{"id":842900,"date":"2026-08-04T06:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T06:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/842900\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T06:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T06:10:14","slug":"afl-news-2026-essendon-assistant-coach-cam-roberts-resigns-amid-growing-exodus-leigh-matthews-comments-tim-watson-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/842900\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL News 2026: Essendon assistant coach Cam Roberts resigns amid growing exodus; Leigh Matthews comments, Tim Watson reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon\u2019s<\/a> off-field exodus has continued, with assistant coach Cam Roberts set to depart the club at the end of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

The last-placed Bombers have confirmed that Roberts, who previously served as head of development before becoming forward line coach, has resigned.<\/p>\n

\"Essendon<\/p>\n

Essendon sacked Brad Scott early in the season, leading to huge staff turnover. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

It has been a year of significant turnover for Essendon, following the sacking of coach Brad Scott<\/a>, who is yet to be formally replaced on a permanent basis.<\/p>\n

Assistant coach Ben Jacobs and head of psychology Ben Robbins walked once Scott was moved on<\/a>, leaving the club shorthanded for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

Football department general manager Dan McPherson will also finish up at the end of the season, meaning the Bombers now have numerous key roles to fill.<\/p>\n

The most important of those is clearly head coach<\/a>, with James Hird, Mark McVeigh, Murray Davis and Jaymie Graham the shortlisted candidates, while interim coach Dean Solomon is yet to decide whether he will apply for the job.<\/p>\n

The turmoil off the field has mirrored the on-field performance, with Essendon currently sitting 18th on the ladder with two wins for the season.<\/p>\n

All the drama surrounding the Bombers led AFL<\/a> legend and four-time premiership coach Leigh Matthews to declare he would have \u201cno confidence\u201d joining the Dons as coach, saying: \u201cif I was a coach, I wouldn\u2019t be going to Essendon\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you desperately want a job, you just go for it, right? But, anyone who has choices ain\u2019t going to Essendon,\u201d he told 3AW on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cA coach is only as good as what\u2019s around him in players and staff, and support from the top. For me, from the outside, I don\u2019t know the Essendon people that well, but I would have no confidence to coach under that regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Essendon was reportedly unhappy with Matthews\u2019 shot at the club, given his position on Brisbane\u2019s board, and raised their concerns with the AFL and the Lions.<\/p>\n

According to The Age<\/a>, the Bombers ultimately received no apology from either party, and Bombers champion Tim Watson has urged the club to move on quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeigh is very considered and has powerful conversations from time to time, and he\u2019s very direct in what he has to say,\u201d Watson told SEN on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not somebody that goes out there looking for clickbait, he\u2019s not a hot-taker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s enough evidence around to suggest that what he\u2019s saying is not completely untrue either. I don\u2019t know whether I would have gone to that degree had I been Essendon. I think there\u2019s a lot going on at the club at the moment. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re staring down the wooden spoon, they haven\u2019t got a coach. I would have thought you\u2019ve got much bigger things to worry about than dobbing someone in about what they\u2019ve said.\u201d<\/p>\n

Essendon will conclude their season facing Geelong, Sydney and Port Adelaide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon\u2019s off-field exodus has continued, with assistant coach Cam Roberts set to depart the club at the end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-842900","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\/842900","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=842900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}