Merrett, playing at times on Justin Koschitzke and Nick Riewoldt, seemed to be involved in every marking contest in the Saints’ 50 and clearly won the points over both Saints forwards.
"He was huge, he is in as good a form as I have seen him in my time as a coach," Voss said.
Indeed, Voss could not lay fault on his young team’s efforts, despite them coming up short against St Kilda.
"I can’t fault them and I can see them growing to trust one another," he said.
"It is a real privilege to coach the group at the moment because of the attack on the contest, a few errors cost us at the wrong time.
"When we had ascension, we just couldn’t get separation, we didn’t maximise our opportunities when we had domination of the ball.
"You can never take away from the opposition and what they did.
"They had a small window and they went through it, we have got to finish the game off."
The Lions used ruckman Matthew Leuenberger in the forward line for much of the game, along with Mitch Clark, and Voss envisages the move to continue until Jonathan Brown returns in Round 9.
Leuenberger kicked four behinds and took three contested marks for the match.
"He looks alright going forward and I don’t think it is going to hurt Leuey in his long term," Voss said.
"He just rushed a couple of times but knowing he can go there, it gives us another strength."
Saints coach Ross Lyon had questioned the state of the Gabba surface. He said he thought sprinklers had been used on the ground.
However, Voss refused to buy into the theory.
"It is humidity, that is what it actually is," he said.
