Lions\u2019 whiteboard leak listed him as having \u201clow confidence\u201d<\/a> \u2014 while they failed to name any strengths.<\/p>\nMcKay joined Essendon from North Melbourne in 2023 and is in the third of a six-year contract with the Victorian club.<\/p>\n
Coach Brad Scott addressed the booing towards McKay following the loss to the Lions, saying: \u201cYou don\u2019t like it. It\u2019s an abnormal footy environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that\u2019s going to happen and it\u2019s happened at other clubs, it\u2019s happened to other players and you\u2019ve got to fight through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those comments came after Scott had previously said: \u201cEvery player in the competition has, quote-end-quote, confidence issues in their career.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s part of being in a cut-throat environment where you\u2019re playing against the very best every week.<\/p>\n
![\"'[Hollands]](\"https:\/\/content.api.news\/v3\/images\/bin\/0a7972eb85e1277ff874a32f278a8dc8\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re a key defender, you play on very good players every week, so you\u2019re right on the edge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The decision to drop McKay comes after former Essendon player and coach James Hird defended the Torquay-born star.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Channel 9, Hird said: \u201cBen McKay has been harshly criticised, by his own (Essendon) fans and by everyone in the media.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirstly, Ben McKay is not that bad a player. Ben has a lot of talent, he is a very good footballer lacking a lot of confidence, and he is lacking confidence in his decision making.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really upsetting for him, it\u2019s upsetting for his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs he playing his best football? No, but I think it\u2019s a result of the system he\u2019s in not providing him the protection it needs to provide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Essendon have a 1-7 record \u2014 their only win of 2026 coming against Melbourne in mid-April.<\/p>\n
Originally published as Bombshell move as Essendon drop Ben McKay after booing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben McKay has reportedly been dropped by Essendon for Saturday\u2019s clash with Greater Western Sydney following a torrid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-656027","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\/656027","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=656027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}