‘That’s what we want in our group’: Scott praises Merrett after footage shown of emotional exchange

Footage showed star Essendon captain Zach Merrett having what appeared to be an emotional exchange with veteran ruckman Todd Goldstein on the interchange bench during their side 93-point thumping at the hands of the rampant Western Bulldogs on Friday night.

After Merrett and Goldstein exchanged words, Merrett stood up and paced the boundary line.

After the game, in which his severely undermanned Bombers were outclassed in all areas, Essendon coach Brad Scott said Merrett is simply a competitor who wants to win.

“I hope I’ve looked frustrated at times too, because it’s like, it’s true, he’s the ultimate competitor,” Scott said of the footage aired on Seven.

How much more pain can star Bombers skipper Zach Merrett endure?Credit: Getty Images

“I think that’s what we want in our group. We came to the game tonight with a plan to win the game, and he wants to win.

“So yeah, he gets frustrated. I think he’s doing an incredible job in terms of not just this year, but even the last three years of channelling his emotions.

“I think if you look back earlier in his career, he was quite noticeably frustrated at times.”

Scott said Merrett was doing an exceptional job of leading the group.

“But he’s also a human being who gets frustrated. But I can assure you, he’s leading our team extremely well,” he said.

“I think it’s also underrated how much pressure is going on to certain elements of our team.

“We’re asking a lot of our players. And the irony is, you know, if we were dominating, and Zach’s just playing his part, it’s actually easier for him.”

Scott said it was a really tough end to the season for Merrett.

“So he’s a bit of an example of... ‘Yep, it’s frustrating. It’s hard’.

“And you don’t enjoy it at the time, but if you have the attitude that these hard times make you better in the long term, you know, there’s something to hang your hat on.”

Aaron Naughton celebrates with Bulldogs fans after the game.Credit: Getty Images

The Bulldogs have the forward-line firepower to create havoc in September, but do they have the right defensive mix?

The tall backline trio of Rory Lobb, James O’Donnell and Jedd Busslinger kept Essendon to 50 points, but they will have to wait until next week’s clash with Greater Western Sydney for a true test.

If they fail, if the Bulldogs’ defensive structure continues to be their Achilles heel, having been poor in defensive turnovers in the lead up to the Essendon game, can Luke Beveridge rely on his forwards to outscore their opposition?

Aaron Naughton kicked a career-best seven goals on Friday night, while star teammate Sam Darcy nailed six in the Bulldogs’ highest score of the season.

But, once again, that was against the Bombers who have now lost eight games straight.

Let’s see how the Dogs fare against the Giants next Thursday night, who are heading south to Marvel Stadium after a challenging battle with the Swans.

Beveridge said his side had used Lobb as a back-up ruckman so that they could leave Naughton and Darcy forward for longer periods together.

“As the match fitness has kicked in over the years, ‘Naughts’ has really come into his own after an interrupted pre-season, and Sam off his break is now back to some really strong match fitness, so they can play more minutes,” Beveridge said.

“So Rory [Lobb] did a really good job for us pinch hitting with Tim [English], hence the reason for the three key backs with ‘Buss’ [Jedd Busslinger] and James [O’Donnell] having to make sure that they covered when Rory was off.

The Bombers are a long way from the glory days of Jason Johnson and James Hird.Credit: AFL Photos

“That worked out reasonably well for us.”

One area in which Luke Beveridge’s men can’t be queried is their midfield mix.

Marcus Bontempelli almost certainly earned himself three Brownlow votes with 35 disposals and two goals, while Tom Liberatore had 22 possessions until being subbed out of the contest at three-quarter-time. Ed Richards also drifted forward for two goals from his 24 disposals.

Beveridge said Liberatore had suffered bruising from stops being scraped against his ankle.

“He was OK, he wasn’t impeded, but we just thought with a six-day break … we’d be a little bit conservative with him tonight. He should be fine next week,” the coach said.

With Bulldogs facing a tough test against the Giants, Essendon have plenty of questions to answer of their own.

Like, will the new fitness regime at “the Hangar” be able to rectify this injury season from hell?

If they hadn’t suffered enough soft-tissue woes already, star Jordan Ridley was subbed out of the game in the second term.

“He’s got a hamstring strain, almost certainly,” Scott said.

“We subbed him out immediately. There’s no point sugarcoating it. He’ll go get a scan, and I hope to God I’m wrong, but I doubt it.

“It’s incredibly frustrating, devastating, all the words that you can possibly think of to describe it.

“We just rate him so highly. He’s so important to our club, and we’ll support him through whatever it is.”

Brad Scott addresses his players during their huge defeat.Credit: AFL Photos

Then there is their skipper, Merrett. He had 30 disposals (14 kicks and 16 handballs) despite some heavy attention from Bulldog Matthew Kennedy, but how many more substandard years can he endure?

Are there enough green shoots in the black and red to keep him engaged?

Nate Caddy looks like a star of the future, but can he take that next step? He kicked a goal against the Bulldogs from 12 disposals and a paltry four marks.

Second-gamer Liam McMahon kicked two goals in the opening term and now has four from two games, but is that enough when he was hardly sighted for the remainder of the evening?

Earlier, Scott had praised Essendon’s all-dominating 2000 premiership team who had joined them in the rooms for their pre-game build-up.

“There was an air of invincibility about them,” Scott told Fox Footy. “I said to our team, ‘That’s the sort of team that we aspire to be’.”

But on a night of questions, that could be the biggest of them all: When can Essendon fans expect their team to improve?

It’s been a long 25 years since the glory days of 2000.

“Real improvement comes through difficult times, and no one enjoys it,” Scott said.

“It’s hard, but when you do hard things, you improve, as long as your attitude is right, and that’s where we’ve got to spend a lot of our time just making sure that our morale stays as high as it can be, and we keep competing.”

Full-time: Western Bulldogs d Essendon 22.11 (143) to 7.8 (50)

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Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge hopes Tom Liberatore doesn’t have a serious ankle issue despite being subbed out of tonight’s game.

“He had stops scraped against his ankle which bruised him up a little bit,” Beveridge said.

Tom Liberatore of the Bulldogs speaks with teammate James O’Donnell.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

“He wasn’t impeded but with a six-day break, we just thought it was best to make sure he was OK.

“We were conservative with him tonight, he should be fine next week.”

Bombers coach Brad Scott is certain Jordan Ridley has a hamstring strain.

The star defender has had multiple hamstring issues in his career and Scott expects he will join the club’s injury list which already includes 15 players, many of them first-choice.

“He’s got a hamstring strain, most certainly,” Scott said.

“We subbed him out immediately. When he feels his hamstring, there is no point sugar-coating it. He will go for a scan. I hope to God I’m wrong, but I doubt it.”

Giants coach Adam Kingsley fears he may have lost defender Jack Buckley and midfielder Josh Kelly to calf injuries ahead of a crucial clash with the Western Bulldogs next weekend.

Kingsley said Buckley knew he had hurt his calf while Kelly had some “awareness” in his calf.

Giants head coach Adam Kingsley.Credit: AFL Photos

Scans will be needed for both players.

“I don’t know how serious it is, but Buckley came off and he was a bit resigned that he was hurt,” Kingsley told Fox Footy.

“If it is a calf, and it is a tear, then it could be a few weeks.

“It’s similar to Josh Kelly. He had [calf] awareness... I don’t know what the damage is there, but he has awareness.

“It looks like we have picked up two calf injuries out of the game, which is disappointing.”

Kingsley has thrown down the challenge to his players to find a way to end their two-year losing streak against the Bulldogs.

“It’s a bit like tonight. We haven’t beaten them for two years so we have to do something about that match-up,” Kingsley told Fox Footy.

“We know how the Bulldogs play, we’ve had some good battles in the past and they’ve had our measure, so we have to do something about that.”

In the post-match on Fox Footy, Giants skipper Toby Greene wasn’t even asked about his half-time comment on the coverage saying Tom Papley was “looking overweight”.

But Greene, who also had separate incidents with his business partner Isaac Heeney (when he seemed to drop his arm into his head while he was on the ground, albeit without much force) and Aaron Francis, did speak about the rivalry and the spray he copped from Giants coach Adam Kingsley at half-time.

Giants captain Toby Greene.Credit: AFL Photos

GWS forward Jake Stringer revealed Kingsley tore shreds off half a dozen of the team’s leading players, including Greene, and the Giants came out a different side in the second half.

“They don’t always work – that one worked beautifully,” Greene told Fox Footy of the spray.

“Our contest work rate just wasn’t good enough. We were letting them play the way they wanted to play, and we acknowledged that.

“We feel that not many teams can beat us when we play the way we want to play.”

The early incident involving Isaac Heeney and Toby Greene.Credit: Fox Footy

Kingsley said his team talk wasn’t a spray, but he reminded the team how they wanted to play and who wanted to do it.

Greene said he would wear such a dressing down as his play wasn’t good enough.

“I was getting touched up – I had to lift,” Greene admitted.

Greene added that the rivalry between the two clubs was a strong one.

“It is a really good, healthy rivalry,” Greene told Fox Footy.

“There is a lot said out there and people really fly into the contests.

“It felt like a final, it really did. To be able to respond like we did, it is a big step in the right direction.”

Giants skipper Toby Greene was short and sweet as he claimed the trophy for beating the Swans.

After a feisty game, he was very complimentary to the Swans but made no reference to Tom Papley after his half-time comments to Fox Footy about his weight.

Toby Greene tackles Swans opponent Sam Wicks.Credit: Getty Images

“This was a great atmosphere and we are building something really good in Sydney,” Greene said as he accepted the trophy for winning the derby.

“Well done to the Swans, they have taught us how to play footy for a while. [They’re a] tremendous footy club. It was a good fight tonight. See you later.”

Giants star Finn Callaghan broke into a smile when asked about coach Adam Kingsley’s half-time “spray” to the side.

The Giants were down and far from their best. Kingsley looked furious and that fury must have been let loose.

Finn Callaghan of the Giants runs with the ball.Credit: Getty Images

“It’s the biggest spray he has ever given us, and the biggest I’ve had in my short AFL career,” Callaghan told Fox Footy.

“We deserved it.”

Callaghan and his side bounced back and he won the Brett Kirk Medal as best on ground between the two Sydney clubs.

It’s hard to believe what we’ve just seen here. Sydney’s season is over, and the Giants have just fired a warning shot to the rest of the competition, and Toby Greene ... well, who knows. Probably a fine? Strap in for some fascinating wash-up from Engie Stadium.

Bombers ruckman Todd Goldstein says Jordan Ridley hopes his hamstring injury is not a serious one.

Ridley was subbed out with yet another soft-tissue concern and Goldstein was asked post-game about his teammate.

Jordan Ridley speaks with Todd Goldstein post-game.Credit: AFL Photos

“I have had a brief chat with him and he doesn’t think it is anything major,” Goldstein told Seven.

“You can never be certain, but he is probably someone who would have an idea. He is not too upset about it.”

Aaron Naughton spoke to Channel Seven post game about how he has turned his season around.

It feels like you haven’t lost perspective [on] how tough the four or five weeks... how this patch of form has come. Is that in the back of your mind – you got rolling but it was a tough middle of the year?

Aaron Naughton and Jordan Ridley compete for the ball.Credit: AFL Photos

Footy is a tough game of ups and downs. [The] start of the season wasn’t the way I wanted to [play]. It is just banking all those good weeks prior, [I] didn’t necessarily get the results. [But] keep playing and now I’m starting to get some reward.

As a key forward it is an instinct thing, and you see the ball in the air and you don’t hesitate and you launch at it. When you are down in confidence you hesitate half a second...

I spoke to Matt Spangher six weeks ago and the strength of my game is running and jumping at the footy. When you get to more contests, you are involved in the game a lot more. That is purely the sole focus.