Essendon sacks coach Brad Scott amid poor AFL ladder position

Essendon has sacked head coach Brad Scott as the Bombers languish at the bottom of the AFL ladder.

The Bombers have managed just one win in their past 24 AFL matches, and are coming off a disappointing loss to fellow strugglers Richmond last weekend.

He departs the club after 80 games at the helm, for 29 wins, 50 losses and one draw.

Assistant coach Dean Solomon is expected to take over as interim coach for the remainder of the season.

Club president Andrew Welsh praised Scott for his "club first" mentality, but said change was needed after a difficult 12 months for the Bombers.

"Ultimately, whilst we know we are a young team, we are not comfortable with our current position which led us to meet as a board to assess and make a decision on the future of the senior coach position," Welsh said in a statement.

"When looking at the overall progress of our football team this season, it was agreed that we needed a fresh voice to take the club forward for the 2027 AFL season. Once that decision was made, it would have been unfair to have Brad continue as coach any longer and that is why we have brought this decision forward to today.

"While long-term decisions have been clear and provide great hope for our future, we still need to show progress week to week, and we haven't seen that this year.

"These are genuinely difficult decisions, and we do not take them lightly but the cumulative nature of our losses and the key performance indicators set by the club at the start of the season are not trending in the right direction."

Scott joined the Bombers at the end of the 2022 season, replacing former coach Ben Rutten.

The 2023 season started brightly for the Bombers with eight wins from their opening 13 matches. But just three more wins for the rest of the year would see them miss the finals.

The Bombers won eight of their first 11 matches in 2024, but again fell into a form slump to miss out on playing September footy.

Essendon started the 2025 season with a record of six wins and four losses to begin the season.

But the Bombers would plunge into a downward spiral, losing all remaining matches in 2025, and then managing just one win from the opening 11 matches of 2026.