told Seven\u2019s The Agenda Setters<\/a>: \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\nBrad Scott, Senior Coach of the Bombers and Zach Merrett of the Bombers line up during an Indigenous War Cry during the round 11 AFL match between Richmond Tigers and Essendon Bombers at Melbourne Cricket Ground, on May 25, 2024, in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Morgan Hancock\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
He explained: \u201cZach has given incredible service to the Essendon Football Club. He\u2019s been through multiple strategies, multiple coaches, made promises on multiple occasions.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy view is always you invest in the team, you put the team first, and Zach found that really hard to do at the end of last year. I felt for him, and I felt for his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think he was being selfish – I thought he had been promised things over and over again, and he was at his wits end, and he couldn\u2019t invest in the team any more. Now he certainly does through his actions on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy view was we should let him go, but the club\u2019s view was we should keep him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether he felt it\u2019d be the best thing for Merrett to leave at the end of this year, Scott said: \u201cI do because I think it\u2019s the right thing for him and it\u2019s the right thing for the club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott was told on Monday night by president Andrew Welsh he was being sacked \u201cbecause the losses were mounting up\u201d and believed the club was feeling the pressure.<\/p>\n
‘Not in consideration at all | 23:13<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppose I was (blindsided), yeah,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going through a difficult period, clearly. But it hasn\u2019t felt any different to other weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been really well supported over a long period of time with the plan that we put in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I mentioned a couple of times, all the key people were part of that plan and building that plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it felt like business as usual to me that we\u2019d clearly articulated the risks going into this season and the difficulties we may face, but we believe in the plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still believe in the plan, you know, and I\u2019m committed to seeing it through and committed to the playing group and to all the players we recontracted as part of that plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in this industry for a long time. It\u2019s not surprising because pressure does strange things.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘I can see where the club is heading’ | 06:11<\/p>\n
Scott said the Bombers are still \u201ca couple of years away\u201d from contending for the finals given \u201cthe demographics of the list\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of 2023, I was really concerned on a number of fronts that we needed to make significant cultural change, and we needed to make significant list change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we embarked on that strategy, I really thought these supporters are gonna hate me. They\u2019re gonna hate me because it\u2019s gonna be hard, and we\u2019re vulnerable, and we may lose games.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I wanted to embark on a strategy that Essendon hasn\u2019t embarked on this century.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew the odds of seeing it through were slim, because history says that \u2026 why would you do this? The answer was because it\u2019s the right thing to do, and I still believe it\u2019s the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former Bombers coach also said the club has \u201cin excess of $3 million to spend\u201d on players having banked cash in recent seasons, confirming reports they had launched a long-term offer for Harley Reid worth around $2 million a year.<\/p>\n
However he told the club not to do the deal, saying based on the trade it would require: \u201cThere\u2019d be no Caddy, there\u2019d be no Kako, there\u2019d be no Sharp, Robey or Farrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we\u2019d have Harley, and I just didn\u2019t think we were at the stage where one player was going to make the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Essendon coach Brad Scott wanted to trade then-captain Zach Merrett last year, but was overruled by club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-695558","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\/695558","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=695558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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