Following their heartbreakingly close two-point loss to St Kilda last night, Essendon coach Brad Scott is choosing to focus on the positives.
Despite the narrow defeat, Scott believes the team took significant strides forward, showcasing an improved game plan that promises a brighter future. With only 29 players available for AFL selection, including the absence of captain Zach Merrett, Scott highlighted several areas where the team excelled, pointing to the squad's progress and the resilience they showed fighting until the very end.
Scott on… the loss to St Kilda
I think we've got to be careful about being sort of overly happy. I mean, we came here with a plan, we wanted to execute that plan. You can't execute any plan unless you have a really high level of effort and intent. So that bit I'm ecstatic with. I think there's a lot to like. But we're really trying to improve parts of our game and we really did take steps forward in a lot of areas tonight. There's a lot to like in terms of the foundations of the way that we want to play. I think the fans watching tonight would have got a great glimpse not only into the future, but into the near-term of the players that are showing some really good signs that they're going to be long term parts of what we're trying to build. They also would have been proud of the effort that we expect. So that part was really good, but it's hard to be it's hard to be pleased when you're so disappointed.
Scott on… injuries to Jayden Laverde and Liam McMahon
Yeah, he's important for us. I mean, he's a warrior, Laverde. I think he'll be OK, but he just got a nasty knee in the leg, and he just couldn't function. He doesn't concede ever, Jayden, and we conceded a goal because he couldn't run. So we just had no choice but to sub him out. How much of an influence did it have? Well, some influence, but we go to a defence that's made up of young guys, and they acquitted themselves really well. So it's not like we fell apart.
He (McMahon) was in quite a bit of pain there when he came off late. He got sort of stomped on. So, we were concerned about his wrist. But it's not his wrist, it's his hand. But we'll send him off for scans. It looks okay, but there's bit of swelling there, and we sort of hold our breath a bit.
Scott on… the young team’s continued resilience and fight
We're asking a lot of first, second, third, fourth, fifth gamers to play key roles in our team. And it's really encouraging that they can execute plans, they can play really important roles, and they can do it over a long period of the game. Because I think in this game you can see young players do – they have moments, and a lot of our young players have moments, but they fought it right out as well. So that is really pleasing.
Scott on… Rhys Unwin debut
I thought he's terrific. It's moments with young players. But you know, it's a baptism of fire. I mean, you go play forward, and you walk down, it's Jack Sinclair, or it's Nasiah, there's the quality players everywhere, and he didn't look overawed. He had moments where he stepped through them and and did what we we've seen it at VFL level. If Zach Merrett didn't convert half of Cobden then Rhys has. He has done a really good job of converting most of that town to being bomber supporters. There's over 100 Cobden kids coming down. Rhys thinks it was all for his debut, not for Zach’s 250th match, but even the thought of Rhys playing alongside Zach is as pretty enticing for us.
Scott on.. versatility moving forward
I spoke to the coaches about how we will have to rethink a whole lot of things. And what we've always been really conscious of is that for us to get better, it's not as simple as get our established senior players back in the team, I think we'll start next year with a dozen guys who would think they're locks in our team, because we've got another dozen players who have come into our side that have acquitted themselves really well and are capable of playing really good AFL footy. Almost all of them have got huge upside. So I think we go into a pre season with an open mind as to what our team looks like. And I would love to have selection headaches.
