Menu
Sign In Search Podcasts Libraries Charts People & Topics Add Podcast API Blog Pricing
Podcast Image

SEN Breakfast

EMERGENCY FIREBALL POD - Brad Scott Sacked (26.05.26)

26 May 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What led to the sacking of Brad Scott as Essendon coach?

0.031 - 23.936 Tom Morris

fire at all yes idd this footy season and get your warehouse working smarter visit dexianvictoria.com.au today and switch to a kogan mobile low price phone plan kogan.com click an awesome kane and king fire What we can tell you tonight on the agenda setters is it's make or break over the next two or three weeks for Brad Scott.

0

23.956 - 41.04 Tom Morris

And I've spoken to several people close to Andrew Welsh in the business world today and they believe he's categorically a ruthless leader as well who would also make the hard call if required. A bad loss to Richmond would mean it's in jeopardy next week. To be fair, Brad Scott wouldn't know. The club will back him until they don't back him.

0

41.071 - 74.704 Unknown

The fortunate thing for us is our president was on the board, wasn't president but he was on the board when this strategy was put together and our CEO was on the board when the strategy was put together so they are all in on it. My job is to lead this strategy through and I just do my job. I don't worry too much about what might happen in the future. at the MCG, 10-14-74.

0

74.724 - 92.324 Unknown

And the boys from the hangar are going back to the house of Ferris, 7-14-56. A three goal win by Richmond. That's, again, the pleasing thing that there's fight there, but there's also a scoreboard. And at the end of the day, that's really all anyone cares about. Brad Scott has just been sacked as the coach of the Essendon Football Club. So one win since May 23 last year.

0

92.425 - 106.965 Unknown

Obviously took over ahead of the 2023 season. He's been told last night that... His tenure as coach of Essendon has finished. There was a board meeting last night, obviously an unscheduled one, and I'm told that was an off-site board meeting.

Chapter 2: What were the key metrics influencing Brad Scott's coaching tenure?

106.985 - 115.358 Unknown

The board gathered. It was in that meeting that they decided that Brad Scott's time as the coach of Essendon would cease, and they'll appoint an interim coach for the remainder of this season.

0

115.895 - 132.653 David King

You would not believe it. We are back for an emergency fireball podcast. We've gathered the team. The triple agent is here. Tom Morris is here. My co-host, David King, is also here. Brad Scott, sacked. Kingy. How you feel?

0

132.673 - 133.894 Unknown

Hell you go.

0

133.914 - 145.419 David King

You ain't nothing but a liar. I pull receipts out of the fire. But they'll play fine with me. They'll play fine with me. Oh, hang on.

0

145.539 - 147.226 Unknown

They will. They'll play fine with me. Yeah!

Chapter 3: How did the Essendon board's decisions impact Brad Scott's future?

147.246 - 149.496 Unknown

Yeah!

0

150.893 - 166.976 Kane Cornes

Is that the biggest cock up of a call you've ever made? Yes. He won one game since you said that and has been sacked. Apple will sit out of the fire. What are we doing? I never want to see you pull another receipt out on TV that's going to usurp that one.

0

167.417 - 170.421 David King

What are we doing? Well, you'd be happy. You've got your man.

0

171.008 - 173.474 Kane Cornes

Got my man. Yes. I didn't fire the bullets. That was Tommy.

0

173.835 - 187.228 David King

I didn't fire any bullets. We'll get to your point of view shortly. Tom, you are here. Welcome to you as well. Thanks for joining us again. How do we find ourselves today here with Essendon looking for another coach?

Chapter 4: What role did player development play in Brad Scott's coaching evaluation?

187.613 - 207.619 Tom Morris

It's the most Essendon thing ever, isn't it? Essendon and Carlton sack coaches. That's what they do. They cycle through them. And we saw it with Michael Voss two weeks ago, and we're seeing it with Brad Scott now at Essendon. So my understanding is the writing was on the wall three or four weeks ago when Andrew Welsh did a host of media interviews.

0

208.22 - 224.749 Tom Morris

And those media interviews, he said, we want Brad Scott to be our next premiership coach. But it was missed until we brought it up on the agenda setters that he had to hit particular metrics for... for him to get the chance to be the next premiership coach. Now, those metrics, as we reported, included team defence and play development.

0

225.09 - 234.192 Tom Morris

And it became abundantly clear to people at Essendon that he was hitting neither of these metrics. Players were not developing, and if they were not quick enough or not enough...

0

234.172 - 261.715 Tom Morris

and team defense was terrible that no team has conceded more points in 2026 than essendon and in the end it came down to a bit like michael voss how many losses and we discussed this last night kane can brad scott absorb before his number is called out and brad scott's language changed across the journey as well uh he started to talk in a way that i think was reputation preservation mode which was understandable from his perspective

0

261.695 - 280.652 Tom Morris

And then across the weekend, the Essendon board met after they lost to Richmond. They then met off-site on Monday when it was confirmed late last night internally that Brad Scott would be sacked. And then he was told the news very early this morning by Andrew Welsh. And then the players had a meeting at 8am. That was pushed back to 9am. And they were told then as well.

280.672 - 282.977 Tom Morris

And then they trained without Brad Scott out there.

Chapter 5: What are the implications of Brad Scott's sacking for Essendon's future?

283.075 - 298.536 David King

So you've been covering this extensively, particularly you've ramped it up in the last fortnight. You knew more than Brad. I asked you this. How can that be possible that Brad Scott had no line of sight on what the club was thinking and the direction they were going in, but you did?

0

298.516 - 311.592 Tom Morris

No, Brad Scott had a very clear line of sight on the overall strategy of the club, but he didn't have a line of sight on his own position within that strategy. And that is, I think, quite normal for someone to be sacked without knowing that they're about to be sacked, isn't it?

0

312.032 - 333.798 David King

Well, not when you start hearing the media noise. Usually when people like yourself or Caro or Mitch start talking about this... Usually it's a pretty good indication that something is bubbling behind the scenes and people are talking. So unless he's living under a rock and he's not watching any media coverage, it would be strange for me to think that Brad had no idea this was coming.

0

333.918 - 351.978 Tom Morris

I think leaders of a football club, in particular the two leaders at the moment, Tim Roberts did an interview with Mitch Cleary last week. They are entitled to assure Brad Scott that he is the man until he is not the man. I'm not sure they need to give him a heads up. and say that we're thinking about sacking you, like let's just see how next week goes. Just lie about it.

0

351.998 - 367.836 Tom Morris

Well, you're the man until you're not. I think that's often how these things go. Not just with sackings, but also with delistings as well. You are backing him until you can't back him anymore, and they've won one game in a year, one of their last 24 matches. They lost to Richmond, albeit depleted by injury, so were the Tigers on the weekend.

Chapter 6: How does the potential return of James Hird affect Essendon?

367.896 - 385.596 Tom Morris

And the week before was significant, Kane. This is when I first started to get my antenna up. Because they had a terrible crowd there against Freo. And the supporter base, which already has a lot of scar tissue from 22 years of no finals wins, is impatient. Yeah. And they're being asked to be more patient. And Brad Scott wasn't seen as the person. And there was 25,000 there.

0

385.616 - 388.564 David King

And they started to leave early. That was monumental. Kingy, right call?

0

389.81 - 409.474 Kane Cornes

I told you this day one, mate. And it goes back, and there's some people that have got some fingerprints on this that will be very uncomfortable today. And Kevin Sheedy, to his credit, when he was on that boat in the back of Mayhawk or wherever it was, he voted for James Hurd. And the club said it was a unanimous decision to appoint Brad Scott.

0

409.855 - 426.197 Kane Cornes

And he got on the phone straight away and said, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa. was not unanimous. I voted for Heard and he copped a lot of fallout for that. And true to his word sheets, has stuck to that tone and that focus since. Of course it's the right move.

0

Chapter 7: What challenges does the new coach face at Essendon?

426.758 - 437.873 Kane Cornes

You can't live like this. This club's in disarray. And I think we've heard a lot of words. And Brad's a great talker. He manages up better than anyone I've ever met.

0

437.954 - 446.846 David King

And I think that in the end... Explain to me how he manages up. Can you give us a real-life example of what that means?

0

447.186 - 471.236 Kane Cornes

Well, you saw it last week. He put those people on the same hook that he was on. Shouldn't they be, though? Shouldn't they be? Well, their job is to run the football club, and a major part of that is performance. Brad, perform. We don't want to hear it. We want to see it. And I look at the on-field stuff, and in the end, I ask you, how do Essendon play? You couldn't tell me. You really couldn't.

0

471.256 - 473.799 Kane Cornes

And I'm not asking. I'm just saying there's no system.

0

Chapter 8: How can Essendon rebuild after Brad Scott's departure?

474.079 - 495.302 Kane Cornes

There was no absolute non-negotiables for this football club. Everyone talked about training stands. All waffle, all wash. There's confusion everywhere with how they play. I showed Vision two weeks ago on first crack of Fremantle versus Essendon, and they're all chasing the ball like an Oz kick pack. That's not AFL footy. That's miles away.

0

495.923 - 507.776 Kane Cornes

So from an absolute footy point of view, just an on-field point of view, it's a mess. And there's not one player can play to his best capabilities when there's no consistency and there's confusion.

0

507.796 - 528.444 David King

So he would say, and let me be devil's advocate here, he would say, well, it's pretty hard to have that structure to find a way on how you want to play when your most important defender's never there. Ridley's not there. When McKay is like... a shell of a footballer. Now you may say, well, that's, that's Brad's fault for not getting the best out of Ben. Well, he's never been a superstar, has he?

0

528.484 - 532.972 David King

He's been better than what we've seen. Yeah. They paid a million bucks a year for him. Would you say that?

0

533.393 - 537.821 Kane Cornes

You're saying they paid a million bucks a year for a product that they knew was this?

538.762 - 555.047 David King

Well, there was the most bizarre decision we've seen, that figure. And we know that, and we called that out at the time, but It's hard to have success when your senior players are as pathetic as what the Essendon senior players. They are pathetic. That's really harsh, I think. They are pathetic. You give him too many outs.

555.307 - 558.413 Kane Cornes

You're in his camp. You've spoken to him in the past.

558.493 - 560.757 David King

And you're in the other extreme. I'm real.

560.737 - 566.289 Kane Cornes

Today, you have to say, I'm a realist, and I saw this coming minute one.

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.