After Essendon’s close result against the SUNS over the weekend, Senior Coach Brad Scott says progress is being built from the ground up, with a continued focus on fundamentals driving improvement while reinforcing that the work is far from finished.

Speaking ahead of the Club’s Anzac Day clash with Collingwood at this morning’s press conference, Scott reflected on recent performance, the significance of this weekend and the privilege of leading a team on such an important day.

Thursday’s blockbuster will also mark the 250th meeting between Essendon and Collingwood, adding further significance to one of the game’s most storied rivalries.

He also provided an update on Jordan Ridley, while reinforcing his belief in the value of sustained effort across the program.

Brad on… recent performance

It’s been all the fundamentals that allow you to (improve). 

So, we've been working really hard on all facets of our game, but it's really been the basics, the contest, things like that, that have given us a chance to not only score a bit better but defend better on the back of that ball movement.

We're far from saying that we've solved anything. 

That was really my main public message post-Melbourne game, it’s good to get reward for effort. But we've got an incredibly long way to go. 

Even if you had Brisbane Lions, back-to-back premiers, I don't think they're sitting here saying they’ve solved it either. 

It's always a work in progress and you're always looking to get better.

Brad on… the significance of Anzac Day

I think it's a mistake to say, “I'll just forget about the significance of the day and focus on the task at hand.”

We're trying to do both and embrace the significance of the day. 

It's Anzac Day, a great opportunity for all Australians to pause to reflect on how lucky everyone is, regardless of your circumstance. 

Whatever freedoms and opportunities we enjoy in life, it's all because of what went before us in previous generations and in particular those who served. 

They're important life lessons, let alone football lessons. We want to be able to embrace that and then be professional or mature enough to be able to then lock into get the job done during the game.

We were at the shrine early Monday morning. We had an incredible all of Club event at the shrine yesterday. 

We had some guest speakers who put a lot of things into perspective for our players and not only our players, our coaches, our staff, our administration, our whole Club.

They have a better understanding than they did before as to how important this game is for so many people.

Brad on.. the privilege of coaching on the big stage

This is a privilege; you should want these opportunities. 

Outside of finals, this is the biggest game of the year for a whole host of reasons. 

So, I just see it as a huge opportunity to prepare your players for big games. 

There are challenges in it, but they're good challenges.

Brad on… facing Collingwood

We're always prepared for every team at their best.

I don't think one plan works consistently. So, we've got to have multiple strategies to deal with a player like (Nick Daicos).

And then there's always the challenge of if you over index on one, you know, others fall out. 

They're (Collingwood) a pretty dynamic team and things can change pretty quickly. 

Brad on… managing Jordan Ridley

(Ridley) is frustrated and disappointed, but he's a pro and we'll just continue to support him and get him right. He's clearly an important player.

We’re just working extremely hard to get him right and he’s done a power of work. 

We had a level of confidence that he’s banked a heap of work in the off-season and pre-season and this season. So, if you're looking at the scan and it was just another player, it's very minor, but giving his history we'll be conservative.

Brad on… Tom Edwards incident

It's frustrating, but situations like this necessitates some changing of procedure, which my understanding is that the AFL have done that. 

So now we're very conscious that, we’ve dealt with that behind closed doors and the AFL have talked to the procedures and what they're going to do going forward so we’re happy with that.

Brad on… reward for effort and Elijah Tsatas

I've spoken about it the last couple of weeks, I love these reward effort stories because everyone sees the reward publicly, but that don’t see the effort behind the scenes. 

(Tsatas) has had some things to work on and to his credit, he's gone to work on it on his own admission.