When Brad Scott took the Essendon job before the 2023 season, he said “If the club had said to me, ‘We think we can turn this around really quickly’ – and, you know, I said to them, ‘If that’s your view, I’m not the guy for you. You’re better off going and getting someone else who thinks that’s what they want to take over.’”
Translation: I’m tearing the joint down and building the Brad Scott Bombers.
Off the field, he’s done that.
He has driven higher professional standards, raised training expectations, and has effectively built a new footy department to support him now that Adrian Dodoro, is gone.
“He bows out as the greatest. They’ll build him a statue”
Outgoing Bombers list boss Adrian Dodoro has been compared to Joel Selwood captaining a premiership in his last game, upon officially cementing the club's trade ‘dynasty’ with a 9th consecutive trade period premiership 🐐 pic.twitter.com/F42f5yWZ23
— Fake Footy (@FAKE_FOOTY) October 18, 2023
Last offseason, he headhunted his guys David Rath, Matt Rosa and Dan McPherson and put them into key roles.
He has specific needs, and now they appear to be filled.
I think now that he has the off-field structure that he wants, he’s starting to rebuild a playing list that is in dire need of rebuilding.
Last year, Essendon was like the cast of Euphoria – older than you think.
They were the seventh-oldest team in footy and the oldest not to make the finals.
Over the offseason, Essendon moved on from pillars like Dyson Heppell, Jake Kelly and Jake Stringer, clearing a path to get younger all over the field.
Essendon list boss Matt Rosa joins @RileyBev to discuss the Jake Stringer deal. pic.twitter.com/NYatcXADfa
— AFL (@AFL) October 16, 2024
Essendon went from the 6th youngest list in footy with an average age of 24.4, to the fourth youngest shaving a full half a year off. It may not seem like much but now only West Coast, Richmond and North Melbourne are younger.
He’s also clearly trying to clear a path to develop A-grade talent. A lack of it, outside of Zac Merrett, has been their key issue for years but now they have paths to stars.
Each of Sam Durham, Nate Caddy, and Jye Caldwell are 24 or under and showed potential last year.
Still thinking about this Sam Durham goal a day later. I can’t quite recall Essendon having a midfielder like this in my entire life. The frightening thing is he is probably 2-3 years away from his absolute prime. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/rXeFoTPm9e
— Chris De Silva (@cdesilva23) June 24, 2024
Particularly Durham and Caldwell look primed to step in and become genuine A-graders to support Merrett in 2025.
99: The team-leading # of clearances Jye Caldwell racked up in 2024.
In a midfield where responsibility at stoppage is distributed quite evenly, I still feel Caldwell doesn't get enough respect. #godons #AFL pic.twitter.com/9jTvzMczAy
— Americans Watching The Footy (@AmericansFooty) November 28, 2024
If you add those guys to a less mistake prone year for Ben McKay behind the ball and more footy for Jordan Ridley and you have a good start to a competitive defence and midfield.
Obviously, there are questions about the forward line outside of Nate Caddy and Kyle Langford, but you can feel Scott building the team.
Getting to the football last in the rebuild is brave for any coach, but Brad Scott’s system is a floor raiser while the list catches up.
Take last year. He knew that his defensive personnel was poor last year so he mitigated it. They defended high up the ground and tried to force as many high turnovers as they could, sitting fourth in the league for opponent turnovers forced.
It worked, sort of. They were fifth in the league for inside 50 differential and were better than league average in shots allowed.
However, when it did get inside 50, Scott’s coaching couldn’t save him from Jayden Laverde playing 21 games, as they gave up the fourth most goals per inside 50.
It was a similar story in terms of ball movement. They moved the ball from defensive 50 to forward 50 well, using the wings at an outlier rate. It worked for the most part, with Essendon sitting eighth in metres gained and fourth for inside 50s.
Again, the problem was personnel. They didn’t have enough good forwards to work with their entries sitting 16th in scoring shots per inside 50.
Are you sensing a theme here? It was Jackie Jr reading David Chase lines. Bad actors, good script.
More than just the macro game style things, Scott is good at recognising talent.
Take Kyle Langford.
Will Kyle Langford be an All Australian in 2025?
51 goals in 2023
43 goals in 2024
?? goals in 2025📸 – Essendon Instagram
— Don Caldwell ℹ️ (@DonCaldwelll) January 17, 2025
For the first eight years of Langford’s career, he was thrown haphazardly between forward and defensive roles, struggling to find an identity.
When Scott arrived in 2023, he played Langford as a forward and leaned into his skills as a lead/mark player.
Langford improved his career-high goal tally in 2023 from 15 to 51 goals, and he kicked another 43 in 2024.
That’s coaching.
So, I trust Scott.
He has rebuilt a footy club that so badly needed revamping in every area on and off the field, and he’s built it the way he wants.
It looks to me like he’s getting to the on-field product with the knowledge that his system can take his guys so far, but you need players to execute and stars to take you over the top.
There’s a chance that his players are finally starting to catch up to him. A sleeping giant might be finally stirring.
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