Essendon coach Brad Scott has urged his gamers to let the “sick feeling” of a diabolical finish to the season drive them into 2024.
The Bombers sat fifth after beating Adelaide in spherical 17, however solely defeated backside groups North Melbourne and West Coast to capitulate within the closing seven weeks and crash out of finals rivalry.
Their 70-point smashing – 16.5 (101) to three.13 (31) – by Collingwood on Friday evening follows a 126-point hiding from Greater Western Sydney at Giants Stadium six days in the past.
Scott, who took cost at Tullamarine in September final 12 months, has thrown down the problem to the membership to carry.
“We need to improve our list, we need to improve our football department, we need to improve right across the board,” Scott mentioned.
“The recency bias is real. In a perverse way, the players leave with a sick feeling in their stomach and that should drive their off-season.
“The observations of the final nine-to-12 months is nowhere close to the place it must be, so we’ll get that proper.”
Key players Jake Stringer, Sam Draper, Peter Wright, Jye Caldwell, Matt Guelfi and Jake Kelly all missed the clash with the Magpies with injury.
Stringer, especially, never got going this year after thoughts he could recapture his stunning form from the end of 2021.
Scott refuted suggestions the Bombers’ problems stemmed from a lack of fitness.
“I do not suppose it is a health problem,” he mentioned.
“There’s a distinction between coaching onerous, and I feel everybody trains onerous, to what an AFL way of life seems like.
“We need a bigger core group of leaders who can set the example for what the very best look like and what they train like.
“We have had it rammed dwelling to us actually clearly that there is a hole between us and the very best sides and we’ve to take extraordinary measures to bridge that hole.
“If we just keep rolling along we’ll just be an OK team that is capable of beating some teams on good days but get smacked by the good teams on bad days.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
