Essendon coach Brad Scott is enamoured by Nate Caddy’s “explicit desire” for success.
Caddy has won less than a third of his 34 AFL matches and expressed frustration to 3AW post-game last Saturday.
He said he couldn’t stand for Essendon’s “mediocrity” after its heavy loss to reigning premier Brisbane Lions.
Coach Scott, wearing a proud smile, says he loves Caddy’s expectations.
“I loved it. I talk to Nate a lot about his competitiveness, his quite explicit desire to lead our forward line as a third-year player,” Scott said.
“He’s explicit in his desire to lead the club into a period of success and he’s hungry for that. He’s impatient, and I am so excited about that because he’s the ultimate competitor.
“He wants to do that with Essendon, he loves the place, he loves the environment, and while he’s young, he’s not in the category of trying to establish his career.
“He’s now switched from being excited about playing AFL footy to now, ‘I want to drive this team forward’.
“I have seen that growth in him almost week-by-week this year.”
Caddy’s comments sparked debate as to whether he could pursue a greater chance of success elsewhere.
Scott says neither Caddy nor any of his young teammates are showing signs of wanting to bail out of the Bombers.
“Not in my experience, being in the game as a head coach for whatever it is … I haven’t seen that,” Scott said.
“I have coached, majority of the time, I’ve coached young developing sides.
“We’ve recruited guys who are fully invested and they are, taking in the Nate example, starting to take responsibility of the fortunes in the club’s future.”
Essendon was at the centre of “whiteboard gate” this week after Brisbane’s player-by-player analysis of Bombers players was leaked to the public.
Scott says the external evaluation offers a chance for him to either reinforce differing views or confront realities.
“I said post game it’s an issue for Brisbane to deal with. My understanding is they do that for every club, we’re just the club that had it published,” he said.
“From our perspective, it probably does give me an opportunity to talk to our players about certain things.
“It forces me also to follow up with certain players about what we think of them because that’s more important, but don’t ignore the external views.
“Whether that’s public views but certainly when that comes from an opposition club who analyse you.
“You can choose to just ignore it and pretend it’s wrong, or you can think about it and analyse it and if that’s the perception, go about changing it.”
Essendon takes on GWS at Engie Stadium this Saturday.
Originally published as AFL 2026: Essendon coach Brad Scott says he ‘loved’ Nate Caddy’s post-game frustration