The Victory coach, and the club itself, are always reluctant to discuss contracts but Merrick has confirmed that talks are underway to address his future at Etihad Stadium.

"It's now on the table. I don't want to go into any detail, but as I said last week, things are starting to happen," he said.

Merrick's immediate focus however is the looming A-League visit of Central Coast Mariners - a team that enjoyed an opening round 2-0 on Melbourne soil.

In the battle of the A-League's best defence and its best attack, Merrick thinks it will not just come down to a handful of chances and it will be a surprisingly open match.

"I think it will be a very exciting end-to-end game with a lot of flair and a lot of midfield play and it won't be a case of two defences holding out, I'm looking forward to it," he said.

Merrick, whose team has won six of its past seven games, is confident that his in-form side can reverse the result of earlier in the season, providing they can break down the Mariners defence.

"The Mariners defence is rock solid, they've had their captain marshalling the back since day one. Alex Wilkinson, who does a really good job and I think young Danny Vukovic is one of the best young goalkeepers in the league," said Merrick.

"He is well supported by other defenders, but at the same time, we've got a few new players who didn't play in the first match."

The Victory boss believes three of his stars are performing particularluy well and could be the key to success against Lawrie McKinna's men.

Merrick added: "They are really exciting players, like Mate Dugandzic, who's super quick, he's scoring goals for us, Archie is playing his best football he's ever played, Sutee Suksomkit has blended in well with our strike force.

"I think there will be goals in it tomorrow."