Matthew Lloyd says Essendon Bombers coach Brad Scott is coaching for his future, few options for hard selection calls
Former champion Matthew Lloyd said he had coached Scott for his career, while Essendon coach Brad Scott was left with few options for tough decisions in the selection with his VFL side also claiming the title.
Lloyd, who said he was tired of being the media critic of his favorite club, said the Bombers needed to improve quickly or Scott’s job would be in jeopardy before the end of the season.
But the coach’s ability to make a strong statement in his choice of culture and defensive standards to back up his reckless post-match assessment of the 63-point defeat against Port Adelaide was compromised by his VFL side losing 12 goals to Geelong at the weekend.
Like the senior team, the VFL team were unable to defend the field and were easy to score. The Cats’ VFL team scored 24 goals.
“I was hoping so,” Lloyd told 3AW when asked if Scott was the right person to lead the Bombers’ rebuild. “Right now he is coaching for his future.
“As time goes on you’re going to have to say he’s against it to still be in the chair. I think he’ll get the full season but he’ll want to improve a lot to be able to coach by this time next year,” Lloyd added.
“[Essendon president] “Andrew Welsh is very good at consistency and it will take a lot of time for them to move on from Brad Scott during the season, but if they continue to play as they did in the first two rounds the pressure will be extreme on him to see out the rest of the season.”
The Bombers have lost 15 consecutive games dating back to May last year and are approaching a record 17-game losing streak set in 2016, when the club was suspended for the boost scandal.
They will then play North Melbourne, followed by the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne in the Gather Round.
Lloyd said Scott should have an honesty meeting with the senior players and ask them what was behind their poor performances; They conceded 278 points in two matches against Hawthorn and Port.
“It looked like there was no effort at all, but is it lack of confidence, belief or confusion? They’re not leaders in anything. I’m not sure what they stand for. It’s hard to tell what they’re trying to do in terms of their football,” Lloyd said.
There are senior players who don’t deserve to keep their places at Essendon but could stay by default as there are too many players in the VFL who should be dropped.
Peter Wright, for example, has had a maddening career, always managing to appear disinterested and occasionally playing with intensity. He’s not supposed to play this week, but he probably will. Kyle Langford must sit uncomfortably in leadership meetings when the topic of pressure and setting an example comes up. If it weren’t for his second game back from injury and his fifth in almost two years, Darcy Parish’s place in the team would be very slim.
Selection integrity requires the coach to discard players who he knows continue to commit the same sins and fall into the same selfish behavior. But selection integrity also requires a coach to promote only deserving players.
Jacob Farrow and Archer Day Wicks will be in the conversation for selection. A question will arise as to whether hiring them out of necessity will be successful or unsuccessful.
There were some moments early in Sunday’s game, and don’t forget those moments when Essendon were only playing into the fifth quarter of their new season, with players making runs and watching Port run away from them.
Another emblematic moment of Essendon’s troubles was when Mitch Georgiades scored after Zach Merrett somehow fell on top of him.
The defense was too disorganized to rule out the possibility of a teammate turning the ball down the court. Key defender Ben McKay was tracking a small opponent, Merrett was stuck on a long goal and young Bomber Max Kondogiannis was looking to his older teammates for direction and finding nothing.
If there’s one thing Essendon’s backline and team defense need to anticipate right now, it’s turnovers. If the AFL’s clocks worked, they could set their clocks accordingly and know they were just one missed handball away from another turnover. Another reason to stay close to the strikers.
“[Scott] Lloyd said his players were facing a big problem in the first few overs with their inability to stop ball movement and the way Hawthorn and now a smaller team in Port Adelaide had opened them up.
The worst part is that these problems are not new. Hence Lloyd’s comments about coaching Scott for his future.
It’s a small sample size of two games this year, but it’s also a sample size that stretches back to last year’s Dreamtime game. By most measures Essendon are performing much worse this year than they did in 2016, when there were suspensions and reinforcements.
They give up more points; 139 points per game so far this year, 107 points per game then. They concede more than nine goals per game with more turnovers than opposition turnovers, the worst in the AFL. They crush around the ball; This year they are in last place in terms of distance difference.
Port Adelaide’s squad on Sunday included Zak Butters, Connor Rozee, Jason Horne-Francis and Jack Lukosius. Zach Merrett is the only Essendon player who could replace either of them.
Port Adelaide had more talented players than Essendon, but less talented teams have long been able to compete with and beat more talented teams. But only if they are well trained, set up defense well and play with intensity.
Essendon had none. No talent, no defensive structure, no desire.
Their pressure rate against Port was the second worst in history. This is directly related to effort, not talent.
Scott was undoubtedly intentional about elevating his players’ selfish post-match mentality because he saw it so often that he tried other ways to force change and only got the same results.
But it was clearly unwise to single out Nate Caddy in the same press conference. He did not call the caddy selfish and his comment about the demoralizing effect of missing the goal I was given at a crucial time was correct. But it wasn’t fair to Caddy.
Caddy was Essendon’s only good player on Sunday and the only Bomber to receive the coaches’ vote. The standout young player of a hopeful team.
Words like Scott’s should be followed by the actions of his players, as well as Scott’s actions during the draft. So where do you go when your reserves are playing worse than the big guys?
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Michael Gleeson is an award-winning senior sports writer specializing in AFL and athletics.Connect with: X or email.
