At times the former Wallaby has witnessed his side annihilate clubs such as Lake Macquarie, Univeristy of Newcastle and Southern Beaches through his blend of tactics and techniques.

And he almost pulled off the ultimate upset victory in Round 2 this year when his side suffered a 27-26 to loss to the Newcastle region's powerhouse Hamilton.

But there were also dark days where he contemplated whether his injury riddled side could even match sides in the Central West competition such was the spiral of season 2019.

"I think it will be emotional for me because I came back to the club to try and turn things around," Merrick told the Singleton Argus.

"When I look back at the second half the season there has been plenty of disappointment but there is a little bit of satisfaction in seeing the third grade side progress as well as having an under-18 team as well.

"The club needs to go out with guns blazing over the next six months to bridge the gap in the (first grade) competition otherwise we'll just being having this same conversation year after year."

Before the Bulls commence their build for 2020 they will finish the season against Southern Beaches this Saturday in the league's bottom of the table clash.

"We had the wins but then we had a few losses with a lot of injuries on the back of them," Merrick explained.

"Sadly, we were back to where we started when we had ten people training at some stages."

The Bulls prevailed 45-29 when the two sides last played off in Round 7.

This brought their record to 2-4 entering their Old Bulls Day clash against arch-rival Maitland the following week.

Sadly, that victory on May 25^th would also mark the first grade side's most recent as they now hope to avoid finishing the year with a 10-game losing streak.

"Southern Beaches has not won a game this year so if we go in understrength and they've steadily improved then we could lose and, as a result, lose a lot of credibility which we've gained prior to this," outgoing coaching co-coordinator Chris Coleman added.

"This is a really important game."

Merrick has seen enough from his side in the past fortnight to grant his men as favourites.

"We were in the game until half time against Merewether and we almost won on the weekend (going down to Nelson Bay 23-15) so to finish the season with a loss against the worst team in the competition would be a disaster," he concluded.

"The second and third grade sides will win easy but we need to make sure our selected first graders get the job done."