After Essendon’s spirited effort in what was a tight race against St Kilda last Friday, Senior coach Brad Scott has his eye’s set on continuing to utilise the remainder of the season to take important steps forward.

With Zach Merrett’s milestone occasion setting the positive tone for tomorrow night’s clash against Carlton, Scott speaks to the importance of recognising the skipper’s incredible contributions to the Club, and touches on making the most of the opportunities that lay ahead in the next two weeks.

All the talking points from Wednesday morning’s presser:

Scott on… Zach Merrett 250

Nothing will stop him playing tomorrow night.

I asked him if he wanted to do a test, and he said, 'no, it's not required', so he'll just be out there.

It's going to be fantastic to have him back, he’s obviously been an incredible player for us.

In a lot of ways, he’s the heart and soul of our club.

I think all Essendon fans have loved watching him play and we hope as many Essendon fans get to the MCG tomorrow night and watch him play, because it's been a privilege to coach him.

I think for all Essendon people, it's been a privilege to watch him.

Scott on… Nick Bryan re-signing

It's really encouraging. After his ACL very early in the year we were very keen to lock him in straight away.

As always, it’s been my philosophy, I want players to do their due diligence and really make sure that they're making the right decision for them, which ultimately, is the right decision for us as well.

He’s a very important player to us, and a very important part of our team for a long time to come, so it's good news.

Scott on… Sam Draper

I’ve had the same philosophy all the way through, that he's got to work through what is a huge decision for him.

Clearly, he's got a lot of interest, but I think we've presented a really strong case as to why he'll play his best football with us.

There's an incredibly strong appetite from a lot of clubs to improve their list through trading and free agency, it feels like more than ever.

We’ll stick to our strategy, Sam knows how important he is to us, and he knows how much I, in particular, value him.

But I've made it really clear to him that he's got to come to this decision himself and do what he thinks is in the best interest of his career, and for the rest of his life. 

Scott on… the next two weeks

We're looking forward to tomorrow night first up, but I said repeatedly over the last couple of months, we've got a lot a lot to gain out of the back half of this year.

A big game tomorrow night and then a game against the potential finalist next week, so it's obviously a really important one for us for a whole lot of reasons.

It’s obvious to us, it may not be obvious for everyone else, but to play another good team is a great opportunity for us.

I've talked about taking steps forward, I want to keep building and taking steps forward, and these next two weeks are just another opportunity to do that.