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Chapter 1: What led to the sacking of Brad Scott at Essendon?
Our leadership portfolio and actually our sacked coach portfolio, because it always happens on Tuesday, is run by Luke Hodge. Hello to you, Hodgey.
Morning, Gerard. You sort of sit back here and go, where should we start? Do you go through the draft failures they've had over the past?
Do you go through the fact that the coach and the off-field side of things, they're not on the same page from the communication that they've all given and even to what you just played before with Brad Scott and how he was saying he was fortunate because the now president and the now CEO was on the board at the time.
Or do you go through the instability of the board, the fact that the sacking of Brad can get leaked out? Do we compare him to Carlton, as you mentioned before, where we've spoken about how poor Carlton have been about throwing out a coach whenever things have got tough because of outside noises and the board have faltered to it. But Essendon have had more coaches since 2008 than Carlton.
So you sort of sit back and go, everyone talks about these big clubs, the history of these two big clubs, the premierships, they've been insignificant for a long period of time. And there's a reason for that.
So this day last week, we sat here and you urged them, hold the line, see it through. It didn't even last a week.
No, we were way off, weren't we? You sort of sit back and go, if he had a clear run of coming in and there was no issues, you could probably understand that.
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Chapter 2: How do Essendon's coaching decisions compare to Carlton's?
But since he's been in charge, they've just come out of that, let's hit the draft. So everyone knew Tassie were coming in. Everyone knew that the same as what happened with Gold Coast, the same as what happened with GWS. Tassie were coming in and the AFL do not want Tasmania to fail. So they're going to give them an unbelievable draft team.
They're going to give people the picks they could trade on. But the top 10 to 15, the quality ones that you have to rebuild your list, majority of those are going to be put towards the Tasmanian team so they don't take a long time, like the Gold Coast Suns have, to have some success. So, you sort of go through what they've been.
So, since 2020, the failures of the draft where they've had five first rounders that I'm looking at going, in 2020, pick number eight was Cox, nine was Perkins, ten was Reid. The next year, Hobbs was three, sorry, was 13. Sardis was four. You compare that to a Brisbane Lions of now, and you go through the draft hand that they had.
They went through two years of Berry, McCluggage, Bailey, Rayner, Starcevich. That's what they've brought in, the core of those young guys coming through that set the standard. Yes, they've brought in the Lockie Neals and the other guys that have come in to help set the standards.
Chapter 3: What factors contributed to Brisbane Lions' recent performance issues?
They had the Harris Andrews there from a couple of years beforehand. But that's the foundation of the football club of why they've had sustained success over a long period of club. These guys who drafted high... good people, but understand football and are good players. You look through what we just spoke about with Essendon.
They realised a couple of years ago that that draft was not going to get them up the ladder. And look, there's an out there. There's COVID that happened where you couldn't go through and see
The quality of the players, you couldn't see them every week because of the inconsistencies of the season over those, of the young kids' season over 20 and 21, which limited their ability for 22, which got with Sardis. But then they've gone through with the trades, bringing in Mackay, bringing in Goldstein, Gresham, Dersmer, Pryor. It just seems that they've been confused the whole time.
So, yeah, you sit back and go, he's not had an easy run. He's had foul draft. He's had trades where they thought they were going to mix in those senior guys with the draft picks. And all of a sudden, it's like, nah, let's regroup.
Chapter 4: How has North Melbourne shown signs of improvement this season?
Let's regroup. Let's start fresh. Let's go again. It's going to be a hard journey for us. But if we're all on the same page, he said in your comments before that you've got to be semi-crazy to be able to do this job if you're not coaching for yourself. You're putting on a team that he thinks is going to help build, go back to the draft and
All of a sudden you sit here and you scratch your head because I know he's probably sitting here going, I was banging my head against a brick wall because it was never going to work considering the board was always going to listen to the outside noise.
So the universal truth is there's a level of losing that can't be absorbed and it's one of 24 and it takes in a period of chronic injury last year, which should be set aside, but it never is. It's rolled into the numbers. And what we've seen... And this was always any study of a rebuild told you this was going to be the worst year.
And by necessity, as they've been doing it with, they're doing it with picks nine to 13 at the moment. This is the moment where you pick up picks one to three. And, and, and there's other benefits that come with that along the way. How far off the mark to your eye has Essendon been this year?
Chapter 5: What challenges has Essendon faced with their draft picks?
It started disastrously against Hawthorne and then had the Port Adelaide game. And the damage of that game was probably never recovered from.
Yeah, go back to the losses last year. I think everyone in the media were giving them an out because whenever you came up... Because we had to watch a lot of the Essendon teams because of the Gold Coast replaying at the end of the season. So we had to see them on Thursday and Friday night for a lot. And we were giving them outs because of how injury-ridden they were. This year, they've...
It looks like a divided team and a lot of it you'd have to look at the skipper trying to walk out last year. They tried to hold on to him and I believe at the time they were thinking to do the right thing because if Merritt had have left, the floor would have fallen through.
Unfortunately, you look back now going, well, if he did leave, they've got three extra draft picks that they could trade higher up plus the ones they've already got. It just seems like a shambles because you look at the football they're playing at the moment and that is not an AFL list. To get it to a stage... where you look through and how many of those players would get a game in another team?
You're sitting here scratching your head going, you might tick a box of a couple. But as a collective, they don't play for one another.
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Chapter 6: How do injuries impact team performance in the AFL?
As a collective, they're out there trying to make sure that they do enough to get a game the next week. And in an AFL environment, that just doesn't succeed these days. You need 23 players all pulling in the same direction and especially leaders pulling in the same direction.
How much of that does rest with the coach?
I've heard a lot of feedback that they weren't happy with how he communicated to the players, how open he was to players. He coached at North Melbourne for how long? If you haven't done enough research to go back and say, well, how does he coach in tough times? When North Melbourne, prior to him finishing up at North Melbourne, they went through a number of years where they really struggled.
Surely you go back and ask the people in charge then, you go and ask the players, what was he like as a coach? So it shouldn't be any surprises. If he's not the best communicator to players in a tough time, and I'm not saying he is or he isn't, this is the feedback we're getting.
Surely the research and those questions have been asked prior to you employing this bloke, considering you knew how tough the next few years were going to be, considering the shape of the list when he come across.
Do you think, so historically, Carlton and Essendon are linked in these moments. The Dennis Pagan sacking brought on the Kevin Sheedy sacking because both were desperate to be in the market for Michael Voss at the time. Is having seen the lift in optimism at Carlton, and I do think Essendon are searching for a little bit of sunshine at the moment in pretty grim times.
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Chapter 7: What leadership qualities did Neale Daniher exemplify?
Do you think one begets the other?
Yeah, but how long does a sugar hit last for? That's my biggest thing is like you talk about, and I'm sort of looking across at the North Melbourne side of things. If Clarkson was at Essendon or Carlton, would he have been sacked last year because of the media hype, the uproar, the performances that weren't put out? And they're still not ā he's still not out of trouble.
They've still got another 18 months of him. But what you're seeing from a team that the board are stuck by is a bit of consistency. You talk about their game on the weekend. They looked a totally different team when their backs were against the wall. They were fighting as one in that last quarter.
And some of their goals that they ā the transition, the teamwork that they did in that last quarter to get up over Gold Coast ā you sit back and go, that is a stable group who love playing for one another. So you sit here and talk about the sugar hit of a new interim coach. I'll rap for Josh and what he's doing at Carlton, and you can sort of see the Carlton players are finally smiling.
But in the long run, that...
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Chapter 8: What can Essendon achieve in the remainder of the season?
That doesn't work. What you do need is stability. First of all, stability off-field. And I've said it many times. Stability off-field creates stability on-field. And that's what these two clubs are searching for. Get a board up there who aren't scared of a shadow, aren't scared of the outside noise, that will stick to a coach. You're very rarely going to come in.
It happens occasionally that clubs will come in and coaches will have success in the first three or four years. And if it does, it's normally a sugar hit and they'll drop back down a couple of years later. This is what both teams are reaching for. They're a big, proud, massive club. But they need people to be able to sit there, look each other in the eye and say, I trust what you're saying.
You trust what I'm saying. Let's build this together.
What do you think is to be gained in the remainder of the season? Part of what Essendon has put out is that they don't want to waste the second half of the season.
Well, clearly, the decision was made that he wasn't going to coach 2027, and this call was all about trying to get the best possible coach for Essendon moving forward. Now they've got Tasmania looking for one. They've got Carlton looking for one. They're putting their hat into the ring. They didn't want to come in late. What can they achieve from the rest? We'll give a couple of these guys.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago Sardis, who was their... number four draft pick a couple of years ago. He's played eight games in two years, averaging 52 or 55% game time. Give these guys a crack for the last part of the season to see if they are the ones you're worth keeping around, because if not, Just because he's a high draft pick, you can't keep him on the list.
So figure out, give these guys games. Go and play football. Go and have a bit of freedom. Don't worry about wins and losses. Just go and play football and see what you can bring to our football club. And hopefully that might give these younger guys a bit of confidence to show a bit more than what they've done the last two to three years.
Luke Hodge runs our leadership portfolio on a Tuesday morning. The sacking of Brad Scott at Essendon is going to dominate the first couple of hours of the show. 1-300-736-736. In about 10 minutes' time, we'll start to take your calls. The 40 Wings temper text is 0433 98 11 16. The difference is temper. Whiteley on SEN.
We won't stray too far because a lot of people want to have their say and we will do that very shortly. 1-300-736-736. But there are a couple of topics just to pick your brain on, Luke Hodge. The first is the Brisbane Lions. What happened in the third term, the role of the leaders? You were pretty zen on them last week. Just give us your thoughts this week.
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