SEN Breakfast
Reaction - Garry and Tim unpack Essendon's decision to sack Brad Scott (26.05.26)
25 May 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the breaking news about Brad Scott's sacking?
Welcome everyone to the 26th day of May, my mum's birthday by the way, so I'm not sure if she listens to us or not. Happy birthday. And Rod Grinter as well, same day, always, May 26th birthday. On a day that Brad Scott has been sacked as Essendon coach, that is the big and latest breaking news this morning, Mitch Cleary breaking that news.
But also on a day that we're remembering another Essendon great and a Melbourne great in Neil Danaher. And the tributes this morning have been just overwhelming. And we thank everyone for it. The contributions from David Neitz and Paul Hopgood have been great. Terry Danaher joined us as well. You can catch all of that on the podcast.
Chapter 2: How do Garry and Tim reflect on Neil Danaher's contributions?
Cameron Schwab will join us. But we just had to change gears ever so slightly here because of the Brad Scott news.
We do. And I'll answer the question you posed to me before we went to the break too. But also this, and I know Ben, our producer, is out the back listening. We will put a call in to Kevin Sheedy. If you remember rightly, he was the only one on the board at that time that voted against Brad Scott, actually being the coach of SM1 to Kevin Sheedy.
He wanted James Hurd to be the coach before they appointed Brad Scott. Now, he'd be an interesting conversation, Kevin Sheedy, this morning.
Yeah, we'll try and if we can get Kev on, we will. Which is my point. I'm not pumping up for Hurdy or saying that he shouldn't coach. giving you is my observations as an impartial who has access to a supporter base. Now, there would be pro-Essendon or Essendon fans that are sending messages through and there'd be non-Essendon fans that might be saying, I can't differentiate between the two.
I haven't got their membership. You can put your membership code in. But right now, on the basis of 400 odd messages since we announced this, it's a 70-30. in favour of James Heard. I can see that. I know there's emotion attached to it. And you can disagree. As I said, I just get the feeling, and you can tell me otherwise. You're closer to it.
My observations of this Essendon situation is that it doesn't matter what they do. There's a pro-Heard camp and an anti-Heard camp, and until... Either you get success or give Hurdy the go, then that's going to remain a fractured footy club.
Yeah, I'm in a difficult position because I'm a friend of James. I'll say what I said last time before they chose Brad Scott to be the coach. You run a proper coach search. That's what you do. That's what all the good clubs do, and that's how they've arrived at really good coaches for their teams because they've run that process. We ran the process last time.
Brad Scott was chosen, and for whatever reason, and there'll be lots of conversation that'll come out around why it was that they decided to make this move now. I spoke to you last year about this, and this is what was coming loud and clear to me. And I went on the record and I said this. At that point, he had a problem. We had all these players that wanted to leave.
There was a communication issue where they thought that the coach wasn't communicating correctly with the players.
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Chapter 3: What insights does Kevin Sheedy provide on Brad Scott's coaching?
Now, I'm sure he would have a different view of that. He's probably got a different view of it now. He's got a different style associated with the way that he does his coaching. But what we do know now in this day and age, and there may be an outlier occasionally, but it is about relationship building. It is about that.
We know a lot of the coaches, they do a lot of work in this area about relationship building. If you're not doing that- it would appear as a coach in the modern day, then you're behind the other coaches in the business. I don't know whether he fixed that. I know the club acknowledged at the time that they had a problem in that area and they moved to change a couple of positions around that.
One was bringing in Dean Solomon, who's got a great reputation as being a very charismatic people type person and a relationship builder. And they brought him in. There is a suggestion, and Tom Morris spoke about this last night on the agenda setters. Have we got it? This is what he had to say last night.
I don't think anything's changed from what I said last week, Hutchie, which is, I think last week I said it's a big two to three weeks for Brad Scott. Now I'd say it's a big one to two weeks for Brad Scott. I would still be very surprised if he reaches the end of the year and I'd be even more surprised if he coaches on into next year. I think the writing's very much on the wall.
So Dean Solomon joined the board in December 2024 and then October 2025 he joined the Essendon coaching panel. Now my understanding is that he has a really ordinary relationship sorry, working relationship, Dean Solomon, with Brad Scott.
I can't shed any light on that because I've never had a conversation with anyone about that, his relationship with Brad Scott, Dean Solomon. But I know the area that SM were most concerned around was the development of their players and the strategy that was... being played out around that. And there were different philosophies within the four walls of the football club around that.
And I don't believe that they were necessarily meeting with what the administration of the club expected and wanted to go with going forward.
I can't add anything other than I know that Dean Solomon, who I've got enormous respect for, I've got respect for Brad as well, but Dean Solomon is very close to James Heard. I'm not being scurrilous. I'm just giving you the details.
No, and that is correct. And they all know each other really well. Like, Woosha knows Hurdy really well, and the three of them, they know each other really well, too. Why, in your mind, would you back the move of James? I don't know whether or not he would even want to contemplate putting himself through this process again and be.
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Chapter 4: What are the fans' sentiments regarding James Hird's potential return?
Oh, no, you can't. No, you can't. And I've felt that for some time. And I said to you, early in the year, I said to you, I don't know whether we even talked about this on air or off air, but I've attended a couple of functions where I've been there with James on the stage. And I think we talked about it one morning. I said-
You cannot believe the rank and file Essendon fan that turned up to these nights and how pro James Heard they are. But they don't appoint coaches. No, they don't. But how many of those people would want James Heard to come back and be the coach of Essendon?
Yeah, well, I'm looking at it right now. Now, supporters don't appoint coaches, but if there is... I don't know. With a club that is struggling, their membership is still there, but their attendances have dropped off a bit, although the Dreamtime game was a great result.
That's right. You've got passion around this, but this is not about a Messiah. This has to be a strategic appointment. as the senior coach of the football club. And you would want somebody that's had experience. You want somebody that understands the lay of the land. You would want somebody also that is happy to buy in to where the club strategy has been placed publicly.
And that is that we are going through a rebuild. We are trying to accumulate as much young talent as we possibly can as quickly as we can and build a solid foundation. But we need a builder. We need people who can develop. Does Hurd tick those boxes? Well, he hasn't been able to prove that he's capable of doing that.
But in discussions I've had without breaking confidence, he does understand a lot about development. And he has done a lot of work in that area around development with people that have been at the pointy end of development in NFL football. So I think he does understand that.
Yeah. Yeah. Please, I'm not stirring any pot. No, you're not. No one's saying I am, by the way. But I'm just saying and looking at it going, does anyone else have a chance? if they're appointed coach of the Essendon Footy Club over James Heard, of uniting them. They do. They do. If James Kelly could.
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Chapter 5: How do internal club dynamics affect coaching decisions at Essendon?
No, they do because you've got to get in there from day one. You've got to speak the right language. Like I said to you before about Stephen King from day one. Okay. He was starting to win the Melbourne people. Before they even started playing, he was starting to win the Melbourne people, right?
But there was no golden sun sitting in the background of the Melbourne Footy Club. Essendon people want success.
They want the right person. Right now, a lot of people think that that might be James Heard. But if somebody came in and demonstrated to them that they are a builder, they speak the right language, they talk to the fans, the fan believes that they're there, they're embedded, and they're... part of the football club and they sell that part of it and then they get out there and they coach.
I don't think there's any Essendon fan out there that expects that Essendon are going to go from where they are right now, a change of coach, and then they're going to be premiership favourites next year. No.
Anybody that watches Essendon play know that it's going to be a build, but they want to get on board the build and they want to believe that this build is going to reset the football club, which is the thing that they haven't been believing.
We're going to get to Cameron Schwab and we'll talk about Neil Downhurst shortly. Get back Cameron's relationship with Neil. What does, if it just, James heard the point, what happens? The supporter base unite. Surely, that's what I'm seeing here. The members, the money men unite. That's what I'm told unequivocally, that the big heavy hitters would get right behind James.
And then the players, his capacity to walk into a room and have those players look at him and go, wow. He's still got a coach.
All that before he actually stands before the players and outlines his plan and strategy. Just spitballing. I understand that. And his philosophy and all those sorts of things.
What if he brings Lloyd with him and he brings a team? I don't think Lordo's going to go. But what if he brings a team of Essendon type or footy people that are going to inspire?
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