It was the hope that killed him.
Undoubtedly, given the state of this football club, there are several other key factors.
But ultimately, Brad Scott was done in by hope.
Essendon sacked him on Monday night, exactly a month since the Bombers had gone to the MCG on Anzac Day with such high hopes.
They had upset Melbourne in Gather Round and just failed to take down the Suns on the Gold Coast.
Their form seemed to be building, at last, and Collingwood were without Darcy Moore.
The signs were not good early in the game, but young gun Nate Caddy snapped an outstanding goal at the start of the third term and the deficit was only nine points.
Three minutes later, another Essendon turnover, and Scott Pendlebury waltzed into a goal. The game was as good as over.
Mick Malthouse once said a footy club is always four-straight losses away from a crisis. Another four losses followed that 77-point Anzac Day mauling.
The hope that was building a month ago is a distant, dismal memory.
While the Richmond loss last Friday night was a big nail in his coffin, the popular thinking was Scott had the upcoming West Coast and Carlton games to prise open the lid.
Scott had stated his case, noting on TV a week ago Essendon had decided in 2023 to thoroughly rebuild their list.
The day before that interview, he’d publicly blasted his players for an appalling first quarter against Fremantle. It was so typical of Essendon – they had nothing when the game was there to be won, then outscoring them in the second half when the horse had bolted.
So after three-and-a-half barren seasons, Scott is the latest casualty at a club that was once an AFL byword for power and consistently winning. It is 7931 days since they last won a final.
After two premierships as a player at Brisbane, two preliminary finals in his first senior coaching job at North Melbourne and then a stint as AFL football operations boss, Scott took on the enormous task of turning around the Bombers in late 2022.
It started badly, as in the same week as a boardroom coup, Essendon tried to lure Alastair Clarkson while Ben Rutten was still coach.
Clarkson was never a chance and instead went to North.
It says something about how badly Essendon handled Rutten’s sacking that it has gone down as one of most unedifying dismissals of an AFL coach.
Kevin Sheedy, then a board member, made it clear the choice of Scott was not unaminous and he had wanted a second chance for James Hird.
Scott’s first two years started brightly enough, only to fall away terribly in the back ends of those seasons. Last year was an injury-plagued debacle, capped by Zach Merrett’s unsuccessful attempt to join Hawthorn.
Maybe, given the club’s firm stand on Merrett and the undoubted young talent on their list, the Bombers under Scott were starting to turn things around.
That was the hope.
Instead, the Bombers appear as far away as they were in late 2022 from escaping their purgatory. And whatever Scott’s future, his time as an AFL senior coach looks done.
