‘A complete, full review’: The Bombers powerbroker backing Brad Scott, but it’s not unconditional
In the summer of 2018, Essendon’s coaches were presented to influential coterie group members for a Q&A at “the Hangar”. Such sessions are commonplace at AFL clubs, where passionate and cashed-up supporters have access to coaches as part of their coterie package, some costing five figures.
These forums help build relationships between the football department and prominent supporters, while also raising valuable revenue if done well. This one wasn’t.
At the time, hopes were high among the Essendon faithful. The drugs suspensions had been served, the Dons were coming off a finals berth, and the recruiting of established trio Jake Stringer, Adam Saad and Devon Smith from other clubs was supposed to propel them further up the ladder.
According to two sources present in the room, coaches were taken aback by the aggressive tone of the coterie members, who were highly critical of the club’s performance.
One football department staff member likened the hour-long or so session to a “spray” at the on-field tactics, while another was bemused by their level of entitlement that they would know better than the coaches and air it in such a fashion. Neither had been subjected to such an episode at other clubs.
The takeaway for many in the room, according to the sources, was the expectation among influential supporters that success would automatically happen through quick fixes and shortcuts rather than patience and perseverance.
Eight years on, the Bombers are in a deeper hole, languishing in 17th without a win since last May. A loss on Sunday against the Western Bulldogs would take their losing streak to a club record-equalling 17.
Essendon are, for now, backing in coach Brad Scott on the long road back to premiership contention, but this is a club that has been divided for much of the past 25-and-a-half years since its most recent flag – and shows little patience with outsiders. Just ask former coaches Matthew Knights, John Worsfold and Ben Rutten.
Will the Bombers revert to type, absorb the losses and a few winters of misery to see through the draft-led plan, or opt for another short-term solution?
Bombers powerbroker Mark Casey, a former president of the club’s oldest and most influential coterie, “the Essendonians”, has thrown his support behind Scott, whose contract was last year extended by another 12 months until the end of this season, but that support is not unconditional.
He has called for the Dons to conduct a club-wide review at the end of the season, and use those findings to make key decisions, such as the future of the senior coach.
“I, personally, would have a 12-month plan to look at the whole team, look at the whole administration, look at the board, the coaching staff and a whole assessment of the club and not jump to any conclusions on any areas,” Casey told this masthead.
“I would then look at making decisions, probably at the end of the year, based on those findings.
“There’s no way known I would be starting with paying someone out of a contract at this point in time.
“It’s easy to lay the shovel at the feet of the coach because it’s an easy way out, but there’s no easy way out for Essendon. There has to be a complete, full review for everyone, and then make some decisions based on that.”
The Bombers are desperate to shed a reputation of being a club sympathetic to factions and powerful coterie group members who operate behind the scenes with their own agendas.
The situation around Scott is a strong test of the club’s nerve. As a two-time Brisbane Lions premiership player and former North Melbourne coach, Scott is far from red-and-black royalty – but nor was coaching great Kevin Sheedy, who arrived a Richmond great and exited as an Essendon legend.
At 0-3, the club is making the right noises now about Scott, but the pressure will ratchet up if that win-loss record was to balloon out to 0-11 and the losing streak stretch to 24. Melbourne in Gather Round appears to be the Bombers’ most winnable game until their Dreamtime clash with Richmond on May 22, almost a year to the day of their last win.
The ghost of club great James Hird hovers at “the Hangar”, even if Hird, himself, last year ruled out a return to coaching the club. Casey, like elements of the Bombers’ supporter base, is not against a return for Hird.
“I think 50 per cent of supporters want him back, 50 per cent want him moved on,” Casey said. “It’s up to who is the best guy for the job. I don’t care if it’s James Hird, whoever is best for the role would be getting my vote. There should be no preconceived ideas on anyone.”
Casey has publicly stated his full support for the board, led by Andrew Welsh, whom he knows well and respects through the property development world.
“You can rattle the tree and cage as much as you want, there’s nothing anyone in the country can do for the Essendon footy club overnight, it’s got to be a well-led plan,” Casey said. “I think Woosha [Andrew Welsh] can do that – I’m hoping he can. He’s a good bloke, very smart and very savvy.”
As a respected former player and successful businessman, Welsh carries the clout that few recent senior Essendon figures can. As the Bombers’ football director before taking the top job, he helped devise the plan to strip back the list and replenish via the national draft.
Scott is now wholeheartedly carrying out that strategy, and wearing the brunt of the short-term hit for the club to make the long-term gain.
The Bombers, with an average age of 24.7, fielded the second-youngest teams across the first four rounds – older than only West Coast – and their average of 81.7 games makes them the fourth-least experienced. Last week’s 23 included 10 who had played 30 games or fewer. The fourth-oldest player on their list is 28. All this raises the question if they have gone too hard with youth.
“It’s not like we have too much choice,” Scott said. “We’ve chosen to invest in youth, we have to live with the short-term pain that sometimes can provide.”
The Bombers are now plumbing new depths but the rebuild, reset, rewiring – however the club wants to frame it – began at the end of 2023. There is high hope the haul from the past three drafts, headed by Nate Caddy, Archie Roberts, Isaac Kako, Sullivan Robey, Jacob Farrow and Dyson Sharp, will form the nucleus of the club’s next 10 to 15 years.
But how many more losses can the Bombers absorb? One former director at another club says they will wear it until the supporters and corporates turn away and it affects the bottom line. More than 40,000 showed up last week, but patience is wearing thin among fans fed up with 20 years of failure. Scott has sounded the rally cry.
“It really is the test of clubs, I think, when things are really difficult. Your supporters – I think they’re entitled to see fight and effort, of course, and that’s what we want to provide for them,” Scott said.
“But there really is a measure of a club when things are difficult, what’s the support like? Because when things are flying, it’s easy for everyone.”
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