Coach Men's Senior Coach: Brad Scott

[Old Campaigner]

Then why trade him for a packet of chips?
Old mate wright wasn't best 22 by end of season and causes as much structural issues as Jake/langford minus any x factor, other clubs have shown contracts don't have to matter so why didn't we test the market with Peter. We just took the easiest option to show everyone we are "taking a stand".

There were some fairly obvious reasons why Stringer was moved on that had little to do with his on field performance. Attitude, buy-in and professionalism are clearly something the club is now putting a lot of emphasis on so I can understand why they might want to move on a best 22 player who is lacking in those areas while holding onto some guys on the fringes.

Hanging out with a convicted killer and possible organised crime member probably didn’t help either

 

[dank420_]

Overblown issue used by the club to get supporters to accept his departure.
Look where the club who has taken him continues to finish, Look at who the Cats took this trade period, Look who the hawks took a chance on in last years trade period. Look who the tigers best player was during their run? Good coaches/systems have a broad church of personalities in their squad and get them all working in same direction.

Well it wasn't just one issue but anyway.

Stringer is a good player but he does not suit our forward line. In the past we would have continued to shoe-horn it until he retired. You have seen this happen over the last ten years. And it should tell you a bit that this mercurial forward garnered barely any interest from anyone.

 

[Old Campaigner]

Overblown issue used by the club to get supporters to accept his departure.
Look where the club who has taken him continues to finish, Look at who the Cats took this trade period, Look who the hawks took a chance on in last years trade period. Look who the tigers best player was during their run? Good coaches/systems have a broad church of personalities in their squad and get them all working in same direction.

Yes I’m sure the club was drawing attention to the criminal invited into the rooms by a couple of players. Excellent optics, sponsors love the extra media coverage

 

[ant555]

Then why trade him for a packet of chips?
Old mate wright wasn't best 22 by end of season and causes as much structural issues as Jake/langford minus any x factor, other clubs have shown contracts don't have to matter so why didn't we test the market with Peter. We just took the easiest option to show everyone we are "taking a stand".

There was obviously something that went on with Wright as his manager did speak about it at one stage but he was not interested in leaving. There is a bit of difference between a guy with 3 years left and a guy we have simply said we are not prepared to extend on his last year.

I think it is pretty clear that Scott and Vozzo came in a bit blind and fell into some of the club opinions that we were better than we are.
I think they have now worked out the got sucked in or at least Vozzo has so Rosa is now the main player charged with fixing it and that leaves us looking at a wasted two seasons.

In many ways the board put us in this place by not having a unified plan. You can not dump a coach then miss your first two choices and then talk the next guy into it and then expect a guy who was not even thinking about coaching us to hit the ground running with some sort of list plan.

It was asking for trouble as there was always going to be a year with a limited plan and mistakes made due to not having a new list manager.
We have lost two years because we changed mid rebuild with no real plan on a new coach and CEO.

It may have been better for Truck to coach into 2023 and get sacked mid season. At least then the next coach would have been coming in with a plan.

 

[FlyingV]

Third season in, I don’t want to hear Scott talk about effort and driving standards. That should be a given and locked in.

I want to hear more about implementing a modern sustainable gameplan that prioritises transition football and staunch defence…. Or some other specific strategic trait/style of play. When Essendon play, I want it clear as day what we are trying to implement. IMO

 

[Zach Package]

A little bit happened in the off season not sure if you saw it.

That Roaming Brian thing was after the Pies game, so they have all this information in July.

Required enough to think he could do something if we make finals, not required enough to be worth anything, required enough to play him in a role we have earmarked for a first round draft pick a decade younger, not required enough for us to give him a multi year deal?

 

[dank420_]

That Roaming Brian thing was after the Pies game, so they have all this information in July.

Required enough to think he could do something if we make finals, not required enough to be worth anything, required enough to play him in a role we have earmarked for a first round draft pick a decade younger, not required enough for us to give him a multi year deal?

Again, are we upholding standards or not?

Did we want more out of Stringer? Yes.
Do we want more out of Perkins? Holy shit yes. In fact I don't know why he wasn't dropped earlier.

I don't understand the complaint to be honest.

 

[joey_jo_jo]

There was obviously something that went on with Wright as his manager did speak about it at one stage but he was not interested in leaving. There is a bit of difference between a guy with 3 years left and a guy we have simply said we are not prepared to extend on his last year.

I think it is pretty clear that Scott and Vozzo came in a bit blind and fell into some of the club opinions that we were better than we are.
I think they have now worked out the got sucked in or at least Vozzo has so Rosa is now the main player charged with fixing it and that leaves us looking at a wasted two seasons.

In many ways the board put us in this place by not having a unified plan. You can not dump a coach then miss your first two choices and then talk the next guy into it and then expect a guy who was not even thinking about coaching us to hit the ground running with some sort of list plan.

It was asking for trouble as there was always going to be a year with a limited plan and mistakes made due to not having a new list manager.
We have lost two years because we changed mid rebuild with no real plan on a new coach and CEO.

It may have been better for Truck to coach into 2023 and get sacked mid season. At least then the next coach would have been coming in with a plan.

yeah some fair points there, maybe its Scott copping the brunt of my displeasure but its a Club wide issue over the last two years.

The one thing I can definitely point at Scott is the change in approach in 2nd half of year to more short term planning based on our ladder position at the mid point of the season.

I know it comes to personal belief of what is the best approach as Both you and Lore say "we were a chance to make finals so thats why the did X and Y" and thats a perfectly valid view, but for me a personally (and I believe a couple of other supporters) we were happy to hear him talk about patience/8 year plans etc at start of year and we were happy to see him give younger guys more responsibility pre bye so its disappointing he fell back on tried and failed strategies/positioning etc in back half of year just because he saw a finals berth as a possibility.
I hate Sam Mitchell as much as any Essendon supporter does but I cant help but look back at the last two years of us all laughing at them languishing at the bottom whilst he tried to instil his style. But he didnt blink, Scott blinked.

 

[ant555]

Third season in, I don’t want to hear Scott talk about effort and driving standards. That should be a given and locked in.

I want to hear more about implementing a modern sustainable gameplan that prioritises transition football and staunch defence…. Or some other specific strategic trait/style of play. When Essendon play, I want it clear as day what we are trying to implement. IMO

Problem is they have had one season under Scott’s plan to drive standards and even start a team game plan. Like it or not 2023 was a mulligan. The Coach and CEO came in too late and not being first choice no in depth plan. The club painted themselves into a corner.
As far as game plan goes our biggest issue is actually execution. We can get the ball inside 50 . We can win centre clearance. We just have to work through the mess that has been left.
It is going to suck but they may have to bail on the 2020 build.

 

[ant555]

yeah some fair points there, maybe its Scott copping the brunt of my displeasure but its a Club wide issue over the last two years.

The one thing I will I can definitely point at Scott is the change in approach in 2nd half of year to more short term planning based on our ladder position at the mid point of the season.

I know it comes to personal belief of what is the best approach as Both you and Lore say "we were a chance to make finals so thats why the did X and Y" and thats a perfectly valid view, but for me a personally (and I believe a couple of other supporters) we were happy to hear him talk about patience/8 year plans etc at start of year and we were happy to see him give younger guys more responsibility pre bye so its disappointing he fell back on tried and failed strategies/positioning etc in back half of year just because he saw a finals berth as a possibility.
I hate Sam Mitchell as much as any Essendon supporter does but I cant help but look back at the last two years of us all laughing at them languishing at the bottom whilst he tried to instil his style. But he didnt blink, Scott blinked.

Sam has been involved in their build for 5 years . They stuck to their plan despite removing Clarkson from it when he wanted to change it 1 year in. The reason the Hawks are where they are is they had a plan. They had their future coach. They stuck to it and got it right. They did not change two years in and then miss their first two choices for coach.

Scott was right to keep looking at finals. We played pretty well until the end of July. The blink comes as a result of the fact we melted under pressure in the last 6 weeks. They have to now look at where we are going again after looking like we had taken a step forward.

 

[Zach Package]

Again, are we upholding standards or not?

Did we want more out of Stringer? Yes.
Do we want more out of Perkins? Holy shit yes.

I don't understand the complaint to be honest.

Quite clearly there is a disconnect when Stringer gets a free ride through the back end of the year and Wright gets bizarrely banished to the twos and then post season it's all love, cuddles and 'required player' talk for Wright and then with Stringer we can't wait to excise him from the club and never speak of him again.

Standards is great but you can't all of a sudden say 'we have standards and we stick by them' when everything you do says you don't.

I've already commented on how bizarre it is for Barham to come out post season and essentially say we are fair dinkum starting from right now but the obvious follow up question to that is what on earth did you think you were doing before?

 

[joey_jo_jo]

Quite clearly there is a disconnect when Stringer gets a free ride through the back end of the year and Wright gets bizarrely banished to the twos and then post season it's all love, cuddles and 'required player' talk for Wright and then with Stringer we can't wait to excise him from the club and never speak of him again.

Standards is great but you can't all of a sudden say 'we have standards and we stick by them' when everything you do says you don't.

I've already commented on how bizarre it is for Barham to come out post season and essentially say we are fair dinkum starting from right now but the obvious follow up question to that is what on earth did you think you were doing before?

Barham basically plagiarised Scotts presser at the end of 2023 season.

 

[jdstorm]

So if we were that deadset on excising Stringer to the point we view just getting him out the door as a win with nothing in return, and we see Perkins in that role, and they're all dead rubbers. Why does Scott pick Stringer in the seniors for the last month of the season?

Because not picking Jake whilst losing games is a great way to get fired

There was clearly a lot of political interference going on at the club. Hopefully with Dodo Sheeds and Hird at port there’s more stability, standards and competence

 

[Zach Package]

Barham basically plagiarised Scotts presser at the end of 2023 season.

I don't recall Scott being so pointed and overt. It's confused messaging in any event

 

[dank420_]

Quite clearly there is a disconnect when Stringer gets a free ride through the back end of the year and Wright gets bizarrely banished to the twos and then post season it's all love, cuddles and 'required player' talk for Wright and then with Stringer we can't wait to excise him from the club and never speak of him again.

Standards is great but you can't all of a sudden say 'we have standards and we stick by them' when everything you do says you don't.

I've already commented on how bizarre it is for Barham to come out post season and essentially say we are fair dinkum starting from right now but the obvious follow up question to that is what on earth did you think you were doing before?

But Stringer was miles ahead of Perkins and deserved the spot ahead of him. We were screaming for Perkins to get dropped because he was that bad. You can't look at these instances separately if you want to compare them at the same time. And if Stringer was getting a free ride then what about McKay/Redman/Laverde etc? He was performing better than all of them.

I feel like that has little to do with trading Stringer out anyway. The fallout from his contract length and the Hind stuff resurfacing was a lot to come back from.

 

[ant555]

What is not being taken into account is the fact we crashed under pressure when we looked to have improved from 2023 for half a season.
There is no doubt that changes their thinking. It comes too late to address contracts made in 2023. Until the end of July they would have been thinking 2024 was moving in the right direction without thinking top 4 .
Then we melt under pressure.

 

[Old Campaigner]

Third season in, I don’t want to hear Scott talk about effort and driving standards. That should be a given and locked in.

I want to hear more about implementing a modern sustainable gameplan that prioritises transition football and staunch defence…. Or some other specific strategic trait/style of play. When Essendon play, I want it clear as day what we are trying to implement. IMO

What if it’s not a given and locked in because there’s still the old Essendon stink about the place? Just give up on it and move onto stage two without the foundation in place?

 

[Old Campaigner]

Quite clearly there is a disconnect when Stringer gets a free ride through the back end of the year and Wright gets bizarrely banished to the twos and then post season it's all love, cuddles and 'required player' talk for Wright and then with Stringer we can't wait to excise him from the club and never speak of him again.

Standards is great but you can't all of a sudden say 'we have standards and we stick by them' when everything you do says you don't.

I've already commented on how bizarre it is for Barham to come out post season and essentially say we are fair dinkum starting from right now but the obvious follow up question to that is what on earth did you think you were doing before?

Talking about it is important though, and when the same message is coming from all levels of the club it carries far more weight (compared to when the coach says one thing, the CEO says nothing and the captain says yeah nah yeah she’ll be right knackers)

There’s little point in questioning what we thought we were doing up to now, clearly it was substandard. What’s important is what’s being done now and how we’re going about getting better

 

[FlyingV]

What if it’s not a given and locked in because there’s still the old Essendon stink about the place? Just give up on it and move onto stage two without the foundation in place?

Well then it’s a reflection on him. This is year three. He’s been saying the same thing since day one. Honeymoon period is over, he needs to show he has more strings to his bow then telling players to improve effort and standards.

 

[FlyingV]

Problem is they have had one season under Scott’s plan to drive standards and even start a team game plan. Like it or not 2023 was a mulligan. The Coach and CEO came in too late and not being first choice no in depth plan. The club painted themselves into a corner.
As far as game plan goes our biggest issue is actually execution. We can get the ball inside 50 . We can win centre clearance. We just have to work through the mess that has been left.
It is going to suck but they may have to bail on the 2020 build.

Yeah I get it’s early days, but the effort and standards stuff is now third season. I understand the gameplan not being adopted yet and agree that will take time, but that’s where I want to see more emphasis. Rather than ‘effort’. I hope he has the right strategists around him.

 

[Mercurial89]

Sam has been involved in their build for 5 years . They stuck to their plan despite removing Clarkson from it when he wanted to change it 1 year in. The reason the Hawks are where they are is they had a plan. They had their future coach. They stuck to it and got it right. They did not change two years in and then miss their first two choices for coach.

Scott was right to keep looking at finals. We played pretty well until the end of July. The blink comes as a result of the fact we melted under pressure in the last 6 weeks. They have to now look at where we are going again after looking like we had taken a step forward.

We need to stop with this fallacy,
We did not play good football this year, we had good results until the football we were playing was exposed for what it was and we fell in a heap.
Even in the initial wins we were not playing well.

In fact I think it was worse than his first year, in his first year we would go into games and you could see the coaching, you could see him take away opposition strengths or us change the way we played to exploit something, it was visible and tangible.

That didn't exist this year.

 

[Old Campaigner]

Well then it’s a reflection on him. This is year three. He’s been saying the same thing since day one. Honeymoon period is over, he needs to show he has more strings to his bow then telling players to improve effort and standards.

What if it’s something out of his control? Every coach has said the culture within the playing group has had to change (or words to that effect). Will the next one finally be the guy to turn it around?

 

[ant555]

We need to stop with this fallacy,
We did not play good football this year, we had good results until the football we were playing was exposed for what it was and we fell in a heap.
Even in the initial wins we were not playing well.

In fact I think it was worse than his first year, in his first year we would go into games and you could see the coaching, you could see him take away opposition strengths or us change the way we played to exploit something, it was visible and tangible.

That didn't exist this year.

Do not agree at all and I did not say good football. My view is we did play better football for a good part.

 

[FlyingV]

What if it’s something out of his control? Every coach has said the culture within the playing group has had to change (or words to that effect). Will the next one finally be the guy to turn it around?

I’m not saying to sack him.

I’m saying I want to see more from him than the dialogue about effort. I have question marks over his ability to implement a modern style of play that will stack up against the best. The way we concede goals and the level of confusion when defending transition is really concerning for me.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

What has become pretty clear over the last few months is rebuilding the list couldn’t happen with Dodoro there, and so is only starting now.

So many wasted years, what a mess.