to Adelaide United on Sunday.
‘‘Ernie stood up before we were about to finish and he basically said ‘I’m going to step down, I’m going to put my resignation in’ and he didn’t feel he could get the team going the way he wanted it to.
‘‘It was a very open conversation and the players’ reaction was silence. No-one said anything, everyone was trying to take it in.
‘‘Then Ernie and the staff left the room and Mossy [goalkeeper Glen Moss] stood up and said ‘this is on us’ and it is.
‘‘The players have to own this, at the end of the day the coach takes the full brunt of poor performances.’’
Durante said he had learned a lot from Merrick about football and life in general.
‘‘He’s been a great mentor for me and has helped me deal with the highs and lows of the game.
‘‘Not to get too high when you win or too low when you lose, he puts things into perspective, it’s a game of football, no-one’s died, no-one’s been hurt.
‘‘It’s good, it’s a good way to reflect on things at times when you think it’s all doom and gloom.’’
For the normally cool and calm Durante, Merrick’s resignation moved past simple football matters and struck a personal chord.