Essendon coach Brad Scott is in a fight for his job.
The Bombers have laid out a specific set of metrics on which Scott must show improvement for him to see out his contract, which expires at the end of next year.
There are two main categories Essendon directors are monitoring to help them decide whether Scott remains the man to take them forward, as revealed by Tom Morris on Wednesday night’s edition of The Agenda Setters.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today
One centres around player development.
“Essentially, how many players have improved and by how much,” as put by Morris.
The second metric is based on defence, and more specifically team defence. Pressure acts, scores against and inside 50s against are all key performance indicators that will contribute to Scott’s future.
“Brad Scott’s future, in my view, hangs by a thread if he can’t improve these numbers,” Morris said.
St Kilda great Nick Riewoldt noted the abnormality of using a specific set of in-game statistics to determine a coach’s job.
“Typically for a coach, any coach, their future is decided by wins and losses, so that’s different,” Riewoldt said.
“Who came up with the metrics and why is a shift away from a typical wins-loss type scenario?”
Morris said it’s because the board is trying to take a more holistic approach.
“I think there’s a bit of an understanding that wins and losses are a bit unfair because they’re so young, so they need to dig deeper,” he said.
“How is this team defending? It’s understanding that premiership teams are built from defence.
“And the other element is, I think wins and losses don’t tell the full story sometimes. And I think if you dig deeper, these numbers actually tell us where Essendon is at when it comes to key metrics; that’s inside 50s against, opposition scores from centre bounce, and centre clearance against.
“And those numbers paint a bleak picture, and there’s only one conclusion that I can draw from that: if Brad Scott doesn’t improve then his job is very much on the line this year.
“The board are the people who control Brad Scott’s job.”
Essendon are 18th in the competition for inside 50s against, 18th for opposition defensive half chains to score, 18th for opposition defensive 50 chains to score, 18th for centre clearances against, and 17th for scores against from centre stoppages.
“These are pretty granular metrics,” Riewoldt said.
“It’s easy for a board to sit there and say it’s win-loss. But we’re getting right down into the weeds there — that’s pretty detailed.
“The other question is: what’s the threshold? Do you need to finish 15th in some of those numbers?”
Essendon’s board includes former players Ted Richards and Andrew Walsh, who is the president, and was seen to be the key driver behind denying Zach Merrett’s trade request last year.
“Andrew Welsh has proven to be someone that can make hard decisions at the right time,” Morris said.
Seven’s chief footy reporter Mitch Cleary noted questioned why Scott would be under so much pressure when the board knew the implications of their draft strategy in recent years.
“And was this not part of the decision to re-sign Brad Scott last year?” Cleary said.
“He had a contract originally to 2026, they extended that until 2027 knowing that they were coming into a period where they were going to be one of the youngest groups in the competition.
“Right now they’re 16th in the AFL for age. For me, it feels like this is where it comes down to, as opposed to the win-loss.”
