Essendon sacked coach Brad Scott on Tuesday morning after a damaging start to the season that left the club with one win from its first 11 games. The Bombers were due to face the media at 12.45pm ET, with president Andrew Welsh and chief executive Tim Roberts scheduled to explain the decision.
Scott had one year left on his contract when the club moved to end his tenure. Dean Solomon was expected to take over in an interim capacity, although Essendon had not yet confirmed the appointment.
Welsh said Essendon was “not comfortable” with where the club stood and needed “a fresh voice” to take it forward for the 2027 AFL season. He said it would have been unfair to ask Scott to continue any longer and said the club had not seen week-to-week progress this year. In a separate message, Welsh also told the club’s football department: “You are all responsible.”
The dismissal ends a turbulent spell for Scott, who was appointed at the end of the 2022 season as part of an overhaul of Essendon’s football department under then-president Dave Barham. He replaced Ben Rutten and delivered a promising start, with Essendon winning eight of its first 13 games in his first season before losing three of the remaining 10 and missing the finals.
That pattern repeated. In 2024, Essendon won eight of its first 11 games before slumping after the halfway point and missing September again. A one-year contract extension in March 2025 pushed Scott’s deal through to the end of 2027, but the club then reached 6-4 after 10 matches and failed to win another game for the rest of the year.
The slide deepened in 2026. Essendon’s only victory in the past 12 months came against Melbourne in Gather Round, and the club went on to equal its all-time record losing streak of 17 matches. Across his time at the club, Scott coached 80 games and finished with 29 wins, 50 losses and one draw.
Scott arrived at Essendon after almost 10 seasons in charge of North Melbourne, where he took the Roos to preliminary finals twice. His departure leaves Essendon searching again for stability, with the club now forced to decide whether Solomon is the answer for the rest of the season or whether a longer reset is already under way.
