"A fresh voice is needed": Bombers break silence on Scott sacking

Essendon coach Brad Scott has been sacked by the club following a dismal start to the 2026 season.

After an extremely poor loss to an undermanned and underperforming Richmond side in Round 11, the club has opted to move on from their head coach during his fourth season in charge.

Club president Andrew Welsh spoke on the decision during a press conference on Tuesday morning.

“We've made the difficult decision to part ways with senior coach Brad Scott, effective immediately,” he said.

“I spoke with Brad last night to inform him of the board's decision. We agreed, given the circumstances, to meet again this morning in person, and I want to acknowledge the difficulty with these conversations.

“Brad is a resilient, stoic person who gave everything to this football club and to the people within it. He came here with a clear strategy, clear set of values, and never compromised them.

“The toll that this role places on a coach and their family is real, and I want to thank Brad and his entire family for the sacrifices they have made for this club, and we wish them nothing but the best.

“Now, to why we made the decision. This is an industry that demands high performance, continuous improvement and a relentless drive to get better every day. We are not comfortable with where we currently sit as a board.

“We met in recent days, assessed our position honestly and made a decision. The nature of our losses, the way we are playing and the key performance indicators we set out at the start of the season are not trending in the right direction.

“When we looked at the overall picture, we agreed that a fresh voice was needed to take this club forward and that Brad would not be our senior coaching 2027. Once that decision was made, we moved to let Brad know and work through the next steps with him.

“Dean Solomon will take charge of the football team in the interim and has our complete backing. We will outline the process of finding our next senior coach in coming weeks.

“I want to finish by speaking directly to our members and our supporters. We've been extremely clear on the strategy, the direction of the football club.

“We are building the next successful at the Essendon Football Club with a view of playing finals, winning finals and competing for premierships.

“There is a lot to be gained from the second half of the season, and we won't waste the opportunity to develop and improve on our performances.

“We know recent times have been hard for Essendon people and we feel that deeply but want to be clear. We are not going backwards from here.

“The direction of this football club is strong. We are confident the days ahead for Essendon are the best days that we will see from this club, and we're excited about the future.”

Six weeks ago, you used the words 'absolute belief' that Brad would be your next premiership coach. What changed?

“We had conversations over the weekend. We met as a board yesterday, numerous conversations around the direction of the football club, and when the decision was made that we that Brad wouldn't be a long-term coach of the football club, we needed to act on that. I didn't want it to move out to the mid-season break, to the end of the year. I felt the best thing for Brad, the best thing for the football club was to make that call straight away.”

Was it a mistake to extend Brad Scott's contract?

“We assessed all the information that we had at that time. We wanted to give Brad the very best opportunity to be able to coach a young developing team. And at that point in time, the information we had, we had suggested that that was the right call.”

Why have the conversations changed amongst the board about Brad's position in the last 5 to 6 weeks?

“The trends of the areas that we've been assessing as a board. At the end of the day, we’ve won one game this year, one in the last 26 or 27. There are reasons to that, but we need to continue to build a winning environment and the areas that we're assessing from a development perspective, we're not going the right way. That overlapped with the realities of the losses we've been having in the way that we've been having him, is what made the conversation with the board and the decision that come out the back of it.”

Are you talking to James Hird?

“I haven't no, we're not ruling anyone in or anyone out of this. I'm sure that there will be a lot of people interested in this role, and when we set the criteria for our next senior coach for what we believe is going to be the right characteristics, we will then move on from there to look at what that next senior coach is?”

After the news broke, SEN's Sam Edmund said: “Brad Scott has just been sacked as the coach of the Essendon Football Club.

“One win since May 23 last year. He took over ahead of the 2023 season.

“He’s been told last night that his tenure as coach of Essendon has finished.

“There was an unscheduled board meeting and I’m told that was an offsite board meeting, and it was in that board meeting that they decided that Brad Scott’s time as coach of Essendon would cease.

“They will appoint an interim coach for the remainder of the season.

“The prevailing view on this is that the losses had just mounted the team has not really improved in any meaningful way. They’ve been uncompetitive in large chunks of those losses.

“They’re last on the ladder and that is unsustainable in the view of many who are entrusted with these decisions.

“It is what it looks like. The board meeting was held, the decision was made, the timing of it is curious.

“There will be an explanation on this. I’ve got some level of empathy with how it’s come into the public domain.

“But we’ll wait for further clarity.”

SEN’s Tom Morris has confirmed that Dean Solomon will be named as interim coach of the Dons.

Essendon confirms Scott exit

The Bombers released a statement confirming the departure of Scott.

Read it below:

The Essendon Football Club can confirm that it has made the decision to part company with Senior Coach Brad Scott, effective immediately.

The Club thanked Scott and his family for his dedication to the role and for the club-first mentality he showed throughout his time at Essendon.

“Brad is a resilient, stoic leader who gave everything to this football club and to the people in it. He came to Essendon with a clear set of values and he never compromised them, through good times and difficult ones,” President Andrew Welsh said.

“We appreciate the sacrifices he made for our Club and thank him for his commitment and professionalism. Brad leaves a legacy with the decisions he made in building our list which were always Club first.

“Ultimately, whilst we know we are a young team, we are not comfortable with our current position which led us to meet as a Board to assess and make a decision on the future of the Senior Coach position.

“When looking at the overall progress of our football team this season, it was agreed that we needed a fresh voice to take the club forward for the 2027 AFL Season. Once that decision was made, it would have been unfair to have Brad continue as coach any longer and that is why we have brought this decision forward to today.

“While long-term decisions have been clear and provide great hope for our future, we still need to show progress week to week, and we haven't seen that this year. These are genuinely difficult decisions, and we do not take them lightly but the cumulative nature of our losses and the key performance indicators set by the Club at the start of the season are not trending in the right direction,” Welsh said.

“In recent years we have transitioned our playing list, overhauled our high-performance department and enhanced our list and recruiting division and today we made the difficult decision to change our senior coaching structure.

“We have been extremely clear on the strategy and direction of our football club. We are building the next successful era for Essendon, with a view to playing finals, winning finals and competing for premierships.

“There is a lot to be gained from the second half of the season and we won’t waste the opportunity to develop and improve our performances.

“We know recent times have been hard for Essendon people, and we feel that deeply. We are confident the best days for this football club are ahead of us and we are excited about the future.”

The Club will outline the process to select its next Senior Coach in the coming days.

Poor Scott stats

Sitting dead last with just one win this season, Scott departs as the Bombers' worst statistical coach since the 1930s, winning just 29 of his 80 games at the club and guiding the side to just one top eight finish since joining in 2023.

Speaking on the desperate nature of Scott's final weeks at the Bombers, SEN's Tom Morris reported last week that the 50-year-old would be coaching for his job despite signing an extension until the end of the 2027 season.

“It's a big few weeks for Brad Scott, I think bigger than what many people realise across the industry,” Morris said last week.

“He's contracted to the end of next year. But make no mistake, if Essendon sacked him, they can afford to pay him out with the soft cap the way it is.

“That's not a consideration for them, it's just whether Brad Scott's the right man to take them forward.

“We reported during the week on Agenda Setters that, aside from wins and losses, there is another two metrics that Essendon are keeping very close track of.

“One, is player development. So that is how many players have improved and by how much under Brad Scott. That's across training and across games.

“And the second metric is, largely, team defence. So specifically, pressure acts, scores against those sorts of numbers.

“And on those numbers, it looks pretty bleak for Brad Scott.

“I'm not going to say that Brad Scott, it's a matter of when, not if, like what we were saying about Michael Voss.

“But I think he's in a very delicate, very perilous position, more than maybe what we even thought a few weeks ago.”

The Bombers now join Carlton in the hunt for a new senior coach.