The "embarrassing" sacking of Essendon coach Brad Scott | Gerard 's Editorial (26.06.26)
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What are Gerard's initial thoughts on Brad Scott's sacking?
Tuesday morning. This is your town. This is your station. This is Waitley. Good morning. What a shocking morning for a sacking. On that alone, Essendon stands to be damned. The club issued its valet Neil Danaher statement at five o'clock yesterday. I wonder where that fitted in with the bloody business of sacking a coach. So not the morning that I would have liked to share with you initially, but our 11 o'clock hour will be dedicated to Neil Danaher.
How did Essendon leadership contribute to the embarrassment of the sacking?
Chris Fagan will join me. 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. 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's made them look foolish. At Gather Round, the president was declaring the ambition Brad Scott would be the club's next premiership coach. The plan was rock solid. The notorious bomber factions wouldn't knock the club off course this time. Nobody asked Andrew Welsh to say it. He did it of his own accord. Last week, in his first public appearance, the chief executive expressed the club's resolve and backed Brad.
What was the public sentiment regarding Brad Scott's coaching strategy?
Nobody asked Tim Roberts to say it. He did it of his own accord. My word is oak. It's not a sentiment you'd apply to anyone in charge of the Bombers. They stand exposed as the worst kind of cliche today. Be quiet, make your assessments and act when you feel the time has arrived. Essendon looks like a club that had a plan but didn't understand the plan. Any study of recent rebuilds would have told you this would be the worst year. The darkest hour necessary to acquire the requisite talent on which the rise will eventually be built. And in the darkest hour, there will be a lot of losing.
What does Gerard say about the club's long-term plans?
The Bombers didn't make it to the halfway mark of the season. Like Carlton, Essendon's long suit is sacking coaches. It might be the only thing they're good at. The universal truth is there's a level of losing that can't be absorbed. It causes people to flinch and buckle and break their word. Regime change a few years back was attempted to break away from old Essendon and reinvent the club for the modern era. That has failed spectacularly. The president is gone. The chief executive is gone. And now the coach is gone.
How does Gerard view the recent changes in Essendon's management?
Old Essendon is being restored.
My commitment, and I think it takes a special kind of lunatic to actually lead this sort of thing, because if you weren't focused on the club's future and it was about just you and your position, you'd have a very different strategy. You'd go and get as many experienced players and high quality players as you could for the short term. We didn't do that. I fully endorse that strategy and support it. And I'm tasked with the responsibility of leading it. And I intend to see it through.
Are there weeks like the three coming where you do have to win? where all the planning of the future, you've got to get something in the here and now?
Yeah, well, I mean, we want to win every week.
What lessons can be learned from Essendon's coaching decisions?
But let's say, for example, you invert that question and say that rather than do we have to win, what if we do win them all and we win them convincingly? What changes? Do you think the club's with you? Do you sense that they are with you? Look, again, a fortunate thing for us is our president was on the board. He 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. But I don't think like that. No.
What does Gerard predict for Essendon's future after the sacking?
Because it's just unhelpful. 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.
Are there caveats, are there markers that are conditional on you at the moment?
No, no, we have KPIs as everyone would hope we would. And in my 15 or so odd years of being a head coach, I always present a set of KPIs to the board to measure progress. And so we have that, but no KPIs have been issued to me.
That was Brad Scott last Monday night on AFL 360.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What are Gerard's initial thoughts on Brad Scott's sacking?
0:00–0:29
2
How did Essendon leadership contribute to the embarrassment of the sacking?
0:29–1:17
3
What was the public sentiment regarding Brad Scott's coaching strategy?
1:17–2:00
4
What does Gerard say about the club's long-term plans?
2:00–2:37
5
How does Gerard view the recent changes in Essendon's management?
2:37–3:16
6
What lessons can be learned from Essendon's coaching decisions?
3:16–3:46
7
What does Gerard predict for Essendon's future after the sacking?
3:46–5:15
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Whateley
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