BRISBANE Lions full-back Daniel Merrett says he will have to run the “extra mile” to deny Collingwood forward Anthony Rocca goal-scoring opportunities at the Gabba on Friday night.

The quietly spoken Merrett is rapidly building an impressive record against some of the competition’s top forwards – including Rocca, who he restricted to a single goal from two clashes last year.

But he acknowledges the Pies star, who started the season with a six-goal haul against Subiaco, can present some unique issues.

“As a defender you normally try and defend that 50m arc, because that’s where teams are going to have most of their shots from,” Merrett said.

“Because of that, when some opponents go up the field, you might let them go. But you can’t do that with Rocca because of how far he kicks the ball.

“You have to stay right on his tail because he can take a mark 60m out and then do what he did on the weekend – play on and bomb them from out there.

“He’s a big guy who’s hard to move and has really strong hands. I’m looking forward to it.”

The homework Merrett must do for his clash with Rocca is reflective of the varied challenges faced by the modern-day full-back.

In round one those challenges presented themselves within the ebb-and-flow of the game, when Merrett found himself standing “resting” West Coast ruckmen Dean Cox and Mark Seaby.

Both Cox and Seaby stand more than 200cm tall.

“They are both pretty good marks and pretty good movers for ruckmen, so it was tough,” Merrett said.

“To be honest, I probably didn’t adapt all that well and my body work wasn’t great.

“It’s something I’ll work on during the week. I was a little disappointed but it’s only round one and I’ll definitely be better for it.”

In a similar vein, Merrett believes the Lions as a group will derive plenty of benefit from the first-up 16-point loss to the Eagles in Perth.

After West Coast kicked the first six goals of the game, the Lions roared back into the contest and took the lead momentarily in the third quarter.

“I think it shows that you just can’t give teams six goal head starts,” Merrett said.

“But I think it also showed a lot of courage and persistence from the group for us to come back and hit the front. I really think we had the game and if we’d taken a few of our opportunities we would have won.

“I noticed a few of the Eagles players struggling early in the last quarter – when you looked in their eyes, you could see they were really tired.

“But once they kicked a couple of goals and got a bit of momentum, those same players were suddenly running a lot harder.”