By Jake Niall
Essendon coach Brad Scott says that enigmatic forward Jake Stringer might need to take a few backward steps to become a more professional and improved footballer.
Scott said it was unrealistic to expect Stringer to become a “10 out of 10” professional footballer, but that if the club could push him in the right direction off the field, he could improve significantly.
Scott says it’s unrealistic to expect Stringer to be a “10 out of 10” professional athlete. Credit: Getty Images
Scott also said that the responsibility for Stringer’s approach and performances also rested with the Essendon coaches. It was not simply up to Stringer, one of the club’s most talented match-winners at his best, to perform.
The senior coach suggested that Stringer had to do more to meet team needs and that flashes of brilliance were not enough.
“I’m a strength-based coach and I more than anyone love the great things that Jake can bring to the game of AFL footy, but there are things that are non-negotiables,” Scott told this masthead.
“In the modern game, you can’t just have flashes of brilliance, then not do the other things that are required as part of a team.
“And Jake’s been very explicit in saying he needs to uphold his end of the bargain on that, so Jake’s had a lot to deal with, and again they’re not excuses, but they are reasons.
“He’s had injuries, he’s been dealing with – which he’s put on the public record – he’s been dealing with some mental health issues away from footy that he’s had to address and, you know, he’s had the courage to actually address them and speak about it publicly.
“My view with Jake is this – sometimes you need to take a few steps back to straighten some things out, and you need to straighten out the fundamentals and again part of being an elite AFL athlete isn’t just training hard. I mean if you train really hard without the rest of your life being in order, you just burn out and get injured.
“And maybe that’s what Jake’s done in the past. Because, I can tell you, I watch him train and at times he trains extremely hard.
“But you have to get all of it right.”
Asked if Stringer had the right approach, Scott added: “Look, is Jake going to go from being where he is now to 10 out of 10, like absolute the most professional player in the competition? I think that’s an unrealistic expectation.
“But my job is to get the most out of every player on our list. And if we can move Jake, if we can just nudge him in the right direction and make him significantly better, but we’re not going to turn him into 10 out of 10.”
Stringer, 29, recruited from the Bulldogs in 2017, is out of contract at the end of this season, having signed a three-year deal with the Bombers in 2021.
Brad Scott is not a fan of changes to the AFL finals system.Credit: AFL Photos
Scott, who coached North Melbourne for almost a decade and extracted strong performances from veterans, said he had experience with 33-year-olds with “supposed deficiencies and issues.” They were “capable of incredible things if you provide the right supportive environment.
“You back them, and you take responsibility as a coach as well.
“If it was just up to Jake, we wouldn’t need coaches. It’s up to us to provide the right environment for him. So we’re all in this together, and it’s not going to be if Jake’s poor, it’s all Jake’s fault. I’ve got a big part to play in this ... and it’s going to take some time.”
Since taking over as senior coach, Scott has emphasised Essendon’s need to improve standards of professionalism and for their players to live “elite AFL lifestyles”.
In a wide-ranging pre-season interview with this masthead, Scott broke down his plans for each of Essendon’s highly rated recruits and said their decisions to choose the Bombers reflected their faith in the list.
Read Jake Niall’s full interview with Brad Scott here.
“I’ve been clear with the players, this game and this lifestyle is not for everyone. What we expect young men aged 18 to 31 – normal 18- to 31-year-old men lead a very different lifestyle to these guys ... if you’re thinking you’re missing out on stuff, you’re in the wrong game,” he said.
In a recent interview with former Essendon great Tim Watson for the club website, Stringer said he had recovered from September surgery on his foot and was in a strong position to tackle the season.
“I’m probably the best mentally I’ve been, and that’s probably helped me physically as well,” he told Watson. “In that sense I’d say it probably is the best pre-season I’ve had so far.”
“When I had my foot surgery I tried to figure out things in my life that I needed to figure out. There’s things I will continue to work on all the way through.
“It’s just about making sure you’ve got a healthy mind and a healthy body and it all grows through. I’ve had troubles throughout my whole career and there’s things I’m sure at a later date I will speak about it but at the minute I’m just in that building block process.
“I would say there is still another level for me to go in my footballing journey ... I’m not saying my lifestyle was extravagant, I just didn’t know how to deal with things so I’ve just gone away and worked at those. It’s something I take day by day [to] become a better person, a better father, a better teammate, just an all-round better human, really.”
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