Brad Scott announced as next Essendon Bombers coach

Essendon are set to announced their next coach as early as tonight after cutting their last coach Ben Rutten loose in brutal circumstances.

Brad Scott is back as an AFL head coach. Photo: AAP Image/James Ross

Brad Scott has been officially named as the next Essendon Bombers coach.

The Herald Sun reported Scott had won the role over Melbourne assistant Adem Yze and Bombers legend James Hird to snag the role.

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Essendon chairman David Barham announced the news to members on Thursday night.

“I am delighted to write and officially announce to you first, that Brad Scott has been appointed as the senior coach of our men’s AFL team,” he wrote.

“This is a significant appointment and another important step forward in the progress of our club.

“To reach this appointment, we established a clear and structured coaching recruitment process to ensure we found the right person to take our club forward.

“The coaching process was diligent in its approach and detailed in its execution.

“It begun with a shortlist of over 22 candidates and included a demanding interview process, game style presentations and external personality profiling to ensure we had the full picture of the successful candidate.”

Brad Scott is set to win the Bombers job. Photo by Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

Scott, the identical twin brother of Geelong premiership winning mentor Chris, spent nine years as the head coach of North Melbourne, resigning in May 2019.

Since then, he took a role in the AFL football operations department as the AFL’s general manager of football.

A two-time premiership winning player with the Brisbane Lions, Scott is poised to inject a sense of calm into Essendon after a tumultous time.

The club has not won a finals match since 2004.

Despite scraping into the finals in 2021, the Bombers had a horror 2022, finishing 15th on the ladder.

But although coach Ben Rutten was promised he was safe, an ill-fated attempt to get four-time premiership winning former Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson to the club fell through as he decided to go to North Melbourne.

Rutten was then moved on.

Since then, Clarkson has been embroiled in historical allegations from his time at the Hawks which has seen his start with the Kangaroos delayed.