Who was head of development last season?
Gary Busey
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Why need Gia when you’ve got Solly.
Guidance with authority - the Solly stamp
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Replacing Dermie on Fox Footy too now
Ken will be quite the busy man in 2026 with media commentators, be interesting to see if he only does it for a year or decides to stick around
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Looks like he’s doing a Buckley!
Maybe we’ll get Dermie for Head of Development…
i know a lot can change, but its kinda indicating the soft cap is having talent leave the footy system to go to the media
It’s seems like Polkinghorne is heading up development under his role of ‘Development, VFL and Pathways manager’.
Essendon has confirmed the composition of its coaching panel for 2026, with a blend of new and returning faces to support Senior Coach Brad Scott in his fourth season at the helm.
Dean Solomon has joined Scott’s staff as an assistant for next season, taking the reins of team defence, stepping away from his prior role as a Director on the Club’s Board.
Cam Roberts (Forwards Coach) and Brent Stanton (Stoppages Coach) will both continue in their respective roles, with Ben Jacobs shuffling into the position of Midfield Coach.
Former Premiership player and Bulldogs AFLW Midfield Coach Toby McLean has joined the panel as a Development Coach alongside Michael Hurley, who’ll continue into a fourth consecutive season.
James Polkinghorne continues as the Bombers’ Development, VFL and Pathways Manager after the position was created last year – Cameron Joyce will go again as the Club’s VFL Senior Coach.
David Rath is in the role of Coaching Innovation and Game Strategy Manager.
Recent retiree Todd Goldstein will also jump straight back into duties with the Club as a part-time Ruck Coach for the 2026 season, working closely with Nick Bryan, Lachie Blakiston and Vigo Visentini in their continued development.
GM – AFL Daniel McPherson spoke to the Club’s desire for continuity even in the wake of a few personnel changes over the off-season.
“We are really pleased with the balance of our coaching group. With the addition of Dean Solomon, we have brought in important coaching experience which will be a crucial addition to our match-day operations. Dean brings a competitive edge and high-level football IQ that will complement our coaching group,” McPherson said.
"Significantly, we continue to invest heavily in the Development space. This focus caters for every player on our list, but is also critical given our current list demographic, ensuring our emerging players are ready for senior football sooner.
See below for Essendon’s confirmed 2026 coaching panel:
Brad Scott – Senior Coach
Dean Solomon – Assistant Coach (Defence)
Ben Jacobs – Assistant Coach (Midfield)
Cam Roberts – Assistant Coach (Forwards)
Brent Stanton – Assistant Coach (Stoppages)
David Rath – Coaching Innovation & Game Strategy Manager
Michael Hurley – Development Coach
Toby McLean – Development Coach
Todd Goldstein - Ruck Coach
Cam Joyce – VFL Senior Coach
James Polkinghorne - Development, VFL & Pathways Manager
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How the fark does cam roberts still have a gig with us?
Goes from head of development to a forwards coach. Just strikes me as amateurish, same as Sean Murphy. The external review also noted our junior development pathways just haven’t been good enough, and we give this guy a promotion.
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Club took away his glove allowance.
Smoke and mirrors
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Junior pathways is academies right? Do F/S count? Do we include VFL development?
The review was quite a while ago.
Since then we’ve had Kako, Munkarra, Nguyen, Huss and Sweid come through the academy. That’s off the top of my head, but there’s probably more. And we’ve got Justice coming through as well. What did we have in the ten years before then? Tippa? But he didn’t come through the typical pathway. Anyone else? For father-sons, we’ve had the Davey’s come through since the review. But Bewick is coming through as well as another Davey. Before the review we had Joe D and Jake Long. Anyone else?
I wouldn’t say at all that everything is fixed, we’re flying and get on us for the next flag, but there’s been improvement (albeit from a very low base). It probably hasn’t caught up to other clubs yet, but at least we’re improving.
Whether that is attributed to Roberts good work or not is tough to tell from where we sit.
It’s tough to tell what some of these guys do outside of the head coach. Even assistant coaches are tough to measure. The best we’ve had is Caracella and Gia, but the results haven’t changed with or without them.
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He was one of the few outsiders i liked, and seemed to be very popular with the players.
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Has Solly ever been in the running for a senior coaching role at AFL level ?
Don’t think he’s ever wanted one. He has been building a successful fitness business at Kingscliff in northern NSW that has been his primary focus until recent times.
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He was a caretaker at GWS after Eade. Back then seemed to be spoken about as being a potential senior coach one day but never to the degree as guys like Yze, McCray, Mitchell etc
Replacing a coach with Solomon a past Essendon champion is such an Essendon thing our stupid club will probably do it.
And here it is. The overlap in the Venn diagram of opinions about the coaches of EFC between Nino and myself.
No to Solomon.
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