AFL 2024: Brad Scott says Essendon failing in pressure situations

Essendon’s coach has made a frank admission about the state of the Bombers’ season following three losses in a row.

Essendon coach Brad Scott says the Bombers have ‘failed the test’ when under pressure in the latter stages of this season. Picture: Michael Willson / Getty Images

Essendon coach Brad Scott says the Bombers have failed “the pressure test” at every turn this season and their finals hopes are irrelevant until their style holds up in big moments.

A forthright Scott said lofty internal expectations had weighed on his side as he clarified that he did not believe his players had “lacked care” during a horror three-game stretch.

As the Bombers prepared to face Fremantle in a crucial MCG clash on Sunday without important defender Jordan Ridley, Scott said the finals equation did not matter to him until his side showed it could cope with big occasions.

“We are not trying to escape the reality that when the pressure test has come this year – it’s at the pointy end of the season when you put yourself in contention to compete and qualify – when that pressure has come, we’ve failed the test,” he said.

Nik Cox could again be called upon to replace injured star defender Jordan Ridley (right) in defence. Picture: Daniel Pockett / Getty Images

“And when we play games that we should win, could win, need to win, we’ve failed that weight of expectation, and most of that expectation is internal, the players’ expectations.

“The game on the weekend looked to me like we had players, probably as a club even, we went in with the attitude of ‘I hope we win this’, or even worse, ‘I hope we don’t lose this’.”

Scott urged the Bombers not to shy away from high-pressure situations in the final month of the season.

“How do you fix that? Well, you keep putting yourself in those pressure situations. We can just develop our game and sit in the bottom half of the ladder and say, ‘we’re building a list, we’re building a style’, or we can try and perform, compete against the best and keep putting ourselves in those situations,” he said.

“Until we are a team that can handle those situations … whether people want to talk about finals, not (playing) finals, all that stuff, it becomes an irrelevance.

“We want to be playing a style that can compete against the best in the pressure moments and perform well.”

Scott was hopeful Ridley would only miss “a couple of weeks” with his hip injury and said Nik Cox was in the frame to replace him in the Bombers’ backline.

Brad Scott says he will not interfere with Dylan Shiel’s decision on his future as St Kilda again shows interest in the experienced midfielder (right). Picture: Darrian Traynor / Getty Images

A third tall in defence could be vital against a Fremantle attack featuring Josh Treacy, Jye Amiss and Luke Jackson.

Cox trained with Essendon’s first-choice backline group on Thursday, but Scott did not rule out calling up a defender from the VFL.

Untried 19-year-old Lewis Hayes and Sam Weideman, who has not been sighted at senior level this season, are both options at his disposal.

“This is a really important training session for us to have a look at a few key things, and we’ll make a decision after that,” Scott said.

The coach said he would not intervene to discuss Dylan Shiel’s future with him amid reports St Kilda is again circling the explosive left-footer.

Shiel’s impressive return from his long injury lay-off continued with 19 disposals and two goals in the loss to the Saints.

“Whether it’s free agency or trading … like I was probably asked on a weekly basis about Parish and Redman last year – it’s my job to create the environment, and players make their decision or not. I’m not trying to hold anyone over a barrel,” Scott said.

Originally published as AFL 2024: Brad Scott says Essendon failing in pressure situations