Brad Scott won’t shame wantaway players into staying at Essendon

Essendon coach Brad Scott won’t guilt players who are thinking about leaving into staying at the Bombers.

Scott’s comments come amid free agent ruckman Sam Draper weighing up rival interest, while contracted forward Kyle Langford is reportedly frustrated and could have his head turned according to Seven’s Mitch Cleary.

Given that the Dons are 6-9 and sit 13th with seven rounds remaining and again look no chance to break their two-decade drought of having not won a final, club great Matthew Lloyd even said that no one would begrudge 29-year-old skipper Zach Merrett if he departed for greater team success.

While Scott acknowledges the Bombers are enduring a ‘difficult period’, he understands that players must do what’s best for their career as they age, adding that he wouldn’t coerce any player who is thinking of leaving, instead hoping to build an environment that they want to buy into themselves.

“I know we are going through a difficult period at the moment and the environment you create for your players is critical,” Scott said on Wednesday.

“I have no doubt we can create the environment we want. Will that involve some change? Well, that will be for down the track.

“I think players have always got to think about what’s best for your career, especially as you get to the latter stages. My attitude has always been, and when it comes to free agents, I don’t overly coerce and I don’t guilt or shame players into staying under some sort of guise of loyalty.

“We want to hold up our end of the bargain and want to create an environment where they want to be.

“We also commit to players and contract players. When you commit and are contracted, discussions about players assessing their futures is a bit of a moot point.”

One reason behind at least Langford’s reported frustration is the recurring injuries that he and some key teammates like Darcy Parish have suffered in recent campaigns.

Scott understands why that duo in particular are frustrated with a perfect storm of contact and non-contact injuries reportedly making the Bombers review their training habits and even the surface they practice on at The Hangar.

“Having conversations with Darcy Parish and Kyle Langford at the moment, they are very frustrated and understandably so. They go into some deep, dark places,” Scott said on Wednesday.

“But I can also assure them that you come out of it.

“If you look at our injuries throughout the year, the injuries you probably get frustrated with as a player, a coach and a club are what we categorise as preventable or controllable. 

“Recurrence of injury fits into that category.

“We’ve got a bit of a perfect storm in terms of you can’t lay blame at anyone’s feet for Jye Caldwell being taken forward in a tackle and rupturing the syndesmosis. The same with our ACLs that were non-contact.

“There’s a lot of things that would fit into the category. After all the work that has been done to assess, (some) would be put in the disappointing but unlucky category, and some others that are not in that category. We have a combination of all those things.”

Scott’s Bombers go in as favourites to win their seventh game of the season when they face Richmond at the MCG on Saturday night.