FORMER Essendon coach Brad Scott has conceded the club made a mistake in not bringing in more senior players to support its young stars over the past few years.

In an expansive 40-minute discussion with AFL.com.au's Cal Twomey, Scott reflected on his time at the Bombers and revealed Hawthorn's decision last October to set a deadline regarding a potential trade for Zach Merrett was the final nail in the coffin for the Essendon star's hopes to move.

Scott said he was fully invested in the rebuild at the Bombers and supported the club's plan to hit the draft hard at the expense of trading in experienced players, which he said would have provided some short-term success but ultimately not led the club to where it wants to go.

>> WATCH THE FULL BRAD SCOTT INTERVIEW BELOW

But he admits the youth-focused list strategy, compounded by a horror injury list over the past 18 months, left the club exposed. 

"On reflection, maybe we should have been more aggressive in trying to bring in some more experienced players to support that young group," he said. "But I felt that if you're going to rebuild, you can't utilise list spots at the expense of draft picks.

"If you are a rebuilding team and you're by definition young and inexperienced and then you compound that by having ... an extraordinary injury list, you're vulnerable. You're exposing players that are not ready to AFL footy. You're going to a mid-season draft, taking four picks and playing them immediately.

"This is a cut-throat, high-stakes environment ... and when you go into games highly vulnerable, you're at risk. But we knew that and we went into that eyes wide open.

"But I think on reflection, maybe we should have sacrificed a couple of draft picks to bring in some experience to support our young talent."

Scott also reflected on Merrett's failed trade attempt last October, saying the Hawks and Bombers were "pretty stubborn" in their negotiations, which ended any hopes the midfielder had of securing a move.

Scott believed the Bombers should have let Merrett go, but he was overruled by the club's senior administrators, who wanted to hold the midfielder to his contract.

And Scott says when the Hawks told the Bombers to respond to their offer 48 hours before the trade deadline, any hope Merrett had of getting his trade wish was gone.

"It was probably compounded by the fact that it was Hawthorn. Essendon dealing with Hawthorn is always going to be prickly," he said.

"Our public position was that we weren't going to trade him. And so my view was, well, what are we doing here then? Let's just walk away. We don't need to engage Hawthorn at all.

"But Hawthorn didn't engage us either. So I felt like we could have got to an outcome if there'd been more open dialogue earlier rather than just being pretty stubborn about it."

Watch the full Brad Scott interview with Cal Twomey in the video player above, or listen in the AFL Daily podcast feed

Brad Scott on ...

His emotions 24 hours after his exit
It's a bit numbing. In terms of the emotion, I know what I'm not, rather than what I am. I'm not angry. I don't feel vindictive. You think about what you value and your philosophy ... (mine is) that you do what's right for the team, for the greater group. I think if you do that, then you'll usually make the right decisions. It doesn't mean you'll get everything wrong or everything right. But generally you'll come out in the fullness of time making better decisions than not.

If senior players were consulted by the club before he was sacked
They're clear with me they weren't. But it's sort of superfluous now.

James Hird wanting to succeed him as coach
I haven't really caught up with it too much. It's not really for me now to have any public view or certainly zero influence over it. The club will do what they believe is in their best interest.

Kevin Sheedy's public backing of Hird in 2022
I was enticed by the challenge. I knew it was going to be a massive challenge. I underestimated the challenge. It was bigger than I thought. And that's why we preach stability, because it's very difficult to succeed if you don't have that. And from literally day one, Kevin made those public comments in support of a player he coached. That's not ideal, but I can understand it. He's supportive of someone he coached. Then the appointment of a CEO who lasted one day. It was pretty constant, the fighting to provide a stable base to give the players and the club the best opportunity to move forward.

The priorities at the Bombers
Essendon, coming out of the supplements saga, were very focused on commercial outcomes and when I was appointed I think Dave Barham came under a bit of pressure because he said we wanted to focus on football and a lot of people said, 'Well, what else would you be focusing on?' Which I think is a fair question. But the truth is, they're focusing on commercial outcomes rather than investing into building a sustainable team. That is an understandable challenge. You've got people who are charged with commercial outcomes, with marketing and membership outcomes, financial outcomes. It's a very hard message to tell your fans that, 'Hey, guys, buckle up. This is going to take a while.'

The state of Essendon's list
In terms of just pure demographics, I think the list management team, led very well by Matt Rosa, would think that they're probably a year or two away from being genuine contenders. But the job of a coach is to exceed and accelerate that timeline. And the reason I repeatedly talk about the young talent is because Nate Caddy's a special player, a special person. Isaac Kako, I think, will be the best small forward in the competition in a very short period of time. Archie Roberts is of the highest calibre. And then you go into this year's draft crop, whether it's 'Huss' (Hussien El Achkar), whether it's 'Kondo' (Max Kondogiannis), (Jacob) Farrow, (Dyson) Sharp, (Sullivan) Robey. Matt's done a terrific job in identifying the types that we want to bring in, not just from a talent perspective, but from a character perspective. And that's why we're so excited about the platform that we've built.

The pursuit of assistant coaches
It's a fair way down the track. And whether that pivots now, I'm not sure. I think it probably has to have an impact because I think we were well advanced in making some crucial acquisitions. And we have built a war chest over the last three years of dry powder in the salary cap that is going to be really exciting for the football club because to have well in excess of $3 million of dry powder to go and acquire players. If you just wanted to, 'Oh, gee, we've got to win three or four more games in a year,' you just go and recruit some players who are underpaid at other clubs and bring them in and look for a short-term fix. I was never going to be part of that. And if a club wanted to go down that path, I would have stepped aside because I just don't believe in that.

Bombers captain Andrew McGrath
I think we're very, very fortunate to have a person of the calibre of Andrew McGrath leading the football club. I've come across some impressive people in my time. He is right up there with the very best. I often say to my wife that if our boys turn out anything like Andy McGrath, we've done a great job. He's just first class and so he will lead the club and he's very good at separating what he might be feeling personally versus the way he needs to behave for the … greater good of the club.

The KPIs he had to hit to keep his job
I presented them to the board. These are the metrics that we value and they're incredibly simple metrics because they need to be. Things like pressure differential, basic things, uncontested mark differential … time in forward half, time in possession, uncontested marked differential. If you're controlling those things, you're generally controlling the game. And some clubs will value different things, but if you can generally ... take control of those things, you're dictating the way the game's played.

Selling hope during a rebuild
I think that is one of the most difficult things in a football club. I believe Essendon could withstand it because it's a great club, it's a powerful club and what the club's had to endure over the last 10-15 years, other clubs would cease to exist. That's not over exaggerating things, that's factual, so the club's been incredibly resilient and I felt the club was more than capable of being resilient to see a rebuild that hasn't happened in modern history. But then you've got to sell a message. If you can't win and you can't win a premiership, the next best thing you can sell to your supporters and your fans is hope. And it's very difficult to start a year with a message of, 'Guys, this is going to be really hard and we may not win many games'. You don't sell many memberships doing that. It's a business.

Nate Caddy
I think he's just a wonderful person. And it's easily the most satisfying (and) enjoyable part of coaching is watching boys grow into men. It's not exaggerating, he sort of feels like a son to me in a way. I watch him come in and grow and develop and it's really hard not to have just such a strong affinity for a guy like him. He wears his heart on his sleeve and he just wants what's best for the team and for the club. I had to tell 'Cads' to stop apologising. If we didn't win a game, he would come up to me straight after the game and apologise for not winning the game for us. But that's the sort of guy he is. He wants to lead the club. He wants to lead the forward line. I can't speak highly enough of him.

Dropping Ben McKay this season
It's very difficult any time (when) you've got to leave a player out of the team. And it's second only to telling a player that you're delisting them. They're the parts of the job that never get easier, no matter how long you're in it. But in Ben's case, I really felt that you've got a responsibility to the team, to the club and to the person. And by supporting him, some challenges and some difficulties is just a non-negotiable part of my job. But sometimes the best way you can support someone is to … take them out of the situation they're in. So leaving him out of the team I felt was best for him and for the team and he's responded well and I thought he played well on the weekend.

Elijah Tsatas
I was pretty upfront with it. Elijah has got a terrific work ethic. He has some parts of his game that he knows he needs to work on. And this is the part of coaching with our assistant coaches that we're really clear on, the things that he needed to improve on. And he went to work on those things. But the challenge for Elijah, from my perspective, is that … he's an inside midfielder. And over the years, we've tried him in different positions, but his best football is an inside midfielder. He's an elite clearance player and so he needs to play as an inside mid. But when you play as an inside midfielder, you can't just be a good-average player. You need to be a really good player. And he was against Jye Caldwell, Sam Durham, Zach Merrett and Darcy Parish. And for him to play in the team, he needed one of those guys to play somewhere else. And we did that at times. Against Melbourne, we played Merrett and Durham forward so that Elijah could play as an inside midfielder. But after a while, it becomes a decision; do you want two of your best players in Merrett and Durham not playing around the ball? So they're the nuanced decisions you've got to make all the time. But Elijah, I still believe he can become a really good player.

His relationship with Zach Merrett after his failed trade
It was never damaged. Our relationship was very strong from day one and still is to today. I have a huge regard for Zach. He reminds me of some of the really driven players I've referenced previously. He reminds me a bit of Nathan Buckley, who I had the misfortune of playing on, but the great fortune of coaching, even though he's older than me. They're so driven and have just got this fierce will to win that some people can interpret as being focused on themselves rather than the team. But I saw it differently with Zach, I saw a guy who just desperately wanted to win and I harnessed that … I'll never take any credit for what he does ball in hand and his skill level. But the bits we were able to add to his game were pressure and defence, and I think he led that really well. Our relationship is great, and I can't speak highly enough of him. He's seen all this before.

The club's injury crisis
Of the time I've been at Essendon, I formulate what I think is our best 25 every week. We've never fielded that team. Never. And there's been two occasions where we've fielded 20 of our best 25 too. People get frustrated with the 2020 draft, (Nik) Cox, (Archie) Perkins and Zach Reid. But against GWS a couple of weeks ago, they played their fourth game together in six years.

If Essendon is fixable
Of course. But AFL football is not a normal environment. It's a highly pressurised, difficult environment where you know the average fan goes to the game just wanting their team to win on the weekend without thinking about all the nuance that goes on behind the scenes. They just want to win. And when they don't win, they get frustrated naturally. And so that's why it takes an incredible amount of resilience to see things through. And that was always my commitment, that I will stand up out in front of this and I'll try and shepherd the club through. It's going to be a very difficult time. And I committed to that and I was committed to seeing that through.