Just watched the clip again. I can’t see anything blatant lies?
Whenever trade requests were brought up, Scott just consistently reiterated the clubs position “he’s a contracted captain and will not be traded”
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“As much as I want to play forever, I’m definitely on the back nine rather than the front” - Merrett
Geez ex-Captain, it doesn’t matter whether you’re playing golf or AFL, it’s not in accordance with the ethical or moral rules of these games to “change clubs” halfway through!!
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The sad thing about this quote is not only that it’s so lame but he would have been told to say it by either his manager or by Mitchell and they all thought it would be a good idea
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Caption competition time?
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If he’s on the back 9 I’m putting from 3 feet on the 18th
I poured alot of frustrated and negative energy into this thread this year; the break, the draft and the newly appointed President have been a healing experience to be honest.
Brad, for the love of all that is good, no more Bradball in 2026. I want this team to finally be successful and whilst I still don’t believe you’re the right coach, I’d be delighted for you to prove me and many others wrong.
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This is the way
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I doubt Brad reads this thread, and is even less likely to be telepathic.
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Brad has a really young talented squad in place for 2026 and should capitalise on it and show its full potential. We have had enough of hype and talk now it’s tine for action and wins.
This squad has to unite and perform for us no matter what and I hope that 2026 is not a repeat of the last few seasons.
This is Scotts best chance in his tenure to prove the doubters wrong
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Foxfooty has him at No. 5 on the coach’s pressure meter.
Voss is probably No 1 but I would put Scott not far behind him.
5. Brad Scott (Essendon)
This season was in some ways a write-off for Essendon after a cataclysmic year with injury, but with cavalry returning in 2026, winning improvement must come at Bomberland. And the product the Bombers put out this year wasn’t just injury-correlated — defending transition and scores has been a consistent issue with Scott in charge, as has ball movement going the other way. Tactical improvements should be on the agenda. Essendon won 11 games in both the 2023 and 2024 seasons before regressing to six this year, so it’s not unrealistic to say a spike back up to at least 10 wins should be a 2026 target for Scott — especially after the club desperately held on to Zach Merrett in the trade period.
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This is basically the whole game. The whole game has a been a consistent issue with Scott in charge, and the way the team has been told to play the whole game
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What happens if we are 2 and 6 after Anzac Day?
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Scott is in trouble if the club is going to assess him on a win/loss ratio in 26.
We’re now in rebuild mode.
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Blitz perspective or club?
On Blitz it’ll be the end of the world is near. Just like every other day.
Club wise, it’ll depend a bit more on performance and attendances. If we look competitive and don’t get completely smashed, Scott will hold his job to mid year at the very least.
He’s pretty much 2 (maybe even 3) demoralising losses (similar to the Adelaide or Bulldogs game last year) away from being in trouble.
If we don’t have one of those demoralising losses next year, he’s done an amazing job. Because I can’t think of a season in the last twenty years when one of those type of losses didn’t occur.
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I think you’ve nailed it there.
From the Blitz perspective, it doesn’t matter we all have opinions and will come back up the next week and hope & support the team.
The only real question lies with the Club, or maybe, only Welsh.
I think he knows we have to see massive improvement this year across the board.
Changes to the S&C regime mean they are safe, and if they are successful and get a fit list consistently available for selection, the focus will heavily fall on the coaches.
The Solomon decision is one that really interests me. To me, it is a demotion to go from a Board position to an Assistant Coach, so I wonder if there is something more at play?
But, I agree, performance perhaps more than results, will have a massive impact either way next year.
I think it’ll be more nuanced than that. The loud posters will continue to be loud and repetitive. Everyone else will be labelled a happy clapper as is usually the case. Regardless of whether you are more balanced or positive. That’s pretty common for a sports fanbase. Especially teams that have been as poor as we’ve been.
My take with no internal knowledge…
I think Solomon is better suited to be in a football department than in a board room. And opportunity presented itself and I think he took it.
Gia moving elsewhere caught us off guard. I don’t know if his contract was up or why it happened so late, but it left us in a spot where we didn’t have a great deal of options. We could have gotten Buckley, but he wouldn’t risk his chances of being the coach of the Tasmania team being trashed by joining us. It’s far easier to fit into a successful club and go from there.
Just taking a guess, but I don’t think Solly will be an assistant coach in 2027. I think he’s there to fill a role whilst we look for a better candidate. But if there is a coach sacking, he’s pretty much a monty to be the interim coach. I wouldn’t be surprised if he slides back into a football department role from 2027 onwards.
Personally, I don’t think Solly’s there to ‘keep Scott in check’ on behalf of the board as some have intimated. If that is the case, then half the players should just up and leave because that’s not an environment to get the best out of yourself. A functional coaching group has to be working together. But this is Essendon, so who knows.
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Take your point with the supporter groups and it’s valid, but, do the Board take any notice unless things like memberships, attendances, merchandise & the like drop off.
I also don’t agree that Solomon has been positioned to “keep Scott in check”.
Solly has always been highly regarding in his coaching roles and these skills will need to be adopted, embraced and utilised by the coaching group.
This were I think Welsh will be watching closely, as he is definitely showing himself to be the most hands on Chairman we have had in our modern history.
Holding a player to a contract is ‘desperate’?
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In general, businesses, companies and sports clubs would notice what occurs on-line but wouldn’t exactly act on them.
In the end, online discussion (like Blitz) is a small subset of your overall market and they usually prefer to remain unidentifiable and act differently to the way they do in public. So it’s tough to really address that.
They are more likely to listen and take action if you aren’t going on an emotional rant. I don’t expect anyone to engage with a ranting and raving member of the public. But it makes for great online content though.
Membership numbers directly correlate to the kinds of sponsorship money that comes into the club. So member engagement (not just membership sales) is important. It doesn’t mean they extend or sack a coach off the back of it though.
Attendance does have its place. It’s more of a marketing measure, but there’s no doubt that if people aren’t attending games because of the way you are performing, then it’s not sustainable to stay on that path. This past season can be ‘reasoned’. But the Knights last year and Rutten’s last year cannot be reasoned.
A lot of those metrics you mentioned won’t directly involve extending or firing a coach unless an extreme event occurs.
More commonly, those metrics mean we can’t have as many employees in membership services, as many employees in our marketing / social media department, etc. It will hit those areas before it hits the football department.
I’m not sure this is good or bad.
Eddie McGuire was an annoying president. Got people off-side and made tough decisions. In the end that was successful for him. He would get involved in football department matters. He’s spoken about tackling techniques with coaches then seen something different at AFLW level and acted on it. Some would just ‘stay in their lane’, he never would.
For some it can work, for others it may not.
I don’t know Welsh well enough to know if his version of hands on will work for him.
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Honestly, I really like that Welsh is hands on.
We have had enough, corporate and/or financial overlords. Welsh has played the game and understands player needs and requirements, yes time have changed, but I still feel he has a good understanding of what’s required.
The Solomon decision is a real positive in this area, in my opinion.
McGuire was very different because he wore 2 hats and needed to keep his media exposure current & relevant.
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