Essendon’s resounding 45-point rout of Melbourne on Saturday had a galvanising effect on both players and its fanbase after a challenging 323-day period without a win. 

While Senior Coach Brad Scott is thrilled for his group finally getting some welcome reward for an outstanding four-quarter effort, he’s reiterating an ‘eyes wide open’ approach as he quickly moves ahead.

The Bombers won’t have to wait long for opportunities to back up their work, with another road game against the SUNS facing them this week before the mammoth Anzac Day clash with Collingwood the following Saturday. 

Scott says his players have been steadfast in attacking their return home with level heads, not just content with one result going their way. 

The key talking points from Wednesday’s press conference: 

Scott on… reward for effort, keeping perspective

The number of Essendon people just on the plane, at the airport, post-game, back in Melbourne, they were just so happy and it was good to see them happy again. 

Perspective is really important. We got a result on the back of hard work, but we are under no illusions as to how much hard work we've got in front of us.

I said post-game, it’s still the same thing. It's reward for all the effort, because when you're putting in the effort, the effort that I see behind the scenes, the work that goes on throughout the week, when you're not getting some reward from the result on the scoreboard, it can be challenging. 

We work really hard on sort of separating the result from the process, but the reality is after a while, you need some reward. I was really pleased for the players, first and foremost but also for our fans who have been through a really difficult time. 

Scott on… the group’s morale, coaching ‘positive reinforcement’ 

It’s four points. 

I'm not going to sit here and say it makes no difference. Of course, it makes everyone happier, makes supporters happier, gives us from a coaching perspective, an opportunity to go and coach reinforcement, rather than always looking at things we need to get better at. 

We get this level of effort, we play this style, we get that result.

It’s always easier to coach positive reinforcement than always trying to fix things that aren't working so well. That’s the benefit. The challenge now is, as I’ve repeatedly said, that we haven't solved anything yet. We've got an enormous amount of work in front of us.

Regardless of whether it's a young group, a mature group, a team that's won the last two flags or a team that hasn't won one in 50 years, the challenge in this game is to stay level.

There are any number of things that can either drag you into a deep depression or you can be riding a euphoric wave, and neither of those two things are usually true. 

We've had massive challenge in that space to stay level when things have been really difficult. I'm a firm believer that when you do hard things and you get through it, you come out the other side stronger.

That’s the opportunity for us, but I think you can tell from my tone, we're not getting carried away with ourselves.

I haven't had that sense (of danger) because they're just locked into what we need to do. Our review was very similar to our reviews in the first month of the year, other than being able to probably reinforce some things that worked really well for us. 

They're under no illusions. You've got to try and get off (the rollercoaster) and stay and stay level - results, external views, opinions will try and drag you away from that, so focus on the facts, stay level.  

Scott on… the impact of his leaders

(Andy McGrath) is just such a high-quality human being. 

I've said that on a regular basis. But I'm also a big believer in making sure that we want to build not just Andy McGrath as a fantastic leader - he's a first year Captain and developing his leadership all the time. 

In Zach Merrett, I don't think any coach could hope for a better on-field leader in terms of the way that he plays and the way that he wears his heart on his sleeve out on the ground.

But we've also been really strong on succession as well. We want to develop a pipeline of leaders and it's an area of improvement for us – we’ve got three players who are in their first year of any leadership group, we’ve got a first year captain on the back of a relatively young and inexperienced list.

So the development component's really important. That's a big part of my responsibility to help develop those leaders. 

My view has always been ‘that will be what it will be’ (regarding Zach’s future). I mean, I'm not going to try and manufacture something here. I'm a coach that really believes in action, not how you feel.  

All I can judge is how he plays, and I think the chase down tackle on Pickett late in the game, you look at that, and that says more than anything I can say or anything anyone else can say. 

His actions are displaying that he's fully invested and it's all we can ask for.

Scott on… Elijah Tsatas’ return, Brayden Fiorini’s absence

(Elijah) did exactly what we asked him. I said post-game in the press conference that there's been no doubt, some tough love with him. 

He’s very, very good at a lot of aspects of AFL footy and there were some other areas that we really wanted him to go to work on. I'm a big believer in setting players up to succeed and I felt that if we brought him in prior to this moment, that certain parts of his game may have been exposed.

We wanted to get that right. It's been a long, hard road for him and he's had to work extremely hard - to his credit, he's done that and I was really pleased that we were able to reward that effort in the VFL and the work he's been doing, and I thought he played his part really well on the weekend. 

(Fiorini) won't play this weekend, he's got a back complaint that is really hard to predict. He was a late withdrawal from the North Melbourne game, which tells you that we thought he might get up for that. 

Anyone who’s had lower back issues, it can be fine one day and terrible the next. We've just got to manage it and get some more medical advice as to the best way forward. 

Scott on… public backing from President Andrew Welsh

It's nice to hear (that backing) publicly, but it's nothing new to me because we've had a very clear strategy for the last three years.

We were ‘eyes wide open’ that there were going to be some real challenges in the short-term but we were determined to set a stable base to build on and give our Club the opportunity to bring in some elite talent. 

(We want all) facets to set the Club up really well for success. We want that now, we want that as soon as possible, but we're aware of the challenges - to invest in the future, it's not the expense of the short-term, but it does make the short-term a bit more challenging.

They’re the same words coming out of my mouth that were coming out of my mouth two, three, four weeks ago. The only difference is that’s public now. The discussions internally have been going like that for three years.

The alignment doesn't guarantee success, but if you don't have it, it guarantees failure. 

We’re very fortunate that our CEO (Tim Roberts) has been part of this strategy as a board member for the past three years, so they've been ‘eyes wide open’ this whole time.

I've articulated this to all involved that it's easy to talk about these things in a board room in November, when everyone's sort of feeling pretty cool, calm and collected, then when you're in the eye of the storm, the pressure's at its highest. 

That's the same on-field when you're playing in big games. And it's the same off-field when things are difficult. If there's something I'm really pleased about, it’s the stability, it’s the ability to stay calm under pressure, which is not easy in a footy club.