Brad Scott has 211 AFL video games underneath his belt as a coach however admits he’s feeling the first-game nerves forward of main Essendon for the primary time.
Former North Melbourne mentor Scott will debut as Bombers coach in Sunday’s conflict with Hawthorn on the MCG.
“Personally, I’d be really worried if I didn’t (have some nerves),” Scott mentioned.
“Everyone, regardless of how experienced you are, there’s some trepidation heading into round one.
“There’s all of the coaching, all of the exhausting work, all of the apply video games and match simulations that you just do – (they) all depend for nothing now.
“It’s a matter of getting out and testing yourself and there’s always that sense of the unknown – both from the opposition’s perspective but also what we can produce.
“Everyone’s excited however little doubt there’s some round-one nerves and that needs to be the case for everybody.”
Recruits Sam Weideman and Will Setterfield have been selected along with father-son selection Alwyn Davey Jr but Peter Wright leads the list of unavailable players after dislocating his shoulder on Friday.
Scott said Jake Stringer (hamstring) was medically fit to play but needed conditioning, stressing he had no plans to focus on quick-fix selections over Essendon’s ongoing development.
“One factor we can’t do is sacrifice the long-term journey that we’re on for any short-term sugar hits. That’s clear at choice,” he mentioned.
“We’ve acquired guys who can be found and are actually good gamers however for one motive or one other they don’t seem to be cherry ripe and able to go.
“We could bring some really good players into the team who are available but they’re not ready to go, so we’re not going to compromise that and try and have little sugar hits here and there at the expense of what we’re trying to do long term.”
Hawthorn and Essendon have a wealthy rivalry however Scott doesn’t plan to deal with it.
“We’ve got to make sure our focus as a team is where it needs to be, which is at the contest,” he mentioned.
“As far as Hawthorn goes, it’s interesting. There’s been some obvious changes to their team, but Jai Newcombe was still their number one centre bounce involvement player last year so that won’t change, I wouldn’t have thought.
“They’ve nonetheless acquired numerous functionality and and expertise on each line.
“They certainly play an attacking style and they’ll test us in that regard, no doubt.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
