| Personal information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Nathan Deane Merritt | |||||
| Nickname | Nate Dogg, Max, Merro | |||||
| Born | 26 May 1983 Sydney, Australia |
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| Height | 181 cm (5 ft 11 in) | |||||
| Weight | 86 kg (13 st 8 lb) | |||||
| Playing information | ||||||
| Position | Wing, Fullback | |||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 2002–2003 | South Sydney | 23 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 50 |
| 2004–2005 | Cronulla | 19 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 42 |
| 2006– | South Sydney | 139 | 103 | 33 | 1 | 529 |
| Total | 181 | 123 | 39 | 1 | 621 | |
| Representative | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 2008 | Dreamtime Team | |||||
| 2010–2011 | Indigenous All Stars | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| As of 15 August 2011 | ||||||
| Source: Yesterday's Hero,Herald Sun RLP | ||||||
Nathan Merritt (born 26 May 1983 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer for the South Sydney Rabbitohs of the National Rugby League. He has also previously played for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. His position of choice is either on the wing or at fullback. Merritt is an Indigenous Australian who grew up on The Block, Redfern. He jointly holds the Souths' record for the most tries in an NRL match with 5 in a 56-6 demolition of the Parramatta Eels on 8 August 2011.
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Merritt played junior football for Alexandria Rovers.
His first-grade debut was for the South Sydney Rabbitohs against the New Zealand Warriors at Ericsson Stadium in round 9 of the 2002 NRL season and scored a try.
At the end of the 2003 season Merritt agreed to terms with the Cronulla Sharks where he was to play for the next two years. In the 2005 season, Merritt endured a tough year. He played only three first grade games for the Cronulla Sharks, but was a stand-out player in the lower grade NSWRL Premier League matches for the Newtown Jets, scoring almost 300 points for the year. His outstanding showing that year was rewarded when his old club the South Sydney Rabbitohs offered him a two-year contract to play in the National Rugby League.
In 2006, Merritt re-joined the Rabbitohs after a brief stint at the Cronulla Sharks. He was a stand-out performer in an underachieving side all year, and was one of only three players to play all 24 games for the Rabbitohs that year. In September the same year, Nathan's hard work and great performances through the year culminated in the announcement that Nathan had earned his first representative honour, to play for the Prime Minister's XIII. Merritt was the only South Sydney player to be included in the squad. The Australian team beat the Papua New Guinean team 28-8, with Merritt one of the try-scorers. He was also included in the train-on squad for the Kangaroos squad for the Tri-Nations tournament against England and New Zealand, but missed out on a starting position.
He was the highest try scorer for the 2006 season with 22 tries, beating Manly Sea Eagles' star Brett Stewart who scored 20. It was the first time in rugby league history that the leading tryscorer in a season came from the club that ran last that year. His great try-scoring form lead to him being selected for the Prime Minister's XIII to play against Papua New Guinea.
Following the announcement of the City Origin squad in 2007, Merritt hinted that his non-selection was possibly due to "a Souths thing or a racial thing". This comment was lambasted and in rebuttal to this comment critics pointed to the selection of Fijian Jarryd Hayne and Lebanese player Hasem El Masri as evidence that selections had not been racially motivated.[1]
On August 8, 2011 Merritt equaled the South Sydney club record of 5 tries in a match when he scored five against the Parramatta Eels at ANZ Stadium in a 56-6 win joining greats such as Harold Horder, Johnny Graves and Ian Moir to have scored five tries in a match for the Rabbits. He followed this up just eight days later with a three try performance against Canberra at Canberra Stadium, in doing so he became the first player since Brett Mullins in 1994 to score eight tries within eight days in the NRL. Merritt's haul also saw him become clear leading try scorer for the 2011 NRL season with 21 from 21 games, six tries more than Canterbury Bulldogs player Ben Barba with four rounds left to play before the Finals. After the regular season Merritt finished on 23 tries for the year, a personal best with his previous best being 22 in 2006. After his brilliant form Merritt was selected in the Australian squad to play against Papua New Guinea for the Prime Minister's XIII.
In 2007, Merritt, with the Sydney Roosters' Amos Roberts, appeared in the music video for Anthony Mundine's Platinum Ryder single. It is rumoured that Merritt is recording an album with Mundine called It's an Abo World. US rap artist Snoop Dogg - said to be a Rabbitohs fan - has named Merrit as his favourite NRL player.
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