It’s not really a hurry, he’s played about 50 VFL games, a debut sooner rather than later would nice reward
iirc Redman played about 50 games in the vfl before he made his debut
And in those days, there arose a leader named Brad, from the land of the tin rattlers, a humble host known for their noise but not their might. He was called Tripod by those who knew him well, for his stance was firm and unshaken, even in the storm.
The people murmured, “Can anything strong come from the tin rattlers?” Yet the Lord looks not to the crown but to the heart, and Brad’s heart burned with a quiet fire.
He was chosen to stir the slumbering giants of Essendon, a once-mighty army now wandering in search of their old glory. And many among them scoffed and said, “This man? He is not the one.”
I think commentators on game day mentioned Hayes has played 39 games in the VFL? I could be speaking rubbish!
Either way he looked good, possibly ready for a call up IMO
you were ok with Weid over Hayes?
we need to fast track the young guys as best we can.
We are a developing side, we need to be getting as many games into the younger guys as possible
I would 100% have Hayes in the team over Mckay right now
Wont happen Hayes will need to wait for a spot to open up or injury to a key back
Do you think Mckay is earning his place in the team right now?
It was ridiculous to play Weid over Hayes in that game.
Just pointless.
Heppell should have played his Farewell game in the Sydney game also.
It’s amazing how utterly and completely we botch these things up !
I get what you’re saying. There is a time for positive reinforcement and anything else we can glean from Ted Lasso. I’m not completely against that way and in some ways, a football club is so isolated more often than not, that you wouldn’t tell if those components are mentioned behind closed doors. But making that statement external is another thing.
We’ve had the most happy clapper coach (Ben Rutten) along with the most happy clapper captain (Heppell) for a long time. And it failed miserably. Just like previous years under Worsfold, Hird, Knights and even the last few years of Sheedy.
The second we start letting them go out there and have fun, or that if they do this, this, this and this, they’ll definitely win, we’ll fall into old habits when it gets too hard and just give in. We could go the exact opposite and just throw chairs around and tell them they’re ■■■■ and have no hope whatsoever like back in the 80s and 90s. And we’d get similar results. Modern 20 to 30 year olds don’t all react the same way to this style.
For me, we just need to get back to doing the things we’ve done poorly for two decades, work hard for every inch on the field and get used to doing the small things very well. Obviously, our fitness levels have improved because less and less players are gassed within games and towards the end of the season with each year, but it still needs improvement. Do those things on repetition, make those things habits and instinctual, then gradually add the offensive flair side of things. We’ve tried the other way and we instantly struggle with small tweaks to our game plan from one year to early in the next.
And of course, this is before you get to the glaring issue that we have to play a conservative and risk averse game style because our kicking skills and decision making are average at best (and that’s a very kind assessment).
atm I do see him in the team

iirc Redman played about 50 games in the vfl before he made his debut
No he didn’t.
He debuted in his first season.
Yep.
That comeback game against North where we reduced the margin from 50ish, to about 16.
In fact, Reddog had a shot at goal to reduce it to under 2 goals, but missed.
Reckon maybe he played a lot of VFL maybe after debuting, I remember him a fair bit in the 2’s also
I would like to congratulate Nino on ticking over 700 comments in the Brad Scott thread.
A little bit shy of 10% of the 7750 odd posts in this thread are Nino.
Monumental effort.
I hope Daddy rewards you well for all your efforts defending him and his every move.
No I don’t.
He’s not a perfect coach but he’s the coach we need right now what I don’t like is people wanting him sacked or moved on 3 years into the job like it’s going to solve all our problems that’s where I defend him.
Brad needs more then 3 years at least till the last year of his deal to fix this mess of a club on and off the field
If things are still the same in his last year as coach then the club can think about whether they need to find another coach or not.
More than three years? Come on! Surely by now he has had enough time? Times up. Perform in 2025 or resign.
Not going to happen not after extending him which lines up with Rosas’ 3 year plan
I don’t i would give him 2 more weeks. See if he can build into the season. He was so easily brushed aside. So disappointing.

I’d hardly call two top 5 picks and pick 18 bottoming out. We have already matched that, and some.
Deledio was drafted in ‘05 wasn’t he? and was gone before they won their first flag.
I only mentioned Deludio because he was a pick 1. Which they got for finishing last. Between 2004-2010 they finished last twice, second last twice and 4th last once. It’s not North levels of bottoming out, but they gave themselves access to some top end talent. And nailed those picks (this is the bit we never did).
Look, this discussion can go around in circles, the reality is we need more elite talent on our list before we go anywhere. There’s a quite few ways that different teams have done that. What nobody has seemingly done, is top up from mid table using mid first round picks and overpaying for average FAs.

What nobody has seemingly done, is top up from mid table using mid first round picks and overpaying for average FAs.
… and then seemingly changing course and deciding to focus purely on the draft.
I was ok with the 2023 offseason, all things considered. But in hindsight, it seems likely that all those FA pickups have done is just cement us in mid table