{"id":676595,"date":"2026-05-17T11:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T11:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/676595\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T11:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T11:17:10","slug":"afl-2026-brad-scott-press-conference-after-essendon-bombers-loss-to-fremantle-dockers-in-round-10-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/676595\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Brad Scott press conference after Essendon Bombers loss to Fremantle Dockers in Round 10, video"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon coach Brad Scott has put the spotlight on his side\u2019s poor contest, particularly from his older brigade, following a disappointing 43-point loss to Fremantle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He also provided a defiant response to a question about the historically poor crowd that attended the MCG on Sunday afternoon. <\/p>\n

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The Bombers were blown out of the park early at the MCG, conceding three goals in the first three minutes, before more pressure led them to a 25-point deficit at quarter time and 52 points at half time.<\/p>\n

Scott\u2019s side had put up just 1.8 compared to Freo\u2019s 10.6 after two quarters, with the visitors going into halftime plus-18 in contested possessions and plus-10 in inside 50s.<\/p>\n

Scott credited youngster Sullivan Robey for leading the way in his side\u2019s contest and used his strong efforts (11 contested possessions) to shine a light on his senior players.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou shouldn\u2019t be, as a team, looking to your 18-year-olds to lead you out of that,\u201d Scott said following the 8.13 (61) to 16.8 (104) loss. <\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we need more support around our young players, which sounds a little bit back to front doesn\u2019t it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The measly crowd of 25,100 at the MCG was Essendon\u2019s smallest crowd at the home of footy<\/a> – removing the COVID years – since R19, 1993 against Sydney (22,813). <\/p>\n

Asked for his message to Bombers fans and ability to sell hope, Scott said: \u201cOur fans are incredible, (but) it was a putrid day today. I\u2019m sure you woke up today thinking you didn\u2019t want to go for a walk down the park, either. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur fans are incredible, and they see, the last three years, they see the players we\u2019ve brought in – Roberts, Caddy, Kako, Farrow, Robey, Sharp. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe fans want to come to the game to see their team win, but if you scratch one layer deeper, you can clearly see – blind Freddy can see what we\u2019re trying to do. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s frustrating in the short term, but we\u2019ve tried to patch this together in the past – we\u2019re not doing that again, so it\u2019s really clear in terms of what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three-time All-Australian Zach Merrett, 30, had just two contested possessions in the first half and five for the game, while Darcy Parish, 28, had two in the opening half, before an improved five in the second half.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, younger midfielders Sam Durham (11 contested possessions and four in the first half) and Jye Caldwell (eight and five) proved tougher around the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur game was won and lost early in the first quarter,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur contest was as poor as I\u2019ve seen it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way we started the game was just nowhere near the level it needs to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cParticularly against any opponent, but an opponent that\u2019s won eight in a row when it\u2019s slippery conditions, the ball\u2019s going to be on the ground, it\u2019s going to be in a contest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott added how the turnaround in the second half (plus-18 contested possessions) proved that it wasn\u2019t a capability issue for his 1-9 side.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were a completely different-looking team in the second half in that space than where we were in the first,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s not capability, it\u2019s the mindset to come out and compete against a very good team, which was just nowhere near the level in the first 30 minutes of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott said there was a \u201clong way to go\u201d in terms of his side\u2019s leadership and hinted at more opportunities for his younger players in weeks to come.<\/p>\n

The Dons take on Richmond on Friday and West Coast the following week. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon coach Brad Scott has put the spotlight on his side\u2019s poor contest, particularly from his older brigade,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[121806,324952,2095,314391,696,326122,3528,51247,297832,326123,11231,1127,10124,43,44,2041,2067,668,6858,25862,183095,41,39,42,40,2614,4899],"class_list":["post-676595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-aberdeen-football-club","tag-addresses-reporters","tag-america","tag-blunt-response","tag-brad-scott","tag-capability-issue","tag-contested-possessions","tag-darcy-parish","tag-defiant-response","tag-defiant-statement","tag-essendon-bombers","tag-fox-footy","tag-fremantle-dockers","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-press-conference","tag-richmond","tag-sam-durham","tag-team-win","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676595","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=676595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}