{"id":694592,"date":"2026-05-26T00:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T00:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/694592\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T00:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T00:44:11","slug":"afl-news-2026-brad-scott-sacked-as-essendon-coach-inside-bombers-six-week-backflip-and-how-asterisk-finished-his-tenure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/694592\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL news 2026, Brad Scott sacked as Essendon coach: Inside Bombers\u2019 six-week backflip\u2026 and how asterisk finished his tenure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six weeks ago to the day, Essendon president Andrew Welsh spoke to both chief football writers of Melbourne\u2019s major metropolitan newspapers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He declared to Jake Niall of <\/a>The Age<\/a>: \u201cWe\u2019re of absolute belief that Brad (Scott) will be our next premiership coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the AFL 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

Speaking to Jay Clark of the <\/a>Herald Sun<\/a>, Welsh said the Bombers would maintain a long-term approach, adding if it got \u201ccaught up in wins and losses it could really convolute where we are\u201d. But he added \u201cwe expect improvement\u201d and \u201caren\u2019t going to accept things stagnating from a development perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

After speaking with Welsh, Clark told Fox Footy\u2019s <\/a>First Crack<\/a>: \u201cThe second half of that sentence is \u2018we aren\u2019t going to accept things stagnating from a development perspective\u2019. That is the most important asterisk in football, because it puts Brad Scott on the hook.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf things flatline or go backwards, as they have over the past week, then he\u2019s fighting for his job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott lashes Bombers after horror start | 08:49<\/p>\n

Six losses by an average margin of 38 points later \u2026<\/p>\n

Scott on Tuesday was sacked as coach of the 18th-placed Bombers<\/a> with one year remaining on his contract.<\/p>\n

The Essendon board decided \u201cover the weekend\u201d, according to Channel 7\u2019s Tom Morris, that if Scott wasn\u2019t going to be Essendon\u2019s coach in 2027, \u201cit would be best to make the call now\u201d.<\/p>\n

Six weeks after the president trumpeted the club\u2019s faith in \u201cour next premiership coach\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some would argue: \u201cWhat else is the president going to say at that time?\u201d Ultimately, any hint of public disbelief in your coach \u2013 whose team was 1-4 after Gather Round \u2013 fans the flames on an already delicate situation. And Welsh won praise for being so defiant and supportive for his coach at a club that had been riddled with factional voices for decades.<\/p>\n

But on paper, this is an incredibly dramatic backflip.<\/p>\n

Essendon club president Andrew Welsh. Picture: David CairdSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n

Scott was appointed Essendon\u2019s coach in September 2022<\/a> following an extensive that began with a shortlist of over 22 candidates. Four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson was near the top of the Bombers\u2019 priority list, but when he chose the Kangaroos instead<\/a>, the Bombers settled on Scott \u2013 a 10-year North Melbourne coach himself.<\/p>\n

Scott in his first year in charge guided the Bombers to sixth on the ladder with a 7-6 record at their 2023 mid-season bye. But they\u2019d win just three more games for the season. Their final two matches \u2013 a 126-point loss to the Giants and 70-point loss to Collingwood \u2013 were embarrassing.<\/p>\n

The Bombers got busy in the off-season. They brought in three free agents \u2013 Todd Goldstein, Jade Gresham and, most notably, Ben McKay \u2013 traded in Xavier Duursma from the Power and took three national draftees: Nate Caddy (Pick 10), Luamon Lual (Pick 39) and Archie Roberts (Pick 54).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be pretty bullish on them,\u201d ex-Hawthorn star Ben Dixon said of the Bombers to foxfooty.com.au ahead of the 2024 season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got to be a finals contender, they have to be, it\u2019s a non-negotiable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve added in the bookends. There\u2019s probably no excuse to not make finals to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rinse and repeat.<\/p>\n

Brad Scott had a rollercoaster Essendon tenure. Picture: Quinn Rooney\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n

This time, after Round 12 of 2024, they were 7-3-1 to sit second on the ladder. Top-four was on the cards, let alone a finals berth.<\/p>\n

But they\u2019d win just three more games for the season to dramatically drop out of the finals frame.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m speaking here now mostly to our fans who are bitterly disappointed and I can assure them that our players, whether they believe it or not, are more disappointed than anyone else,\u201d Scott said after a one-point loss to Gold Coast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have a concerted effort in the off-season, don\u2019t worry about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike the previous off-season, the Bombers didn\u2019t go hard in the trade and free agency market, instead ensuring they had the draft capital to match a bid on NGA young gun Isaac Kako while trying to find some gems at the back-end of the draft.<\/p>\n

Rinse and repeat \u2013 but on an unprecedented new level.<\/p>\n

The Bombers sat 10th on the ladder with a 6-4 record after Round 12. But their percentage of 85.0 was more reflective of a team trending downwards. And, boy, did Scott\u2019s Bombers fall at speed, losing their last 13 consecutive games of the season by an average margin of 42 points.<\/p>\n

The injury toll was as brutal as any AFL team has ever experienced. Essendon used a whopping 44 players across their 23-game season. Fifteen(!) of them were AFL debutants. A spate of long-term injuries meant they had to take four players in the mid-season draft.<\/p>\n

Brad Scott has been sacked by Essendon. Picture: Michael KleinSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n

\u201cNo doubt we limped to the line,\u201d Scott said after a 95-point loss to Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

Despite the injuries, Scott \u2013 who\u2019s always been, unashamedly, a build-from-the-draft guy \u2013 was constant in his messaging to Essendon fans.<\/p>\n

Asked directly on Fox Footy\u2019s AFL 360 in March last year if the Bombers were in \u201cfull blown rebuild\u201d mode, Scott said: \u201cYou can say what you want. The club always talk to me about \u2018what are we messaging?\u2019 Ultimately, you message through your action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made some changes at the end of last year with personnel, list, chose to go to the draft. We hold two first-round draft picks this year and two second-round draft picks \u2013 I think it\u2019s pretty clear what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I wouldn\u2019t concede that we\u2019re not capable of competing every week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any doubts around whether the Bombers were in rebuild mode were quashed by the end of the national draft in late 2025.<\/p>\n

Essendon took five players in the national draft \u2013 three of them in the first 13 picks. All five have played AFL games so far in 2026, but not out of necessity. Sullivan Robey, Jacob Farrow, Dyson Sharp, Max Kondogiannis and Hussien El Achkar all look like strong picks at this (very) early stage.<\/p>\n

Just over one week ago, Scott said he expected Essendon to see through its plan under his leadership<\/a>, insisting there were no markers he had to hit.<\/p>\n

Scott grilled on 2026 win-loss ratio | 04:03<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has been part of that strategy and plan \u2026 our president and CEO were on the board when the strategy was put together,\u201d Scott told AFL 360. \u201cSo they are all in on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t think like that (on whether he has the club\u2019s backing). It\u2019s just unhelpful.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job is to lead this strategy through and I just do my job. I don\u2019t worry too much about what might happen in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark on First Crack declared at the start of this month Scott faced \u201cthe most important six weeks of his coaching career at Tullamarine\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Bombers were scheduled to face GWS in Sydney, Fremantle and Richmond at the MCG, West Coast in Perth, then Carlton and Melbourne at the MCG over the six weeks.<\/p>\n

They were brave against the Giants, horrendous against the Dockers and, against fellow cellar-dweller Richmond, were hit with an eerie sense deja vu as five players copped mid-game injuries in a deflating loss that saw their season hit an all-time low.<\/p>\n

Essendon LAST after Richmond upset | 02:08<\/p>\n

Dual premiership Kangaroo David King wrote on X in the last quarter: \u201cThe game.\u201d It was undoubtedly a suggestion this was \u201cthe game\u201d that might\u2019ve ended Scott\u2019s tenure as Bombers coach<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Commentators suggested little would be gained for Essendon moving Scott on now, especially after a loss to Richmond where it was, as Scott said post-game. \u201chard to separate the performance from the circumstances\u201d.<\/p>\n

King, though, was ultimately right. Scott lasted for just four of the six weeks Clark flagged.<\/p>\n

Despite Scott\u2019s focus and the president\u2019s public words of affirmation, the losses became too much for Scott to keep his job.<\/p>\n

Among the rollercoaster under Scott, an underlying flaw has plagued his team: They\u2019ve been too easy to move the ball against and too easy to score against<\/a>. Their defensive issues have never fully corrected in three-and-a-half seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, you end up with another smacking, and I think the Essendon fans are getting a little bit sick of the same stuff,\u201d King told First Crack after Essendon\u2019s 63-point loss to Port Adelaide.<\/p>\n

Merrett calls for patience for Bombers | 01:39<\/p>\n

Despite the abrupt ending on Tuesday, the sense was Scott never lost his Essendon players.<\/p>\n

But this is a football club with an impatient fan base, sick of consistent mediocrity. And rightly so, since it\u2019s been 7935 days since the Bombers\u2019 last finals win.<\/p>\n

The sense was Scott wasn\u2019t taking over an Essendon list in rebuild mode. But that\u2019s the situation it quickly developed into \u2013 a situation he was fully aware of.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it takes a special kind of lunatic to lead this sort of thing,\u201d Scott said last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you weren\u2019t focused on the club\u2019s future and it was just about you and your position, you\u2019d have a very different strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott always had the long-term view at Essendon. <\/p>\n

Yet, as King has consistently suggested during his years as a Fox Footy pundit, the wins and losses eventually get you \u2013 and that \u201crebuild coaches don\u2019t survive\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even if the club\u2019s hierarchy believe they have their next premiership coach in the chair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six weeks ago to the day, Essendon president Andrew Welsh spoke to both chief football writers of Melbourne\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[338746,638,41556,14405,2095,107267,69039,64,63,689,55,639,338742,7491,29651,3423,696,338745,54481,109751,338744,338739,338735,338736,3496,106609,11231,5334,39208,338732,17344,1119,10124,327788,2105,2485,338737,4490,68995,3417,50078,19125,285052,647,338741,338740,1817,14426,33348,673,2041,2067,677,46,6082,28885,338738,701,28008,6858,672,338694,139235,338734,1124,85,337751,670,338743,14363,1144,2614,660,4899,3439,16711,338733,25581],"class_list":["post-694592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-absolute-belief","tag-afl","tag-agency-market","tag-alastair-clarkson","tag-america","tag-andrew-welsh","tag-archie-roberts","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-average-margin","tag-ben-dixon","tag-ben-mckay","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-brad-scott","tag-chief-football-writers","tag-coaching-career","tag-david-caird","tag-deflating-loss","tag-delicate-situation","tag-development-perspective","tag-dramatic-backflip","tag-dual-premiership","tag-essendon-board","tag-essendon-bombers","tag-finals-berth","tag-finals-contender","tag-finals-frame","tag-finals-win","tag-football-club","tag-fremantle-dockers","tag-g-clash","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-impatient-fan-base","tag-injury-toll","tag-isaac-kako","tag-jacob-farrow","tag-jake-niall","tag-jay-clark","tag-kangaroo-david-king","tag-melbourne","tag-metropolitan-newspapers","tag-mid-game-injuries","tag-mid-season-draft","tag-nate-caddy","tag-national-draft","tag-new-south-wales","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-perth","tag-port-adelaide","tag-premiership-coach","tag-president-andrew-welsh","tag-queensland","tag-quinn-rooney","tag-richmond","tag-richmond-tigers","tag-richmond-upsetafl","tag-second-round-draft-picks","tag-six-week-backflip","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-suffering-multiple-injuries","tag-sydney","tag-things-flatline","tag-todd-goldstein","tag-tom-morris","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-victoria","tag-virginia","tag-western-australia","tag-win-loss-ratio","tag-won-praise","tag-zach-merrett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694592","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=694592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}