Brad Scott

Were you blindsided by this?

I suppose I was, yeah.

It felt like business as usual to me that we'd clearly articulated the risks going into this season and the difficulties we may face.

But...

We believe in the plan and I still believe in the plan, you know, and I'm committed to seeing it through and committed to the playing group and to all the players we re-contracted as part of that plan.

So, yeah, it was surprising, but it's, in a way, I've been in this industry for a long time, it's not surprising because...

Pressure does strange things.

It's fair to say that's a club decision to retain Zach.

Did you agree with that decision?

No.

And why?

My view was that Zach had given incredible service to the Essendon Football Club.

He'd been through multiple strategies, multiple coaches, been made promises on multiple occasions.

And...

i believe he'd reached a point where he wasn't you know my view was always you put that 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 so i think he was being selfish no i didn't think he was being selfish i thought i thought he would he had been promised things over and over again he was he was at his wit's end and he couldn't invest in the team anymore um now he certainly does through his actions on field but um

And, you know, my view was that we should let him go.

But the club's view was that we should keep him.

So, again, my view is what the club's view is.

And I fronted that.

And he was so powerful for that group at that time and provided a great edge.