Essendon coach Brad Scott says lack of effort ‘totally unacceptable’

A 10-goal loss has been compounded by more injuries for Essendon, who are winless to start the season, and coach Brad Scott has turned the blowtorch on his players.

Essendon coach Brad Scott says he’s “not interested” in using inexperience as an excuse for what he labelled a “totally unacceptable” lack of effort in their humiliating loss to Adelaide as he defended his defenders, including under fire Ben McKay.

Two days after giving up 25 goals to the Crows in the 61-point smashing, a still-fuming Scott said not even “Glen Jakovich and Bruce Doull combined” could have handled the pressure the backline faced, putting the blowtorch on their teammates up the ground.

Scott gave both barrels to the underperforming Bombers in the wake of Saturday’s MCG loss, with critics identifying the consistently poor defensive record, with fullback McKay coming in for significant heat after back-to-back poor performances.

But he also saw a spirit he liked, declaring forward Nat caddy looked like “he wanted to punch me” when he was subbed off with just five possessions and zero goals.

“I loved his response to being subbed. He gave me a look like he wanted to punch me,” Scott said on Monday.

“I was like: ‘Hey, bottle that up and deliver it Thursday night’. He is a competitor. He is a proud performer. Sometimes, players need something like that to happen to them because he certainly didn’t expect to get subbed off at three-quarter-time.

“He is a second-year player, we know that. But we do not want to use youth as an excuse. He is a player, as a key forward, it’s a hard position to play. So you are going to get a bit of ups and downs. He is working really hard on trying to give consistent performances all the time.”

The Bombers were smashed. Picture: Josh Chadwick/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

There will be changes to the line-up for Thursday’s crunch match with Port Adelaide after young players Elijah Tsatas and Archie Perkins were both ruled out with injury.

Defender Jordan Ridley will return after missing the Crows loss with concussion, but star midfielder Darcy Parish will come back from his back issue via the VFL.

Scott expects a response from all players as the Bombers look to avoid a 0-3 start to the season before a bye in round 4.

“I focus on the facts as they are in front of us. And the facts, as they are in front of us is, we were horrendous in our ability to apply pressure to the opposition,” Scott said.

“The effort and intent is something that we base our game around and it was lacking, which was the most disappointing thing for me.

“I was very clear (with the players) as to the areas that we were lacking and it’s just totally unacceptable and not at the standard that we expect because we think that we’re a capable group.

“We’re working on all those system-based things all the time, but you can have this fancy, first-class system and if you don’t have pressure on the ball, I don’t think Glen Jakovich and Bruce Doull combined are going to be able to defend against a complete lack of pressure on the ball.”

Riley Thilthorpe and Ben McKay head-to-head. Picture: Morgan Hancock/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

The Bombers side that took to the MCG on Saturday was the second-youngest team in the competition, by average games, in round 2.

But Scott said it would be a “cop out” to shield their poor performance behind that

“I’m not interested in even insinuating that there’s any excuse with youth,” he said.

“I think we have a capable team and we expect more.”

While Ridley will return to help McKay in the backline, Scott, who also coached the defender at North Melbourne, said while he had to cop criticism, it could be misplaced given the situations he’s been put in.

“If you look across his career, he’s been under a lot of pressure in the teams he’s played in,” Scott said.

“I’ve got a lot of faith and confidence in Ben. He’s got a lot of good attributes.

“We put our last-line defenders under enormous pressure on the weekend.

“Criticism is part of this game and, on Saturday, we all deserved to get criticised, it’s just the price of admission in this industry, and Ben knows that. But he is a resilient character. There are plenty of critics – I am not one of them.”

Elijah Tsatas played with a broken finger. Picture: Graham Denholm/Getty Images

Tsatas, who racked up 25 touches against the Crows, broke his finger in the warm-up before playing out the game., He’ll require surgery and there’s no clear timeline on his return.

Perkins finished the game with a quad complaint and while ball-magnet Parish will return to play this week after recovering from a back complaint, it will be through the VFL.

Originally published as Essendon coach Brad Scott says lack of effort ‘totally unacceptable’