Brad Scott says Essendon blindsided him with sack

Brad Scott has broken his silence after being sacked as Essendon coach, saying he was “blindsided” by the decision while the Bombers have managed just one win in their last 24 games and sit bottom of the AFL with four points.

Brad Scott didn’t speak like a man delivering a rehearsed message on Tuesday night. He spoke like someone still processing how quickly everything changed.

After being removed as Essendon’s coach, Scott admitted he was “blindsided” by the decision. The former Essendon coach. who led the Bombers for two and a half seasons and finished with 29 wins. 46 losses and a draw. said the period hadn’t felt fundamentally different to other weeks—even as the club’s form has collapsed. Essendon have managed just one win in their last 24 games and sit dead last in the league on just four points.

“I suppose I was [blindsided], we’re going through a difficult period clearly but it hasn’t felt any different to other weeks,” Scott told Channel Seven on Tuesday night.

He argued he believed the plan he and the club had put in place would be given time. Scott said he had been “really well supported over a really long period of time with the plan we put in place,” and insisted the staff had been aligned around that direction.

“All the key people were a part of that plan and building that plan so it felt business as usual to me,” he said. “We clearly articulated the risk going into this season and the difficulty we may face but we believe in the plan and I still believe in the plan.”

Scott also said he was committed to seeing it through. describing his responsibility not just to the strategy but to the playing group and the players re-contracted as part of it. “I was committed to seeing it through. and committed to the playing group and all the players we re-contracted as part of that plan.”.

He conceded that surprise was real, but framed it against the reality of his profession. “So yeah it was surprising, but in a way, I’ve been in this industry a long time and it wasn’t surprising because pressure does strange things.”

For Scott, the sacking wasn’t the only flashpoint. He also spoke about Essendon’s decision to retain Zach Merrett, calling it a “club decision” and saying he did not agree with it. When asked if he thought it was the right move, Scott responded: “No.”

Scott said his view was shaped by how Merrett had served the club through “multiple strategies and multiple coaches.” “My view was that Zach had given incredible service to the Essendon football club. he had been through multiple strategies and multiple coaches. ” Scott said. “My view is always you invest in the team and you put the team first and Zach found that really hard to do at the end of last year. and I felt for him and I felt for his family.”.

He said Merrett’s stance wasn’t selfish. “I didn’t think he was being selfish, I thought he had been promised things over and over again and he was at his wits’ end and he couldn’t invest in the team anymore.”

Scott went further, saying he believed the club should have traded Merrett when he wanted to switch to Hawthorn in the offseason. “We should have let him go but the club view is we should keep him and what the club’s view is, is my view and I fronted that.”

Where Scott’s comments became most pointed was around Essendon’s broader approach—especially the part that requires patience from supporters. He said he believed the supporters were going to “hate” him for it: a rebuilding strategy built around drafting younger players and deprioritising older. more experienced ones.

“‘It’s attack the draft, forgo older, more experienced players to bring in draft picks and build the list organically from the bottom up,’” Scott said.

He also described the challenge of communicating that message while trying to keep senior players fired up every week. “This was another huge challenge of the job. in that it is very difficult to simultaneously articulate that we are rebuilding while trying to galvanise a group of senior players that we want to win every week.”.

Scott said it was hard enough internally, but the public message was the bigger emotional lift. “To explain to your supporters that we want to win every week but it’s going to be hard.”

When the strategy began, Scott said he expected backlash immediately. “When we embarked on that strategy, I thought ‘gee the supporters are going to hate me.’ because it’s going to be hard and we are vulnerable.”

He acknowledged how slim the odds of completing such a plan can be, saying Essendon hadn’t embarked on it “this century,” and that he understood what that meant. “But I wanted to embark on a strategy that Essendon hadn’t embarked on this century and I knew the odds of seeing it through are slim.”

Scott painted the supporters’ likely reaction in blunt terms, then tried to justify why he still believed in the path. “The supporters are going to hate this. and it’s going to be hard. why would you do this?” Scott said. “And the answer was because it was the right thing to do and I still think it was the right thing to do.”.

His final message held on to the idea that time might soften the anger. “In time when the supporters see these kids come together, the supporters might look back and think ‘maybe we don’t hate him as much now’.”

That was Scott’s through-line on Tuesday night: he believed in the plan. believed the club’s key people were aligned on it. and felt the decision to sack him came with a sense of shock—at a moment when the results have offered only one win in the past 24 games and Essendon remain pinned to the bottom of the ladder on four points.

Brad Scott Essendon AFL coach sacked Zach Merrett Hawthorn rebuild plan Channel Seven AFL ladder