Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWe have a real challenge, at the moment, with our inside-50 connection … two of our key forwards were taken in the mid-season draft, so there hasn\u2019t been a whole lot of time to work on that connection, and it\u2019s still clearly not at the level we need it to be,\u201d Scott said during his post-match press conference. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe hardest thing is probably getting the supply, and we edged in front in the inside-50 count in the last quarter (losing 47-52) … overall, we competed really well, and we were beaten by a better side. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is, they had more than double the amount of scoring shots we had. They were probably a bit more inaccurate than they usually are, but they still transitioned the ball really well, scored really efficiently even though they didn\u2019t kick straight. We were outplayed, but I didn\u2019t think we let ourselves down in the contest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prompted on brother Chris\u2019 standing as one of the highest-regarded coaches in the competition \u2014 with a career 68 per cent win rate \u2014 Scott spoke of the Cats\u2019 \u201cspecial\u201d system that his Bombers were \u201caspiring to emulate\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201c(His) record speaks for itself,\u201d Scott began. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing about coaching, I mean, we\u2019re going through a real coaching challenge, and I\u2019m really enthusiastic about the challenge, although in somewhat of a morbid way. It\u2019s not what you\u2019d want, but this is a huge challenge for us at the moment. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think what stands about the Geelong Football Club is they\u2019ve just always been a very strong club in the modern era, but they\u2019ve … rejuvenated it year after year after year, and you look at players like Gryan Miers, Brad Close, Tom Atkins \u2014 guys who come in and now I would regard as elite players in the competition who were overlooked by almost all of us. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so, that speaks more to system and coaching than it does just purely the talent … all coaches love coaching great players, because those great players tend to make you better coaches, but the real art of it is being able to improve players regardless of where they come from in the draft, and Geelong have just found a way \u2014 so, that builds something pretty special, and it\u2019s something we aspire to emulate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked how far off the Bombers are from being where the Cats are in that regard, Scott said: \u201cIt\u2019s only really judged in the fullness of time. You can be taking the steps forward without it being noticeable. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd again, that\u2019s the thing. I\u2019ve been rapt with the job that our assistant coaches have done this year, but I\u2019ve been really reluctant to say that because there\u2019s a scoreboard, and people would say \u2018how can you say they\u2019ve done a great job?\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cWell, they have done a great job with the circumstances that they\u2019ve been working in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bombers entered Round 22 with 15 players on their injury list \u2014 12 of which have either already been ruled out for the season or have uncertain timelines \u2014 with another in Archie May potentially set to join that ailing crop. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when it comes to culture, it\u2019s largely intangible, because measuring culture, I mean, people only really measure it from wins and losses over time. So, we\u2019re working extremely hard in that space,\u201d Scott continued. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m firm in the belief that we\u2019re taking good strides forward in that area, but we won\u2019t be able to see it until it\u2019s in the rear-view mirror, and it\u2019s the fullness of time sort of thing that\u2019s frustrating, because you want it to happen tomorrow, but the reality is it takes some time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott said first-year key forward May had \u201cat minimum\u201d an ankle sprain and would get scans on Saturday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon coach Brad Scott praised his assistant coaching group following its 44-point loss to Geelong on Friday night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,45081,45082,45080,45079,64,63,55,639,696,45076,44841,11231,13659,24270,3231,4873,45078,45077,25838,85,45083,23078,17064],"class_list":["post-54191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-ankle-sprain","tag-assistant-coaches","tag-assistant-coaches-praise","tag-assistant-coaching-group","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-brad-scott","tag-coaches-love","tag-conference-comments","tag-essendon-bombers","tag-geelong-cats","tag-home-side","tag-jack-jovanovski","tag-post-match-press-conference","tag-real-challenge","tag-real-coaching-challenge","tag-scoring-shots","tag-sports","tag-timid-praise","tag-tom-atkins","tag-win-rate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}