The nucleus of Essendon’s post-match players-only meeting on Sunday evening has been identified, as the club continues to grapple with its lowly 0-2 start to the 2026 season.

Brad Scott’s side was comprehensively beaten by Port Adelaide in a 63-point whipping at the Adelaide Oval, which prompted the club’s travelling playing cohort to hold an unplanned discussion surrounding their early season woes.

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Nine’s Damian Barrett reported on Monday night that “a range of frustrations were aired amongst the 23 players, including frustrations with each other”, with Footy Classified guest Callum Twomey elaborating on the meeting’s finer details 24 hours later.

“We can say that a key discussion point as part of that meeting was confusion and a lack of clarity on the way these players are defending, and being coached to defend,” Twomey said on Tuesday.

“It’s my understanding that it was spoken about how through the pre-season, they were training a certain way to move and shape the ground defensively … and that’s been changed across this first fortnight. There’s confusion around that.”

Pressure is already sky-high on newly appointed club captain Andrew McGrath, who is one of several Bombers players to have been called out by AFL experts for his defensive efforts or lack of communication on-field.

After replacing Zach Merrett as skipper following his failed trade request to Hawthorn last October, McGrath heads a leadership group with limited experience including Kyle Langford, Mason Redman, Sam Durham, Jye Caldwell, first-year Bomber Brayden Fiorini, and the injured Nic Martin.

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In an intriguing development earlier on Tuesday, Langford revealed that the Bombers have integrated Zach Merrett back into leadership meetings this season.

Addressing reporters in a press conference, the 29-year-old utility spoke to Merrett’s reinvolvement.

“Zach was in our leadership group (meeting) this morning. He’s right in it amongst us, he’s not shying away from anything,” Langford said.

“He knows he needs to improve as well in certain areas, as we all do, but he’s right amongst it with us.”

Probed on if Merrett’s appearance in a meeting meant he was back in the leadership group, Langford clarified: “He’s not back in it, but he’s a leader of this group — he’s been a captain of this football club.

“Leadership group, captaincy, vice-captaincy — that’s all just a title. We could put another half-dozen players in that group if we wanted to … Zach’s got so much experience … his insights would be lost if we didn’t include him in a lot of these chats.”

Essendon’s next shot at a much-needed win comes this Saturday night against North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium, broadcast live and exclusively on Fox Footy’s Super Saturday Live from 7:15pm AEDT.