Gerard Whateley has hit out at Essendon for announcing Brad Scott’s sacking on Tuesday, just hours after the club legend Neale Daniher’s death was announced the previous day, calling it a shocking time and branding the decision-making around the coach as embar
Gerard Whateley didn’t mince words on Tuesday morning as Essendon confirmed Brad Scott had been sacked as coach.
The timing landed like a punch in a sport already grieving. Neale Daniher’s death was announced on Monday afternoon, throwing the AFL into mourning. Then Scott learned he was being axed on Tuesday morning in a meeting with Bombers president Andrew Welsh. only a day after the club’s vale statement for Daniher went out at 5 o’clock.
“What a shocking morning for a sacking,” Whateley said on SEN on Tuesday. “On that alone, Essendon stands to be damned.”
Whateley pointed directly at the club’s schedule. questioning where the grief messaging fit against the club’s “bloody business” of making the coaching call. “The club issued its vale Neale Daniher statement at five o’clock yesterday,” he said. “I wonder where that fitted in with the bloody business of sacking a coach.”.
He added that the only way he would have liked to start the day was very different: “Not the morning news I would’ve liked to share with you initially, but our 11 o’clock hour will be dedicated to Neale Daniher.”
At Tuesday’s press conference, Welsh began by paying tribute to Daniher before moving to explain why Scott was dismissed. Whateley said the dismissal itself also reflected poorly on the way Essendon’s leadership handled its decision-making.
“The Bombers have just become the most embarrassing example of a club offering the full support of the board just before it sacks the coach. ” he said. “The compulsion of Essendon’s leaders to spread their nonsense publicly rather than keep their counsel and assess their options was a flawed strategy in real time. It made them look foolish.”.
Whateley also referenced how recently the club had backed Scott. “Bombers top brass including Andrew Welsh had backed Scott to the hilt as recently as Gather Round last month,” he said.
He then sharpened his criticism of Essendon’s pattern of leadership churn. “Like Carlton, Essendon’s long suit is sacking coaches,” Whateley continued. “It might be the only thing they’re good at.”
Scott, 50, has now paid the price for Essendon’s dismal start to the AFL season. The Bombers had won just one of their first 11 games, with their ladder position sinking further after Friday night’s loss to Richmond, an ugly defeat that anchored Essendon to the bottom of the ladder.
That result extended a club record-length slide. Essendon this year also equalled their club-record losing streak of 17 games, including the final 13 matches of their 2025 campaign. The club hasn’t won a final since the 2004 elimination final. and that unwanted run now appears set to continue beyond this season.
Essendon’s only win in 2026 came against Melbourne in Gather Round in early April. Whateley’s concerns about the club’s direction sit against a season that’s offered few highlights beyond performances from younger players such as Sullivan Robey, Dyson Sharp and Nate Caddy.
Scott’s exit comes after 80 games at the helm, with a record of 29 wins, 50 losses and one draw. In March 2025, he signed a one-year extension through to the end of the 2027 season—an agreement that was intended to bring stability to the battling Bombers.
Now, Essendon are already looking ahead to their next senior coach, with the club set for its third senior coach in five seasons.
It’s a sequence of decisions that has collided with a day meant for remembrance—Daniher’s death announced on Monday afternoon, the club’s vale statement issued at 5 o’clock, and then a sacking decision delivered the next morning in a meeting between Scott and president Andrew Welsh.
Gerard Whateley Essendon Brad Scott Neale Daniher AFL SEN coach sacking Andrew Welsh Tim Roberts
Seems messed up to sack him right after that, like what were they thinking.
I didn’t even know Neale Daniher died until this. But also how is this on the coach? Aren’t there contracts and whatever?
So they did the funeral vibes at 5 o’clock and then immediately did the firing next morning? That’s insane. Also Whateley says “stands to be damned” like… ok but did anyone check if they already had to announce it by then? Maybe the decision was made days ago and they’re just timing the press.
Essendon always acts like drama is part of the game. If they were “grieving” why does it still turn into a board meeting and press conference. I feel bad for everyone but also I’m confused because coaches get sacked all the time like why this exact day??