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Another season is almost done, and another pathetic year from Essendon.
It’s the most common theme in all of footy. They’re a legitimate laughing stock.
In Brad Scott’s two years in charge, the Bombers’ fall from grace in the back third of the season has been swift and brutal.
Last year, Essendon sat fifth on the ladder after Round 17, before plummeting to 11th. This season, they were fourth on the ladder after Round 18, and are going to finish in either 11th or 12th position.
On both occasions, Blind Freddy could see their lofty ladder positions were fool’s gold only.
In terms of their ladder percentage, which is often a truer reflection of where a club sits than pure wins and losses, in both years it has been ranked bottom four.
That’s right. Bottom four.
In both seasons under Scott, they have given up the fourth most points in the league.
Ben McKay was recruited as a gun for hire to help stiffen up the defence. That hasn’t happened. He’s just another in a long line of Bomber backmen that oscillate between being good ordinary players and outright jobbers.
Andrew McGrath. Jayden Laverde. Mason Redman. Jake Kelly. Dyson Heppell… Yawn.
Essendon are going so badly that they even stuffed up Heppell’s retirement. His career has been tragic for a long-serving player, losing a season to the peptide scandal, playing in only five finals and losing them all by an average of 48 points.
But after 14 years at the club, including being banned for one of them, the former captain, best and fairest winner and all-round nice guy couldn’t even get a final game in front of his home fans.
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Brad Scott has form in this area. He forced Brent Harvey, Drew Petrie and Michael Firrito out of North Melbourne, all of them honourable long-term servants of the club.
This was a year after bringing 32-year-old Jarrad Waite over from Carlton, and two years before Scott himself walked out on the Roos.
Scott could obviously see what was coming at North, which has been 15 wins between 2020-24.
Somehow, he has stolen a living as a senior coach for 12 years and counting, almost certainly because of his twin brother, who has proven to be exceptional.
They are not the same person, that’s for sure.
(Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images)
Yet here he is at Essendon, with no improvement evident after 24 months, and after being gifted the easiest fixtures across that time. This shouldn’t be a surprise given he was working at AFL House prior to this current coaching job.
This year, the Bombers have gotten to play the bottom six on the ladder a combined 10 times. Last year, they got both West Coast and North Melbourne twice each, four of the easiest wins any club got in 2023.
Around this time last year, after Essendon had lost their final two games by a combined 200 points, I wrote how they had a leadership vacuum epitomized by the softness of Zach Merrett.
Once again, with the season well and truly on the line (after all, the reason Heppell wasn’t picked was because finals were still a possibility and the team needed to attack the game with full fervour), Merrett was nowhere to be seen.
Only six contested possessions, his third lowest for the year, only two tackles, his lowest, and his 17 disposals was his lowest tally since Round 9, 2022.
If it’s unfair to pin one bad game on Merrett, after he actually has set a high standard and played with edge and hunger, then so be it.
That’s the price of leadership, and especially so when he is the captain of a player group that was more than happy to publicly declare how hard they worked in the off-season, how much the game means to them, and the rest of the crap that is easy to say and hard to do.
Essendon coach Brad Scott. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Plus there’s the same old problem of Merrett being part of a midfield that is just so small.
For so long they haven’t had anyone of significant size in there, apart from Jake Stringer in bursts, and his form fluctuates wildly.
Bringing in another weedy type like Xavier Duursma from Port has hardly helped either.
Scott is also a particularly poor developer of young talent, as any North fan will tell you. Even this year, players that have improved as individuals, are not young players.
Sam Durham was developed at Richmond, Jye Caldwell at GWS, Nic Martin and the overrated Sam Draper, both mature-agers.
Meanwhile, Ben Hobbs has gone backwards under Scott’s tutelage and Elijah Tsatas has never got going. Both were high draft picks.
Massimo D’Ambrosio was under-developed so far backwards under Scott that he left the club and is now, under a proper coach, knocking on the door of All-Australian contention at Hawthorn.
Even Nate Caddy, who is clearly an elite talent and the clear future of Essendon, Scott has seemingly only played him under sufferance.
It’s not like the Dons have stockpiled draft picks this year either, with only two picks in the top 60 as the order currently stands.
The sad part is that they think they should be contending in the here and now. But then again, delusion has always been part of the DNA at Windy Hill.
Brad Scott can’t coach, leadership is lacking, the midfield is too small, the defence is too bland, and the forward line doesn’t kick enough goals.
Fix those five things, and Essendon can think about losing finals again.