After the Asian Champions League in the A-League off-season and an inspired recruitment campaign, Melbourne have progressed to the final of the Pre-Season Cup against Wellington Phoenix on Wednesday night.

"It has been the ideal preparation," Merrick said after seeing his team qualify for the Pre-Season Cup final with a 1-0 win over Newcastle in Port Macquarie.

"We had a month's break after the ACL and it freshened the boys up mentally and physically. We have started a bit later than everyone else but the boys are feeling fresh and sharp and we signed players early on and we have a squad of 22 now and everyone is basically fit."

Merrick said he was particularly impressed with his new signings including former Socceroos defender Michael Thwaite, Brazilian Ney Fabiano, Costa Rican Jose Luis Lopez, journeyman Tom Pondeljak and youngster Nathan Elasi.

"Tom has been a good signing for us. Fortunately for us the Asian Champions League has been a good opportunity for players like Tom, and Nathan and a couple of others got used to the way we play the game and our strategies," said Merrick.

"Michael Thwaite has a wonderful signing – to have him at the back is just a magnificent signing for us. The challenge is can we hold onto him after the loan period at the end of the year?

"But he has just slotted in and he is a great character and knowing how difficult it is to find a centre back for our national team, I wouldn’t be surprised if Pim Verbeek has a look at him.

"We have been very specific in our recruitment. For instance, I have been speaking to Michael since before year one of the A-League and it is the same with Luis Lopez and Ney Fabiano – we have chosen boys have fitted in specifically with what we wanted so we haven’t had much work to do with them at all."