{"id":562069,"date":"2026-03-24T23:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T23:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/562069\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T23:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T23:00:18","slug":"details-of-essendon-bombers-players-only-meeting-revealed-andrew-mcgrath-captain-confusion-around-defensive-game-plan-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/562069\/","title":{"rendered":"Details of Essendon Bombers players-only meeting revealed, Andrew McGrath captain, confusion around defensive game plan, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

The nucleus of Essendon\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Brad Scott\u2019s side was comprehensively beaten by Port Adelaide in a 63-point whipping at the Adelaide Oval,<\/a> which prompted the club\u2019s travelling playing cohort to hold an unplanned discussion surrounding their early season woes.<\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nine\u2019s Damian Barrett reported on Monday night<\/a> that \u201ca range of frustrations were aired amongst the 23 players, including frustrations with each other\u201d, with Footy Classified guest Callum Twomey elaborating on the meeting\u2019s finer details 24 hours later.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d Twomey said on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 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\u2019s been changed across this first fortnight. There\u2019s confusion around that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Bombers ‘lacking on field leaders’ | 04:46<\/p>\n

In an intriguing development earlier on Tuesday,<\/a> Langford revealed that the Bombers have integrated Zach Merrett back into leadership meetings this season.<\/p>\n

Addressing reporters in a press conference, the 29-year-old utility spoke to Merrett\u2019s reinvolvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cZach was in our leadership group (meeting) this morning. He\u2019s right in it amongst us, he\u2019s not shying away from anything,\u201d Langford said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows he needs to improve as well in certain areas, as we all do, but he\u2019s right amongst it with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Probed on if Merrett\u2019s appearance in a meeting meant he was back in the leadership group, Langford clarified: \u201cHe\u2019s not back in it, but he\u2019s a leader of this group \u2014 he\u2019s been a captain of this football club.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeadership group, captaincy, vice-captaincy \u2014 that\u2019s all just a title. We could put another half-dozen players in that group if we wanted to … Zach\u2019s got so much experience \u2026 his insights would be lost if we didn\u2019t include him in a lot of these chats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Essendon\u2019s next shot at a much-needed win comes this Saturday night against North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium, broadcast live and exclusively on Fox Footy\u2019s Super Saturday Live from 7:15pm AEDT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The nucleus of Essendon\u2019s post-match players-only meeting on Sunday evening has been identified, as the club continues to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-562069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562069","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=562069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}