AFL 2025: Essendon coach Brad Scott on midfielder Darcy Parish’s return from injury

All-Australian midfielder Darcy Parish is scheduled to be fit next week – but Essendon won’t rush his official return.

The wretched injury history of gun midfielder Darcy Parish will force Essendon to ease the All-Australian back conservatively over the coming weeks.

Parish, 27, is yet to play a game this year due to ongoing soft-tissue setbacks but is scheduled to be medically fit to play football next week.

But Essendon coach Brad Scott is “leaning towards a more conservative approach” with Parish given he has played just 36 of a possible 75 matches since his career-best 2021 season.

“Whether (Parish) is medically cleared to play, he may be, he may not be, but my view on this is I just want Darcy back injury free and not concerned,” Scott said.

All-Australian midfielder Darcy Parish will be eased back from injury. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

“I am leaning towards a more conservative approach with Darcy, but I will need to collaborate on our medical team with that one, we just won’t be risking him.

“He’s had too many setbacks to bring him back before he’s had a really good block of work.

“He’s going well, he’s training well, but it’s a long season and once we get him back we want to make sure he stays back.”

Essendon lost Jade Gresham, Jordan Ridley and Harrison Jones through injury in a costly win over North Melbourne last Thursday.

But the Bombers are set to welcome back tough inside midfielder Jye Caldwell this week as a welcome boost alongside in-form captain Zach Merrett.

Scott is rapt to have Caldwell back for what he brings on the field but says he offers so much more as a cog in the club’s culture.

“He’s an important player for us, he’s one of those of type of guys who is clearly a really capable player but a heart and soul player,” he said.

“He brings more to us than kicks, marks, handballs, tackles, contested possessions, etc – he brings a fair bit of heart and soul to our team.”

Scott was wary of North Melbourne stars Nick Larkey, Luke Davies-Uniacke and Jy Simpkin last week and admits he has his hands full with Sydney on Saturday.

He says the Bombers must contain Sydney’s array of “off Broadway” types that cause just as much damage as its big-name superstars.

“Teams go through ebbs and flows at different stages but what is a constant with Sydney is that they’ve got absolute stars of the competition,” he said.

Essendon coach Brad Scott compared in-form skipper Zach Merrett to Collingwood great Nathan Buckley last week. Picture: Josh Chadwick/Getty Images

“I know (Errol) Gulden and (Callum) Mills are a couple of stars missing but (Isaac) Heeney and (Chad) Warner are as influential as any other midfielders in the competition at the moment.

“Sydney, particularly in Melbourne, some of their I suppose off-Broadway type of players are very, very capable and don’t get the recognition in Melbourne they deserve.

“At AFL clubs we give them the recognition, I think there’s a lot of players, (James) Rowbottom is a good example, I think he does a power of work for them as a really important player.

“People quite rightly talk about Heeney and Warner for how good they’ve been this year.”