Merrick has been a part of the A-League since the very first match in 2005 when he was boss of Melbourne Victory before a later stint with Wellington Phoenix.

But it's a reflection of the current turnover of coaches in the A-League that just his spell at Newcastle alone - now about to start its third season - would make him the longest serving coach currently in the competition.

And Merrick says he's seen the league take some mis-steps along the way in its 14 year history - but the future is now shining bright.

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"It's like any business or entertainment entity," he told FTBL. "You have your moments when things grow very quickly. And then it sort of plateaus off.

"I thought the first eight years were tremendous. And then we really needed to add an extra team, that's taken a while.

"Adding the FFA Cup has been great, and I think there's over 700 teams playing that now, that's a wonderful thing.

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"And now we've added yet another side from Melbourne, Western United, and there will be a team coming in from the outer suburbs of Sydney next year.

"To see the owners taking control of the league, similar to what happened in England with the Premier League, I think we're certainly heading in the right direction.

"And I think there'll be a rapid growth."

He added: "The future's looking really bright, especially with the people in charge and the marketing that's going to be involved.

"And also ABC as well as Fox, everything's looking really good."