Coach Men's Senior Coach: Brad Scott - Will appear on AFL360 coaches night on Monday 24th

[Foxx]

Lual is ready physically. Still has some disposal problems though.

 

[FootyGuru]

Scott’s job is to win every game possible with the list Rosa provides. The direction is set by Rosa. If we rebuild which I think we are currently, it’s on Rosa to make those changes. I thought we could have cut a bit deeper this offseason, but we still let go off a lot of senior players.

I think Rosa should play hardball with Draper, keep him hungry on the field but also it gives us better idea of what the compensation might be worth.

If I was in charge, I’d be focussing on the caddy kako timeline. Kako reminds me of Gary Ablett junior in his first season.

Which also means potentially losing guys like Langford, parish, McGrath Langford, or even Merrett if the right trade comes along.

Superstars get you across the line in big games. I think only caddy and kako have that ability on the list, but there’s plenty of solid a/b graders already here, like Ridley, Durham, Caldwell, Martin, Draper, duursma, McKay etc. Perkins will make it, and he will start playing well once we have a competitive team around him. Reminds me of raynor.

Let’s expect the losses to come and not melt when they do, but really enjoy the wins. One thing I know is generally the effort has been very good. Execution work in progress.

 

[Old Campaigner]

A lot of supporters seem to be willing to forgive the performance because we were young, our senior guys must have known this so didn't try as hard.

I'm saying don't give them excuses, they need to be better. What we saw on the weekend wasn't good enough.

Being shit isn’t an excuse, it’s a reason

 

[faible]

I think part of it is not playing their guys that would be playing a bit into it.



My question would be, yes he may not have the physical make up to play AFL games en mass.

But you would think, a few games at VFL level and then sprinkle them in through the year, that's what I think we need to do more of with all the kids.
Play them on a big stage like an Anzac day and then on the week after, expose them to the big stage, then get them used to backing it up to get exposed to the prep.
Learn the game at the top level against the best competition, and what it takes to string games together, not just 1 week in and then out.
They won't break.

There's no reason we cant leave this season with most of the kids getting minimum 3 games each and a variety of different experiences.

VFL season kicks off this week, so hopefully we see some of the new draftees put their hand up for a run.

 

[ant555]

VFL season kicks off this week, so hopefully we see some of the new draftees put their hand up for a run.

Actually kicked of last Saturday . We had a win

 

[Milanista28]

Being shit isn’t an excuse, it’s a reason

Now we're talking

 

[Foxx]

Being shit isn’t an excuse, it’s a reason

Sure, but there is no excuse for lack of effort. Even if shit or young.
This team proved in the pre season game against Geelong they can get numbers to every contest.

Now if they can't, then it's either workmate or Brad Scotts gameplan/structure.

 

[faible]

Actually kicked of last Saturday . We had a win

Have been away, totally missed this!

Hayes with 16 marks

 

[Runk]

To a degree it feels like we should be treating this season like 2016.
Little to no expectation & watch the kids develop (hopefully they do).
I think that will make me a lot happier.

 

[Lore]

i dont get it, there is clearly some type of messaging the club is trying to deliver without actually saying it. Thats what i see.

We have a coach who is bagging our training standards 3 years in and that's something he has total and direct control over it. So, if that's still an issue for us, then wtf are we doing here?

Something absolutely stinks here, and it's not just the playing list.

Is he bagging our standards still?

The only person who would actually know that has been talking about standards lately is Jake Stringer and personally I think that’s ironic.

A year ago Scott finished his first season as coach, we’d barely settled in a new CEO and had put Adrian on an exit plan. So Scott went into the first proper offseason where he gets to do the exit interviews and stuff and cracked the whip, ended up with half of the players taking themselves to Arizona in a hurry to try and prove they weren’t completely useless. List wise we re-signed a few and used the cap space to plug some holes in the 25+ group through free agency and went to the draft, all in typical Dodoro fashion.

End of his second season and we’ve got a settled CEO and a new list manager, a clean out of half the list (Shiel would’ve gone too if we’d had an ounce more luck), and a handful of extra picks for the 2025 draft - future focused.

We are left with a relatively young list with our selected sides made even younger through injury. We’re playing the kids and the list of emergencies each week are undebuted kids.


I think the story we have now is one of rebuild, but since the club seems to still have a media strategy from 2009, the media is acting like we should be winning a final, when really we should be grinding out a 3 goal loss with the opposition score kept to under 80 points as often as possible.

 

[Lore]

To a degree it feels like we should be treating this season like 2016.
Little to no expectation & watch the kids develop (hopefully the do).
I think that will make me a lot happier.

I wish they’d just say so

 

[andleanback]

Lual is ready physically. Still has some disposal problems though.

Man id rather have a cardboard cut out filling space than Dylan shiel. It’s decisions like this where coaches can lose the fans, the fans can cop a young side fluctuation form and weeks were we don’t play well. They don’t cop clear cut decisions where a senior player who is past it should be dropped.

 

[Old Campaigner]

Is he bagging our standards still?

The only person who would actually know that has been talking about standards lately is Jake Stringer and personally I think that’s ironic.

A year ago Scott finished his first season as coach, we’d barely settled in a new CEO and had put Adrian on an exit plan. So Scott went into the first proper offseason where he gets to do the exit interviews and stuff and cracked the whip, ended up with half of the players taking themselves to Arizona in a hurry to try and prove they weren’t completely useless. List wise we re-signed a few and used the cap space to plug some holes in the 25+ group through free agency and went to the draft, all in typical Dodoro fashion.

End of his second season and we’ve got a settled CEO and a new list manager, a clean out of half the list (Shiel would’ve gone too if we’d had an ounce more luck), and a handful of extra picks for the 2025 draft - future focused.

We are left with a relatively young list with our selected sides made even younger through injury. We’re playing the kids and the list of emergencies each week are undebuted kids.


I think the story we have now is one of rebuild, but since the club seems to still have a media strategy from 2009, the media is acting like we should be winning a final, when really we should be grinding out a 3 goal loss with the opposition score kept to under 80 points as often as possible.

The media certainly seem to have cottoned on, Cal has a rebuild article today

 

[Howard Moon]

Essendon's loss was jarring, but this is the Bombers' reality

After Essendon's thumping loss to Adelaide, Callum Twomey takes a closer look at the Bombers' list build

www.afl.com.au

This actually gives me hope...

It's much better going to the football knowing you are in rebuild, you get to focus on little moments from kids rather than going there expecting to win.

I just wish they would come out and say the words... Stop pussy footing about with semantics. Say, we have to rebuild the dodoro out of the club

 

[eth-dog]

Lual is ready physically. Still has some disposal problems though.

I can't be the only one who doesn't see it with him? Just average.

 

[justlookingaround]

Essendon's loss was jarring, but this is the Bombers' reality

After Essendon's thumping loss to Adelaide, Callum Twomey takes a closer look at the Bombers' list build

www.afl.com.au

This actually gives me hope...

It's much better going to the football knowing you are in rebuild, you get to focus on little moments from kids rather than going there expecting to win.

I just wish they would come out and say the words... Stop pussy footing about with semantics. Say, we have to rebuild the dodoro out of the club

Good write up by Cal

 

[Old Campaigner]

I can't be the only one who doesn't see it with him? Just average.

Unless he can really tidy up his kicking I struggle to see how we carry another poor ball user in the side. He’d need to have a number of elite attributes to make up for that

 

[MiguelM]

The problem is he was hired by a board that head hunted him on the basis the list was okay and just needed an experienced voice to finish them off. Scott was like anyone. He was not watching us exclusively when he was at the AFL so there was no deep dive into list.
Two years on and the new CEO and new list manager have pulled it up and drawn a line in it because the list is not good like the board was promoting it to be.
That is why it is looking like it is going backwards. There never was going to be any improvement. Blame the board and the influence from some coterie members who were convinced we had a good team but our coach sucked.
If we hired a coach who had a good look at the list first then maybe we are moving on blokes a year earlier.

I am with you on the extension. I did not think they needed to do it but the simple fact that the likes of Cox and Perkins are not going to be A grade players hurts.

Then you have the issue with a few of Dodoro’s contracts. Yes Scott wanted Parish and McGrath but what they did not know was they could have kept them for less years. That is why Dodoro was shown the door by Vozzo.
They would also have kept D’Ambrosio if Dodoro had not been so sure he would accept a 1 year extension.

The D’Ambrosio one is mind boggling. Blind freddy could see he was elite at disposal, something we are crying out for. Might have needed more defence but that can be trained, skills a lot harder. Plus if you hit targets you don't see that ball whizzing back at warp speed.

 

[Old Campaigner]

The D’Ambrosio one is mind boggling. Blind freddy could see he was elite at disposal, something we are crying out for. Might have needed more defence but that can be trained, skills a lot harder. Plus if you hit targets you don't see that ball whizzing back at warp speed.

I had originally assumed the club wasn’t fussed if he left because of his defensive issues and attitude but apparently it was just dododo thinking he would settle for a one year contract lmao

 

[joey_jo_jo]

I wasn't expecting us to be a contender this season and I also expected a lot of poor ball usage/turnovers in the early part as they had signposted in pre season that we were going to focus on quick ball movement from backline instead of the uncontested kicking mark game that we employed last two years.

But my concern is third year in and its the same issues regarding defending the transition/spread as well as team selections.
Why are we still seeing so many guys getting sucked into the contest and not impacting it whilst their opponent is free on the spread?
Why does scott select tall heavy teams then bemoan the lack of defensive pressure? He did this last year too, selects all of wright/draper/goldy/jones/stringer/langford and then wonders why we dont apply pressure in the forward half like other teams, baffling.
I didnt like his comments in pre-season re the size of the forward not mattering as much as their intent and its already showing as wrong. Its just not the reality of the current game, you need a number of speedy small forwards applying pressure on opposition ball carriers. to think perkins/jones/Hobbs can provide the defensive pressure up forward is a bad misread by him and his coaching team. All three show a willingness to lay tackles/apply pressure but they just dont have the agility/speed of a small forward that creates the doubt in backlines when they are trying to exit the defensive 50. It was so evident on Saturday when seeing kako apply pressure 3 or 4 times in the one passage of play, most teams have 2 or 3 guys doing that in their team. We have one first year player.

Anyway im not completely down on him, i think he has done a lot of good work off field with trying to turn is into a more professionally run team and I do think he has a good relationship with Merrett and the majority of the playing group. I think he has the right idea re where the list is at too. I just think his match day strategies/selections leave a lot to be desired.
Leaves me thinking if he is more suited to a director of football type role? Or do we need a more senior assistant coach by his side helping him overall strategy rather than focusing on one specific area like his current assistants do?

 

[faible]

I wasn't expecting us to be a contender this season and I also expected a lot of poor ball usage/turnovers in the early part as they had signposted in pre season that we were going to focus on quick ball movement from backline instead of the uncontested kicking mark game that we employed last two years.

But my concern is third year in and its the same issues regarding defending the transition/spread as well as team selections.
Why are we still seeing so many guys getting sucked into the contest and not impacting it whilst their opponent is free on the spread?
Why does scott select tall heavy teams then bemoan the lack of defensive pressure? He did this last year too, selects all of wright/draper/goldy/jones/stringer/langford and then wonders why we dont apply pressure in the forward half like other teams, baffling.
I didnt like his comments in pre-season re the size of the forward not mattering as much as their intent and its already showing as wrong. Its just not the reality of the current game, you need a number of speedy small forwards applying pressure on opposition ball carriers. to think perkins/jones/Hobbs can provide the defensive pressure up forward is a bad misread by him and his coaching team. All three show a willingness to lay tackles/apply pressure but they just dont have the agility/speed of a small forward that creates the doubt in backlines when they are trying to exit the defensive 50. It was so evident on Saturday when seeing kako apply pressure 3 or 4 times in the one passage of play, most teams have 2 or 3 guys doing that in their team. We have one first year player.

Anyway im not completely down on him, i think he has done a lot of good work off field with trying to turn is into a more professionally run team and I do think he has a good relationship with Merrett and the majority of the playing group. I think he has the right idea re where the list is at too. I just think his match day strategies/selections leave a lot to be desired.
Leaves me thinking if he is more suited to a director of football type role? Or do we need a more senior assistant coach by his side helping him overall strategy rather than focusing on one specific area like his current assistants do?

Some of the selection is down to simply not having the cattle available.

Our small forward stocks are pretty thin, likely Guelfi would be playing ahead of Hobbs if Guelfi is fit since he's one of the few reliably physical players up there. Otherwise it's an injured / returning from injury ADJ, a yet to debut late pick in Unwin, or Jye Menzie.

Similar down back; Shiel & Prior must be pretty much the last two guys selected this coming week, but we aren't exactly flush with options to replace them with. Fortunately it looks like Johnson, Unwin, Clarke, Day-Wicks and Gerryn all played well first VFL game up which is the entirety of Rosa's first draft crop.

We were already one of the youngest and least experienced sides this week, and all our potential options are younger and less experienced again.

We're not a list that needs a coach that can maximise match day strategy right now, we're a list (and club) that simply needs a bloke who can play politics well enough to stay the course while we churn the list. I've said before that I don't think Scott is necessarily the coach that we'll win our next Premiership under, but that he might well be the one who sets the club up to win one.

 

[thepokey]

The thing I reckon a lot of people overlook is that this isn't the typical 3rd year of a coach. We aren't coming from a situation like most clubs where a coach is taking over from an underperforming team. We have a coach, CEO and president taking over from an absolute Trainwreck of an entire club. The absolute foundations of the entire club have had to shift first and foremost. So so regardless of what hope the first halves of the last 2 years gave us, we are starting from a long way back.

I don't know whether Scott, Vozzo and Barahm are the right people but I do know it's far too early to be calling for blood. And they are at least implementing fundamental foundational changes which is something we haven't done in a long time.

Like Lore said though, I think one area that needs to be worked on is our media communication to properly reflect this. I think we are petrified of admitting how far back we have had to restart from.

 

[rumply]

To a degree it feels like we should be treating this season like 2016.
Little to no expectation & watch the kids develop (hopefully they do).
I think that will make me a lot happier.

Yep. That's certainly how I'm approaching the rest of the season.

 

[Zach Package]

To a degree it feels like we should be treating this season like 2016.
Little to no expectation & watch the kids develop (hopefully they do).
I think that will make me a lot happier.

In 2016 we were appreciably more experienced as a playing list than we are now.

Round 1 2016 we played 2 draftees and one was Walla, a mature aged recruit.

This side makes that side look ancient.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

The thing I reckon a lot of people overlook is that this isn't the typical 3rd year of a coach. We aren't coming from a situation like most clubs where a coach is taking over from an underperforming team. We have a coach, CEO and president taking over from an absolute Trainwreck of an entire club. The absolute foundations of the entire club have had to shift first and foremost. So so regardless of what hope the first halves of the last 2 years gave us, we are starting from a long way back.

I don't know whether Scott, Vozzo and Barahm are the right people but I do know it's far too early to be calling for blood. And they are at least implementing fundamental foundational changes which is something we haven't done in a long time.

Like Lore said though, I think one area that needs to be worked on is our media communication to properly reflect this. I think we are petrified of admitting how far back we have had to restart from.

Dont think anyone is calling for blood per say, but when you make stupid decisions like extending the coach for utterly dumb reasons, they are entitled to be mauled for it. "stability" lol what a bunch of absolute rubbish.

if we continue to make dumb decisions like that, then we do this actually turn around? At every fork in the road, Essendon seemingly ALWAYS take the wrong turn, and the supporters are left to hope and pray it was the right one. It never is.

The club is far better IMO to look its supporters in the eye and be honest with where it's at, than attempting to move chess pieces acting like we are dumbasses who can't see it.