AFL 2022: Brad Scott delivers pre-season warning, Essendon list boss Adrian Dodoro on trade plans
Behind closed doors at the Crichton Medal on Monday night, Brad Scott met the players for the first time. And he wasted little time setting a challenge. Plus, a surprise winner.
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New Essendon coach Brad Scott has told his players there is no time to waste in turning around the struggling club, warning he will monitor how they return for pre-season training.
Scott met the playing group for the first time at last night’s Crichton Medal, addressing them for several minutes behind closed doors in a room to the side of Crown Palladium.
He stressed the opportunity which was ahead for the team who finished 15th last year, resulting in the sacking of Ben Rutten.
“I met the players for the first time as a group only an hour ago before coming into the room,” Scott said.
“It was a great opportunity to get them together, normally they are on their break so I don’t get a chance to meet them until they come back to pre-season.
“I talked about the opportunity we have got and that we don’t have any time to waste. The condition that the players come back on day one of pre-season will tell a story in itself.
“I am convinced that if we get things right we will get what we deserve over time, we are entitled to nothing but we will get what we deserve over a period of time.”
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE RESULTS FROM THE CRICHTON MEDAL
The former North Melbourne coach said he was lured away from his job as the AFL’s football operations boss because of the opportunity to develop the youngest list in the competition.
“Depending on what happens in the trade period we will enter season 2023 with the youngest list in the competition and with that comes some challenges but massive opportunities,” Scott said.
“There is certainly capability within this list but that’s all it is, it’s capability at the moment which is yet to be fulfilled.
“When I was approached about potentially coming back to coach, it wasn’t only a decision of coming back into the coaching ranks, it was a decision and a fit that I was looking for, to develop young talent.
“It is what I love doing, I love working with players and in this playing group I can already see there is a group of hungry young men who are keen for success and more importantly they are willing to invest in the hard work and time it takes to get there.”
President David Barham, who took over the top job in August, said the appointment of a new coach and CEO – former NAB boss Andrew Thorburn was announced on Monday – was a pivotal moment in the club’s history.
“This is the reset we had to have and I promise you this is just the beginning,” he said.
“We have got a lot of work to do but tonight in our 150th year we stand on the cusp of an exciting new era in the Essendon Football Club’s history.
“We can become an unstoppable force in football again but we will need a mighty team effort. Everyone has to put the club first in everything you do, we have to keep our heads down, work hard and stay united.”
Former premiership coach Kevin Sheedy, who is now on the Essendon board and spoke out against Scott’s appointment saying he voted for ex-captain James Hird to get a second chance, wasn’t at last night’s best and fairest count as he is on holidays in the US.
Big man pips Merrett in Crichton Medal surprise
Two-metre Peter Wright is now an Essendon best and fairest winner.
In a surprise result, the former Gold Coast forward polled 242 votes to claim his first Crichton Medal, finishing 12 votes ahead of last year‘s winner Zach Merrett. Underrated utility Matt Guelfi capped off his best season by finishing third (211).
Wright kicked 53 goals in his second season with the Bombers, which included multiple goals on 16 occasions and a season-high six goals in Round 8 against the Hawthorn.
The 26-year-old has turned his career around after struggling for consistency with the Suns where he played 66 games and kicked 85 goals in six seasons.
There was a lot of expectation on the 203cm spearhead after he was taken at No.8 in the 2014 national draft but the Suns ran out of patience and he was virtually given away with the Bombers only having to offload a future fourth round pick.
The 203cm Wright played 21 games in his first season in red and black, kicking 29 goals, before taking over as Essendon‘s main spearhead this year to finish fifth in the Coleman Medal.
Three-time winner Merrett was unlucky given his missed three games with a syndesmosis injury earlier in the season.
The vice-captain was expected to miss six weeks with the injury but made a remarkable recovery to return for the Bombers’ Anzac Day clash, where Merrett collected an outstanding 36 disposals, including 24 centre clearances, in the 11-point loss.
He was easily the team‘s most consistent midfielder throughout the year averaging 30.1 disposals, 4.6 clearances and 4.3 tackles per game.
Guelfi‘s breakout season saw him cement his place as a pressure forward, kicking 17 goals. He was also awarded the McCracken Medal by his teammates as the player who lived the club’s core values and DNA.
Defender Mason Redman finished fourth (209 votes) and also picked up the Most Improved Player Award and the Bruce Heymanson Best Clubman Award.
Fellow defender Jordan Ridley, the 2020 best and fairest winner, finished fifth while Jayden Laverde, who finished sixth, also took out the Adam Ramanauskas Most Courageous Player Award.
Young gun Nic Martin was recognised for his excellent debut year – he finished eighth – with the Lindsay Griffiths Rising Star Award.
Bombers ‘behind eight ball’, name No.1 trade target
– Sam Landsberger
Essendon has conceded it is starting the trade period “behind the eight ball” after waiting 39 days to appoint Brad Scott as its new senior coach.
List boss Adrian Dodoro said Scott, who until last Friday was head of football at the AFL, was “across every player” as the Bombers prioritise winning the signature of Gold Coast’s Jack Bowes.
“The players we’ve thrown up (as trade targets) are players that he’s fully aware of,” Dodoro said on Monday.
“Brad just started a couple of days ago and we are starting behind the eight ball. Realistically we’ve got to get our skates on.
“But we’re certainly excited to have pick No.4 in the draft. There are a couple of young players that we’d like to see whether they’d like to come to Essendon.
“But if not we think we have a really strong draft hand this year.”
Bowes would arrive alongside pick No.7 from Gold Coast because the Suns are so desperate to get his salary off their books.
Dodoro said while the No.7 pick would be nice, they were more interested in Bowes.
“We’ve actually tracked him for two years. As a big player who can play inside mid he’s got a lot of scope to develop into an elite AFL midfielder,” Dodoro said.
Hawthorn and Geelong are also eyeing the deal, with the Cats’ interest tracing back to Gary Ablett’s feedback.
Ablett and Bowes were teammates at the Suns in 2017 before Ablett returned to GMHBA Stadium.
“We’ve met with him. He’s a ripping kid, we feel like he’d be a great fit for us,” Cats list boss Andrew Mackie said.
“We’ve been interested in Jack for a long time.
“We’ve known about him for a long time. Clearly, since his draft year.
“We had some good intel off Gary Ablett when he came back and you track guys who aren’t getting experience in the AFL side.”
New Dons coach promises no short-term trade fix
– Jon Ralph
Brad Scott has warned Bombers fans there will be “short-term pain”, with the new Essendon coach ruling out bringing mature-aged recruits into a team set to be the youngest in the competition next year.
Scott is determined to continue to bring elite draft talent into an Essendon side which finished 15th last year and has not won a final since 2004.
He revealed he would have walked away from the opportunity to coach Essendon if the board or selection panel had urged him to fast-track the club’s elite band of youngsters with a top-up mentality.
The Dons have lost a raft of senior players in recent years, have as much as $3 million in salary cap space and desperately need another key-position forward and full-back.
But Scott said he wasn’t interested in filling short-term positional needs or topping up with mature-aged players to quickly rise up the ladder.
It means Essendon fans thrilled to have acquired Scott must buckle up for what he conceded would be a bumpy ride.
“We are prepared to build this for the long term and we know there is going to be some short-term pain,” he said.
“But we have got an opportunity to hopefully bring in some talent and develop the talent on this list. Unfortunately, that takes time but I am invested in taking the time that is required and so is the club,” he said in a series of interviews including with ABC Radio.
“The facts are we enter the 2023 season as the youngest list in the comp, from an age and experience perspective. That by definition is going to make it really challenging to be consistent.
“But our focus is on bringing in and developing elite talent. We are not interested in filling gaps.
“We have some gaps, like most clubs do, but we will focus and prioritise on elite talent as opposed to filling gaps.
“I made it very clear if Essendon were interested in short-term solutions at the expense of long term top-end talent, I wasn‘t the right person to lead them
“We are fully united that we need to build a long-term view and to do that we need to get aggressive in the draft and get aggressive in bringing in top-end talent and not in filling short-term gaps.”
Scott also made clear he did not want to have his focus diverted from improving the football team over other club-based distractions.
“I have presented a vision to Essendon, and they have supported it, that Essendon needs to renew its focus on football, and their commitment to me is I will have autonomy over footy and the ability to focus on footy without having my attention directed elsewhere.”
The Dons continue to work through a club-based review headed by former banking executive Andrew Thorburn, who has become a strong contender to lead the club as its new chief executive.
Scott said he was open to further discussions with captain Dyson Heppell over whether he will captain the club next year.
But he said it was his view that early in the development of lists that the coaches had a strong say in who was captain, with players empowered to make that decision as the list evolved.
“We will work through all those things, but I don’t have a set preference. I have met with Dyson and had a really good chat. He is a really important person to have around the club.”
Originally published as AFL 2022: Brad Scott delivers pre-season warning, Essendon list boss Adrian Dodoro on trade plans
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