Essendon needs a facelift and Brad Scott needs to be the one driving it, writes Mark Robinson

Ange Postecoglou said it and Craig McRae, Adam Kingsley and Michael Voss are living it. But where is the excitement at Essendon? It’s time for the club’s messaging to change.

When will the Bombers embrace the hype of what’s possible? Picture: Getty Images

Ange Postecoglou said it, Matthew Nicks copied it and Craig McRae, Adam Kingsley and Michael Voss are living it.

And it’s time Essendon joined it.

That is to be swept up in the now and what’s possible, and to bring the fans along for the ride. And to park the narrative about footy being the journey and about the future.

We previously joked that Essendon’s new slogan could be “Next Year Essendon’’ because that has been the messaging from the club for a decade.

Temper expectation. Strive for sustainable success. Consolidation. Stability. Patience. Development. They are sound bites from a power-point business plan. They are important words, but they are safe, if not boring.

Footy is not a business. For fans, it is a wave to be ridden every weekend and for most days in between. Sometimes you’re riding on the precipice of unfathomable adrenaline and at other times you are tumbling in the depths of despair.

That’s footy.

That’s how Ange described it.

After a blazing start to the season, and with “Ange ball’’ sweeping across English football, the Tottenham manager was asked if the fans should temper their expectations.

This is what he said: “No, no, no, let them go, let them go and enjoy it.”

When will Essendon embrace the hype of what is possible? Picture: Getty Images

“My role is not to burst people’s bubbles. Let them get excited, let them get ahead of themselves,” he said.

“That’s the beauty of being a supporter. They go through enough pain mate, you want to let them enjoy it. If they think we’re going to be world beaters then great, that’s up to us to match that expectation.

“Our supporters deserve to have some happiness and enjoy it any way they want to.’’

Put it this way. When the train leaves Tottenham station, the fans clamour for a seat on what is akin to the Japanese fast train. When the train leaves Essendon station, the fans are asked to patiently take a seat on what is akin to the slow-moving Ghan.

Where’s the excitement, the passion? When will the Bombers change the narrative from forbearance to feisty?

Essendon’s messaging has to change.

One former board member told this writer in September: “We consolidate in 2024 and we’ll be right in 2025.’’

Yep, the Ghan keeps chugging along.

Comparatively, there was no chugging along for McRae.

In his first season, he took Collingwood from 17th to a preliminary final. In his second season, the Pies won the premiership. Every week, he cajoled the fans to jump aboard on the Collingwood train.

In June this year, he said: “Our fans are incredible. I didn’t mention it enough after the game on the weekend, just how important they are for our results and outcomes and spurring us on.’’

McRae is exhibit A for what’s possible.

Craig McRae has never hid from expectations. Picture: Getty Images

Voss is Exhibit B. In mid-June this year, Carlton had just lost its eighth match from their previous nine outings. It was sticky there for a while, but Voss didn’t shy away from what was possible and they rallied to play in a preliminary final.

Exhibit C is Kingsley and the Giants. No first-year playing it safe for the coach. He managed to change the entire game plan in half a season and from a 4-8 win-loss record, they careered home 11-3 and were beaten by a kick in the preliminary final.

A bull at a gate, Kingsley wouldn’t know how to spell patience.

Nicks is adopting Ange’s philosophy. At the Crows best and fairest count on October 9, Nicks regaled to the crowd Ange’s now-famous ‘’No, no, no’’ speech.

He added: “I can feel the energy in the room tonight and there is a sense of accomplishment and optimism. We are still young and we are developing and the season has proven we are on the right path.

“We are a good side, as members, fans and supporters you have every reason to be excited about where we are at the moment and the potential that lies ahead.

“Get excited, get ahead of yourselves, have high expectations. For the players and staff it is our job to live up to those expectation.

“Let’s transition from being a good team to a truly great one, it won’t be easy but I have every confidence we are up to the task.

“We have the talent, the dedication and the support system to achieve greatness.”

Like Nicks said of his Crows, Essendon is young and developing. Unlike the Crows, Essendon does not talk of “achieving greatness’’ or “getting excited’’. Not yet, anyhow.

Perhaps the message will change post this trade period and national draft.

Recruiting and list boss Adrian Dodoro has been busy. But it remains to be seen if the recruiting of 35-year-old Todd Goldsten and ‘70 games in eight years’ Ben McKay, and on a ridiculously big pay packet mind you, will generate the sort of excitement that Nicks is exuding at the Crows.

Ben McKay has signed at the Bombers on big money as a free agent. Picture: Michael Klein

Xavier Duursma will help if they land him via a trade, but who really knows what Jade Gresham will provide.

At this point the Bombers are paying Gresham and McKay in the vicinity of $1.5m a season.

It would want to work.

There’s always a wariness about a player who believes he needs a new club to restart a career which is treading water. And that’s all of them.

There’s no doubting Essendon’s penchant to go after yet another small creative type like Gresham continues a curious recruiting plan.

By our calculations, the Bombers have/will have 14 regular and semi-regular senior players under 185cm.

They are Gresham 179cm, Archie Perkins 185cm, Ben Hobbs 180cm, Zach Merrett 180cm, Andy McGrath 178cm, Darcy Parish 181cm, Matt Guelfi 184cm, Dylan Shiel 182cm, Will Snelling 175cm, Nick Hind 180cm, Sam Durham 185cm, Jye Menzie 180cm, Alwyn Davey 181cm and Jye Caldwell 183cm.

The three midfield types with size are Nic Martin 190cm, Will Setterfield 192cm and first-year pup Elijah Tstatas 187cm, while Nik Cox can’t be counted because he’s an enigma.

That’s not Ange Ball, that’s Small Ball.

Clearly, all the smalls can’t play in the same team because that would make the Bombers a physically unimposing outfit — and they’ve been that for too long.

In 2023, Essendon showed its best was threatening. They beat GWS, Melbourne and Adelaide, ran Collingwood on Anzac Day and lost to Port Adelaide twice by less than a goal.

That rush was tempered by two savage losses at the end of the season.

So, where is Essendon? No one really knows, but in the meantime it needs a facelift, which has to be led by coach Brad Scott.

He needs to talk about the excitement of the present and not talk about the excitement of the future so much.

Because, for the fans, the Johnny Cash classic rings true.

“I hear the train a comin’, it’s rolling ‘round the bend. And I ain’t seen the sunshine since I don’t know when.”

Originally published as Essendon needs a facelift and Brad Scott needs to be the one driving it, writes Mark Robinson